Patrick

Celtic Culture and Legends

There is, perhaps, more lore surrounding Patrick, the missionary who brought the good news of Christ to Ireland, than any other missionary in Christian history. In order to understand the real Patrick, we must first understand a little about pre-Patrick Ireland. 

Ireland was a nation shaped by the polytheistic religion of the druids. They worshiped multiple gods and goddesses associated with natural elements. Sun, water, earth, etc. all had deities connected to them. They were also a hierarchical society, structured around priests, novices, bards, and seers. Each was deeply involved in pagan practice.

It’s worth debunking some legends and assumptions about Patrick too, like, for example, that he was Irish. Patrick came to Ireland as a missionary, but he was not, in fact, Irish. The real Patrick was abducted by the Irish and enslaved, escaped, and then later returned as a missionary. 

Other legends include stories that Patrick used the shamrock to teach the Trinity, that he drove the snakes from Ireland, or that he jabbed his staff into the ground and it blossomed into a tree, converting many to Christianity. Although there may be profound truths or metaphors at the roots of these legends, not one is based in fact. Furthermore, the famous “Patrick's Breastplate” slogan – “Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ to me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me” – cannot be attributed to Patrick with any measure of confidence. Finally, despite common usage, “Saint Patrick” was never canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. 

The Real Patrick

So, if “Saint Patrick” wasn’t a saint, wasn’t Irish, and didn’t do the things he’s most well known for, who was he? From his few surviving letters and his Confessio, it seems that Patrick was more like the missionaries we recognize today than the legends would have it. He was a preacher. He used words, not miracles and signs and wonders.

Patrick was born around 385, and he died sometime between 461 and 464. We know that his family was well to do, but unlike many of his class in those times is that he doesn't have the same level of education. He was raised in a Christian home. His father, Calpurnius, was a deacon, son of Potitus, a presbyter. We also know that he was from Bannavem Taburniae. Tradition has it that Bannavem Taburniae is in Scotland, Wales, England, or even France, but the exact location has never been found.

When he was around 16 years old Patrick was enslaved. We're told that he herded goats, sheep, or swine (possibly added because of the parable of the prodigal son). Of this time, Patrick wrote that, 

“the Lord opened to me the sense of my unbelief that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my lowest state and pitied my ignorance and youth.” 

Eventually the newly converted Patrick was able to escape and return to his home by stowing away on a ship. But, perhaps surprisingly, in the time he was away from the Irish people, his heart for the Irish grew. One night he had a vision of man who delivered a letter, “The Voice of the Irish,” which begged him to return to Ireland.  

Patrick resolved to return to Ireland, but he took time to pursue ministerial preparation and theological training. He spent 12 years studying the scriptures in a French monastery called the monastery of St. Germain. As he prepared to go, he said, “I am ready to be killed, betrayed into slavery or whatever may come my way for the sake of your name.” 

Return to Ireland

Patrick returned to Ireland not knowing whether he would have success. He didn't have modern demographic research, and very little knowledge of the Irish appetite for the gospel, but the Lord blessed his work:

“For I am greatly God's debtor, who has granted me such grace that many people through me were reborn to God and afterward confirmed, and that clergy were ordained everywhere for them, for a people newly come to belief, whom the Lord took from the ends of the earth, as he once promised through the prophets... So that even before my death I should see a multitude of peoples born again in God.”

Despite lacking a corpus of the sermons of Patrick, we know he had success in his ministry as a pastor. Some attribute this to the king, because under Patrick’s ministry the magistrate put to death 800 druid priests who were unwilling to be converted. However, the growth of Celtic Christianity in the years following would suggest something more than political expedience.

Patrick is buried in Downpatrick in Northern Ireland. A cathedral was built on the site, said to be Patrick's stone under which he's buried.

Celtic Christianity

The Ireland of Patrick’s day had never been part of the Roman Empire, though its harbors were known to the Romans through trade. It was probably merchants who first brought Christianity to Ireland in the fourth century. In 431, Pope Celestine sent a man named Palladius from Gaul to the Christians in Ireland. Almost nothing is known about Palladius’s role in the spread of Christianity in Ireland. But it’s likely that some Irish already knew something of Christianity even before Patrick arrived.​​ 

After Patrick’s death, Celtic Christianity continued to flourish for well over 200 years without any involvement from Rome. It was a church in which Scripture was the primary source of authority, guiding the community's faith and practice. Monasteries, pastors, and elders within the church were connected and there was discussion among them as to what should be going on within the church. They weren’t just developing different thoughts and ideas on their own. There was also an emphasis on personal religion, and there was a missionary zeal, a fervor to spread Christianity. This was a focus on what some would call “all of life Christianity,” their faith affecting their homes, their private lives, their communities, and the state. But this didn’t last forever.

There was, eventually, a romanizing of Celtic Christianity, at the Synod of Whitby in 664, born from a desire to align with Rome in order to strengthen ties to a broader Christianity. The shift would essentially destroy Celtic Christianity, replacing it with what was in Rome.

Patrick’s Legacy

The next time St. Patrick’s Day comes around, remember that Patrick was not a green-clad, Irish, Roman Catholic saint. He was a missionary, one willing to lay down his life for the gospel. One fully committed to the advancement of the gospel through the growth of the church – seeking worship from the voice of the gospel. Patrick was a man of grace.

As Patrick said so long ago, “I am greatly a debtor to God who has granted me such great grace that many people through me should be reborn to God.”

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