Address given at Borrisokane Church on Sunday 17th March 2024, the Feast of St Patrick
Today we remember St Patrick, our patron saint,
whose feast day this is.
In the secular world, this
is a day for us to celebrate all that is right and true and beautiful in our
communities and in the homeland we share, whatever else may divide us. Many of
us I’m sure, wear a shamrock with pride, take part in or attend St Patrick’s
Day parades, and raise a glass to toast our nation. It’s allowed, you know,
even if you’ve pledged to abstain during Lent - the Prayer Book marks only
weekdays in Lent as days of discipline and self-denial. Some no doubt will
over-indulge and get up to all sorts of ‘shamroguery’, but we shouldn’t be
afraid to join in decent, patriotic celebration.
But as Christians, I
suggest we should go further. We should seek to find the real St Patrick behind
all the picturesque and fanciful legends that have grown up about him over the last
1500 years. And we should reflect
on what St Patrick’s life and mission has to say to us in Ireland today.
Much of what I was told about St Patrick as a child
is not true – it is much later legend.
Patrick did not
teach about the Trinity using the trefoil leaf of a shamrock, charming though
the story is. It first appears in writing in 1726, though it may be somewhat older.
Patrick did not
banish all the snakes from Ireland. That story is first mentioned by Gerald of
Wales in the 13th Century, although he didn’t believe it himself. The
truth is that Ireland was separated from Britain by rising sea levels after the
last ice age, which prevented snakes from reaching Ireland from Britain.
Patrick was not
the first to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. The narrow seas between
Britain and Ireland, particularly between what is now northern Ireland and
southwest Scotland, were a trading highway in Roman times. Archeology shows
that many Irish settled on the west coasts of Britain, and no doubt British
Christians settled here. Irish chroniclers tell us that Pope Celestine
consecrated a Gaul named Palladius to be the first bishop for Irish Christians
in 431AD, a little before St Patrick. And there are traditions that there are
other Irish saints who preceded Patrick, including St Kieran of Seir Keiran, Co
Offaly, St Declan of Ardmore, Co Waterford and St Ailbe of Emly, Co Tipperary.
Most of what we know about the real St Patrick
comes from his own writings.
The main source is his
Confessio, or Confession, in which Patrick gives a short account of his life
and mission.
Patrick tells us, ‘My father was
Calpornius. He was a deacon; his father was Potitus, a priest, who lived at
Bannavem Taburniae.’ We do not
know exactly where Bannavem Taburniae was, but it may have been in Cumbria in
England, or Strathclyde in southwest Scotland, or in Wales. So Patrick came
from a Christian family of Romano-British clergy. His native language would
have been primitive Welsh, and no doubt he was educated in Latin.
He tells us he was
taken prisoner by an Irish raiding party, along with thousands of others, and
taken as a slave to Ireland, where he was put to work as a shepherd. Here his
love and awe of God grew, until after 6 years captivity a voice in a dream
urged him to run away and escape back to Britain, which he did.
After his return to
Britain, Patrick heard a call to ordination. There is a tradition that he studied
in Europe, in particular Auxerre in modern France, where he was ordained by St
Germanus.
In another dream,
Patrick heard the voices of the Irish among whom he had lived calling to him, ‘We appeal to
you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.’ Acting on this
vision he returned to Ireland as a missionary.
He was aware of the
work of other Christian missionaries in the south and east – Patrick was not
alone. But his focus seems to have been in the north and west, where the
Christian faith had not yet penetrated.
Patrick gives little
detail of his work, but tells us that he baptised thousands of people, ordained
priests to lead the new Christian communities, converted wealthy women, some of
whom became nuns, and converted the sons of kings. No doubt those he
encountered were attracted by his distinctive spirituality, expressed in St
Patrick’s Breastplate, the famous hymn attributed to him. We shall pray a verse
of it, an invocation of Christ’ presence with us and around us, at the end of
the service.
His mission was not always
easy, for he tells us he met opposition. He was, beaten, robbed, put in chains
and held captive. But Patrick is undaunted. He rejoices in the results of his
mission, declaring that ‘the sons and daughters of the leaders of the Irish are
seen to be monks and virgins of Christ.’
Finally, Patrick was a
modest man. He finishes his Confessio with these words, addressed to us, to you
and me: ‘I
pray for those who believe in and have reverence for God. Some of them may
happen to inspect or come upon this writing which Patrick, a sinner without
learning, wrote in Ireland. May none of them ever say that whatever little I
did or made known to please God was done through ignorance. Instead, you can
judge and believe in all truth that it was a gift of God. This is my confession
before I die.’
What can we as Christians today take from the
life and mission of the real St Patrick?
1st, St
Patrick was passionately dedicated to sharing his Christian faith with the
pagan Irish. He saw it as a blessing, a gift from God. He echoes the words of
Tobit in today’s 1st reading (Tobit 13:1b-7): ‘Bless the Lord of righteousness, and exalt
the King of the ages. In the land of my exile I acknowledge him, and show his
power and majesty to a nation of sinners.’ We should be like him, eager
to share our faith in the public square in our own times, when so many find it
difficult to do so.
2nd, St Patrick knew
all about economic and social oppression from an early age. He challenged these
evils and faced persecution for it. To quote from St Paul’s words in today’s epistle
(2 Corinthians 4:1-12), he was ‘afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but
not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not
destroyed’. When we in our times see oppression, or suffer it
ourselves, we should confront it as St Patrick did, and persevere against those
who seek to perpetuate it.
Lastly, in today’s
reading from John’s Gospel (John: 4:31-38), Jesus tells his disciples, ‘Look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for
harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for
eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together … I sent you to
reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have
entered into their labour.’ St Patrick reaped a harvest sown by
others, as he was not the only, nor the first Christian missionary to come to
Ireland. In later times the Irish Church found unity around his bishopric of
Armagh. In the same way, Christians of different traditions in Ireland today
should surely rejoice in the truly important things that we have in common,
rather than cling to the little things that separate us. Only then can we ‘gather
in the fruit for eternal life’ that Jesus desires us to reap.
I shall finish in prayer.
Hear us, most merciful God,
for that part of the Church
which through your servant Patrick you planted in our land;
that it may hold fast the faith entrusted to the saints
and in the end bear much fruit to eternal life:
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
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