Resurrecting St. Patrick – A Brief Bio

Resurrecting St. Patrick – A Brief Bio.

“I declare in truth and with joy in my heart – before God and His holy angels – that I have never had any motive in my work except preaching the good news and its promises. That is the only reason I returned to Ireland – a place I barely escaped alive.” (Patrick, from his Confessions).

St. Patrick’s Timetable (all these dates and ages are approximate but still give us a relatively accurate glimpse):

… The Young Boy: Born around 390 AD in or near Wales in Roman Britain;

… The Teenage Slave: Kidnapped by Irish slave traders from roughly 406-412 AD, when Patrick was 16 years of age, and was enslaved in Ireland for about 6 years;

… The Obscure Priest: Trained for the priesthood somewhere in Britain and/or France, and ordained around 430 AD;

… The Pioneer Missionary: Traveled and preached mostly in western and northern Ireland for thirty years, between 432-462 AD.

The Young Boy. Patrick’s birthname was apparently Mawynn Succat, but at some point assumed the name Patricius. As his name points out, he was a patrician, born into the upper class of Roman Britain and thus a privileged member of the British elite. The exact birthplace is unknown, but was probably in Wales near the British coast. Patricius was most likely raised in a prosperous and well-established farmstead villa like any other rich boy who lived on the outer edges of the Roman Empire. It appears that his father was a deacon in the local church as well as an important local political figure, and that Patricius was raised in a rather nominal Christian faith that he didn’t take seriously. Patricius never gave Christianity a second thought until his whole life turned upside-down at about 16 years of age.

The Teenage Slave. The mostly uncivilized Irish natives were infamous during the 4th-5th centuries for their slave trade. They would silently glide into a British coastal area in their boats and kidnap whomever they thought would make a profit back in their homeland. It was during one of these slave raids that teenage Patricius ws taken by force from his comfortable home, placed in chains, and made to endure a trip back to Ireland. He would have immediately been placed on the slave block for sale, and was purchased by a farm owner to labor as a shepherd in the wild countryside of rural Ireland. He would remain with this one slave master for six years, working and sleeping outside through all the typical Irish weather… very hot, freezing cold, pouring rain with icy blasts of wind. Patricius would be tending the sheep in the untamed pastureland one day and then the rocky mountainsides the next. He learned to toughen up and adapt to whatever each day brought him. But that’s not all Patricius learned during his difficult days in slavery. He picked up the Gaelic language, the customs of the Irish culture, the elements of the Irish religious traditions, and the coping skills needed for life in the wilderness. So his days as a young slave were actually a blessing, especially as those years brought him close to God. He developed an intimate friendship with God and a sturdy faith in Him. Patrick is quoted as saying that he learned to pray as a slave, and he often prayed as much as a hundred prayers during the day, and then an equal amount at night. Patrick also grew to adopt fasting as an important part of his growing faith in Christ. Since most prayers were said out loud in that era, it’s no surprise that his impatient acquaintances would mockingly call him “holy boy.” After six years of living in misery and in a growing sanctity, Patricius had a dream, the first in a long sequence of dreams that were instrumental through the rest of his life. One night he heard the voice of God saying to him, “You have hungered well. Soon you will be going home.” And the very next night he dreamed that God told him, “Behold, your ship is ready.” So with no hesitation Patricius acted on those divine words, sneaked away from his slave master in the dead of night, and escaped into parts unknown for a mysterious ship. He walked over 200 miles in search of a coast and a waiting ship, through treacherous bogs, flowing rivers, thick forests and rocky mountains, all the while alert to wild animals and the danger in being caught. In Ireland at that time, a fugitive slave was legally equivalent to a murderer or major thief, and there would be fatal consequences if he were apprehended. After this difficult journey of about a month, Patricius finally arrived at a coastal bay where a ship was indeed waiting. After initial resistance, he was allowed to climb on board as a working shipmate, and they sailed away on their three-day voyage to Roman Britain. Patrick’s days as a slave were over as he landed on British soil.

