Happy St. Patrick’s Day! - 3/17/2011 10:56am

   I’m not Irish, but like most people I look forward to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.  To be sure, I’ll be wearing green, eating corned beef and cabbage, having a Guinness or two and slinging a lot of blarney on the evening of March 17.       

   As I’ve often said, the church is a big, colorful family, and it has its fill of heroes and villains, sinners and saints.  And like most families, ours often celebrates it's history, and remembering St. Patrick is part of the fun.  Although St. Patrick’s Day has morphed from a religious festival into a secular one filled with shamrocks, leprechauns and pots ‘o gold, it remains a religious and cultural treasure.  In Ireland St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday and it has been adopted throughout the world as a celebration of all things Irish.     

   Patrick himself, however, was not Irish; he was born in Roman controlled Britain sometime around A.D. 387.  Most of what we know about him comes from two Latin letters he composed:  1) the Confessio (or “declaration”) and 2) his Epistola (or “letter to the soldiers of Coroticus”).     

   When Patrick was about 16 he was captured by Irish marauders, taken to Ireland and held as a captive by a Druid tribal chieftain named Milchu in Dalriada, a territory of the present county of Antrim.  In the Confessio, he tells us that he worked as a herdsman in the valley of the Braid and on the slopes of Slemish, near the modern town of Ballymena, remaining a captive for six years.  Finally, he escaped, traveling nearly 200 miles, probably toward Killala Bay where he found passage back home.  Once home he entered the Church and was ordained a priest.     

   A few years later Patrick had a vision, which he recounts in his Confessio: 

I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: "The Voice of the Irish." As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.” 

   Patrick went back to Ireland as a missionary. 

   In the Confessio, he writes that once back in Ireland he “baptized thousands of people,” converted many prominent men and women and ordained priests to lead the newly formed Christian communities.   Since he refused to take gifts from pagan tribal chieftains he was without their protection, and he writes that on one occasion he was beaten, robbed, put in chains and threatened with execution.   

   Patrick died in A.D. 460 on March 17.  He is buried at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down, and today the St. Patrick Visitor Centre at Downpatrick is the world’s only permanent interpretative exhibition center with interactive displays on the life and story of St. Patrick.  See their very nice web site at www.saintpatrickcentre.com

   As with most saints of the early church, legends quickly grew up around Patrick.  The most well known, of course, is Patrick’s driving the snakes out of Ireland.  The story goes that during a 40-day fast on a hilltop, snakes attacked Patrick.  Calling upon God, he drove the snakes into the sea, banishing them forever from the Emerald isle.  Indeed, Ireland is among the few places in the world—along with New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica—where Indiana Jones would feel safe!  Although this great story is a mainstay of St. Patrick lore, scientists credit the most recent ice age, which kept the island too cold for reptiles until it ended 10,000 years ago.  After that the surrounding seas kept snakes from colonizing the land.  Be that as it may, traditional St. Patrick iconography frequently includes snakes scurrying away from him. 

   St. Patrick’s iconography often includes shamrocks, too.  Of all the doctrines central to Christianity, the Trinity is perhaps the most difficult to understand.  Legend holds that in explaining the Trinity St. Patrick resorted to a visual aid:  the shamrock, a 3-leafed white clover, known in Irish as a seamair bhán, which illustrates very nicely the concept of 3-in-1.  Indeed, the shamrock is a symbol of Ireland, and the Government of Ireland has registered the shamrock as a trademark. 

   A final legend involves St. Patrick’s walking stick.  The story goes that Patrick carried with him an ash wood walking stick.  When he preached he would thrust his stick into the ground and hold on to it.  On one occasion it took so long for his message to get through to the people that his stick had taken root by the time he was ready to move on!   

   Again, the Church is a big, colorful family and these stories—tall tales though they may be—reflect its vibrancy and life.  For better or worse, it is our family.  So today let’s raise a glass in memory of St. Patrick, and of the Irish people he ministered to! 

   P.S. And don’t forget the corned beef and cabbage!