The Obscure Priest. “I was like some great stone, lying deep in the mud, but God in His mercy lifted me up and placed me on the very top of the wall.” This next stage in Patrick’s life is relatively unknown and are often referred to as his missing years. We can only give an educated guess as to how Patrick went from long-awaited son to a deacon to a priest to a bishop. When the Irish merchant ship landed on the British coast, it happened to be uninhabited and devoid of people or any source of food. After wandering around for a couple of weeks, the crew was starving and mockingly said to Patrick, If your God is so great, then just pray to this God to provide some food before we starve to death! So Patrick prayed, and suddenly, miraculously, a huge herd of pigs crossed their path, providing all the food they needed as they moved inland. Eventually Patrick arrived home to his shocked and delighted parents who had given him up for dead. Patrick was their miracle-boy, and they implored him to stay home and lead a quiet life after all he had endured in Ireland. After a time, though, Patrick had another dream, and this time in his dream an Irish man brought a stack of letters to Patrick, and this man spread the letters before him and opened one letter in particular. Out of this letter a chorus of voices cried out, what Patrick later said was “The Voice of the Irish.” These voices shouted to Patrick, “Holy boy! Come back here and walk among us!” Soon after that, another dream included a voice from heaven saying, “The one who gave you your spirit, it is he who speaks within you.” That was all the confirmation Patrick needed. This was his call from the Lord to return to the land of his slavery and preach the good news to those folks who have never heard it. Patrick was completely convinced that God was inside of him and would enable him to complete the mission. So somehow, somewhere, Patrick trained to be first a deacon in the church in his mid-twenties, probably learning from a local bishop. Then he studied to be a priest, and then was anointed to become a bishop. All this training could well have been accomplished in France in one of their well-established learning centers for the clergy. But no one knows for sure. Finally, in his early forties, Patrick was commissioned by the bishop to go to Ireland as a missionary, even though most of the church leaders didn’t have much confidence in his intellect, his education, or his experience. But that did not deter Patrick in any way. He knew he was called and he answered to a higher authority. Among his last words to his church elders were, “God chose foolish little me from among all of you who seem so wise and so expert in the law and so powerful in your eloquence. God picked ignorant Patrick ahead of all of you – even though I am not worthy – He picked me to go forth with fear and reverence to serve the Irish faithfully.” 

The Pioneer Missionary. One wonders what was going through Father Patrick’s mind on the sea journey back to a land which has so many miserable memories. On the other hand, he’s on a divine mission, he’s full of zeal and purpose, and no doubt his head was swimming with excitement. What would Patrick have seen upon his arrival? After all, the Roman Empire thought of Ireland as nothing but a wild land of uncivilized barbarians and savages, not even deserving the least attention in any way. To the average Roman, Ireland was a backward land on the very outermost fringe of the Empire and not worthy of even a second glance.  Patrick already knew there were no towns or cities in Ireland, only scattered farmsteads gathered around tribal lands, each tribe ruled by a chieftain who had complete authority over anyone and everyone within his territory. Patrick would already know about the religious beliefs in Ireland… very pantheistic with countless gods and goddesses; occult practices commonly accepted as a fact of life, including witchcraft, spells and human sacrifice; ancestor worship; a strong belief in eternal life through reincarnation; magical animals and divinity in every aspect of nature; the magic number of three; miracle-working poets wandering the landscape, bards who had spiritual powers like prophecy and healing; a fervent belief in things Otherworldly and the Thin Places, where the boundaries between the heavenly and the earthly were practically nonexistent. There was also the constant threat of violence through personal grievance, or tribal warfare, or the dominance of brutal slavery. Patrick himself reported at one point during his ministry, “Daily I expect to be murdered or betrayed or reduced to slavery if the occasion arises… I endured many persecutions, even to chains and to give up my freedom to the benefit of others. But I have cast myself into the hands of the almighty God who rules everywhere.” The class system was obvious too, ranging from the lowest slave class, to the common laborer, to farm owners, to the highly honored druidic priests, to the local chieftain or king. St. Pagtrick knew exactly what he was getting into as he became a sort of spiritual Johnny Appleseed, patiently and boldly dropping seeds of the Kingdom from one farm to the next, from one tribal territory and its king to the next. So, Ireland, here comes Patrick, ready or not, and his mission is to creatively bring the light of Christ to a dark world in any way he can. As he traveled through northern Ireland those thirty years there before his death, Patrick converted up to 100,000 Irish people, established over 350 churches, and ordained at least 300 bishops and countless priests. He succeeded in changing the Irish culture by introducing Jesus as the true fulfillment of their pagan beliefs, and leaving in his wake learning and literacy, far less slavery and brutality, and a spiritual depth of the common people that was unknown in its history. Patrick was said to have been the first Christian leader to unequivocally denounce slavery in all its forms, and he constantly worked at erasing slavery from Ireland. At one point, he even bought fifteen slaves in order to liberate them from their masters. It is said that while the Roman Empire was disintegrating, going from peace to chaos, Patrick was elevating Ireland from chaos to peace. His stated goal was to die on Irish soil in an unmarked grave, and it appeared he got his wish. No one knows where Patrick was buried, not unlike Moses. We do know this “Apostle to Ireland” was well into his seventies by the time his God called him home to a more divine emerald isle.

The Deer’s Cry (with lyrics) … Also known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate.

Some Interesting Ironies of St. Patrick:

(1.) He was not known for his intellectual gifts or superior education, and never got over the shame of not being able to recover from his lack of schooling during those slavery years. At one point he admitted, “I blush today and greatly dread to expose my ignorance, my lack of education, because I am not able to express myself briefly, with clear and well-arranged words, as my spirit desires and my mind and intellect point out… I put myself forward anyway with my ignorance and too-slow tongue.” The irony is that he left an astounding legacy of learning in Ireland that paved the way for Irish immigrants to help restore literacy and retain classical learning in Europe after its fall to the barbarians. Patrick established learning as vital in their faith when he built a cathedral in Armagh as a center for learning and discipleship. In the ripples of his ministry after he had passed, the Irish grew in literacy until they would arrive on the shores of Europe with their books but also their skills in bookmaking. One historian claimed that Patrick instilled a sense of learning and literacy in his ministry that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become known as “the isle of saints and scholars.” (T. Cahill).

(2.) His six years in slavery and deprivation didn’t embitter him or pull him away from belief in God, but drew him closer to Christ and the good news of the Christian faith. He said once, “While a slave, the love of God and reverence for Him grew in me more and more, as did the Faith, and my soul was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same. I prayed in the woods and on the mountains, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow, ice or rain.” 

(3.) While a slave in Ireland, Patrick learned its Gaelic language fluently, which turned out to be invaluable when he returned as a missionary and evangelist years later. He simply wouldn’t have been able to speak their language if it hadn’t been for his six years there as a shepherd-slave.

(4.) Patrick has been universally accepted as an Irish saint, but he wasn’t in the least Irish. He was born in the British region of the Roman Empire in either Wales or perhaps Scotland. So maybe Patrick was spiritually Irish, but actually he was purely British.

(5.) Patrick is best known for three legends that are undoubtedly untrue and a part of the enduring Patrick myth:

… That he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Actually, records as far back as 200 AD reveal that there have never been snakes in Ireland because of it climate and proximity to the sea. As it happens, hundreds of years later the historian probably intended for the snakes to be seen as pagan symbols of the Druids, who were largely driven out of the Irish culture by Patrick;

… That he taught the nature of the Trinity through his use of the shamrock, the Irish 3-leaf clover. This is doubtful, since it wasn’t mentioned until the Middle Ages, and the pagan religions in Ireland at that time already worshipped triple deities and were very familiar with the 3-in-1 divine figure. Most likely Patrick didn’t really need to resort to a natural illustration since that idea was largely understood;

… That Patrick’s color is green. The earliest artwork soon after Patrick showed him wearing blue robes, and the popular ancient Order of St. Patrick has maintained his official color as a sky blue known as “St. Patrick’s Blue.” It was only in the early 1800’s when green was adopted as Patrick’s color when during the Irish rebellion green was used as the Irish color to symbolize their independence from Britain.

‘If I have done anything good for my God whom I love, I beseech Him to grant me that with these new believers and those in captivity I may pour out my blood for His name, even if my body should be denied burial, and be miserably torn limb from limb by dogs or fierce beasts, or that the birds of heaven should devour it… It is certain that we shall rise one day in the brightness of the sun – that is, the glory of Christ Jesus our Redeemer.” (Patrick, from his Confessions).