It is reasonable
to assume there were some Christians scattered throughout
Ireland prior to the arrival of St Patrick. Their faith was
probably brought by traders from Gaul and other sources. Over
in Great Britain, Glastonbury was their oldest centre of
Christianity. The occupying Romans left there about 407 AD.
Irish Church
history can be seen to be assuming shape when Pope Celestine
sent Bishop Palladius to Ireland in 431 AD and also with the
captivity of the 16 year old Patrick and his return from
subsequent missionary training in Gaul in 432 AD.
As to where
Patrick was born, there have been many conflicting theories.
Ireland, Scotland and France have all claimed the honour.
Ireland’s claim can be dismissed as he asserts in his own works
that he was not an Irishman. Some claim Boulogne, others
Dumbarton in Scotland. The opinion of critics seems now inclined to assign
the honour to Dumbarton, which in ancient times was called Alcluith, and formed the western termination of the great Roman
Wall extending from the Forth to the Clyde. His father,
Calpurnius, was a Deacon and his Grandfather, Potitus, was a
Priest.
Patrick
was taught the Christian Faith from his childhood. When he was
sixteen years old, he was seized one day by pirates and carried
across the sea to Ireland; and here he was sold into slavery to
an Irish chief, who lived in what is now County Antrim, and who
employed Patrick in tending his sheep. Ireland when Patrick
lived here, was very different from the country that we know
to-day. A great part of it was covered with thick, dark forests,
"where wild beasts roamed about. The people were fierce and
warlike, and lived in rude huts of wicker and earth; and they
were nearly all heathen." They worshipped the sun, and they
worshipped wells and trees and standing-stones, and the
spirits who were thought to dwell in the hills. Their priests
were called Druids.
Patrick, lonely and
miserable, prayed constantly that God would set him free from
slavery; and he often rose in the night and went out to pray in
the darkness and cold, on the side of the Hill of Slemish,
beside which his master lived. At last, after six years his
prayers were answered and he escaped, and sailed away from
Ireland.
He went to Gaul (the
name given, in ancient times, to the region of western Europe
comprising of present-day northern Italy, France, Belgium,
western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany
on the west bank of the Rhine river)
where
he studied for many years, and overcame many difficulties.
Following
his training he most probably received his Bishop’s orders from
Germanus of Auxerre.
At last
he was able to do what he had set his heart upon.
He
gives no other reason for coming here but his love for Christ
and his desire to help the Irish people; "Christ the Lord
commanded me to come," he says. We read of his being
described by one of his companions as "Bishop Patrick, sent by
the Lord to baptize the people of the Irish, and to convert them
to the faith of Christ"; and those who have carefully studied the matter have
not so far been able to find any good reason for thinking that
he came to Ireland at the bidding of the Bishop of
Rome.
About the year
432 AD Patrick with a few companions sailed once again to
Ireland. Although
the greater number of the Ireland's population are now
Roman Catholics, and fancy that St. Patrick was sent by the Pope
to Ireland,
he never mentions the Pope but
even if this had been the case, it would have made no real
difference. The grievous errors which now separate the Roman
Church from the Church of Ireland had still in those early times not then crept in.
The Christians of Rome, and their Bishops still held the same
pure faith as in the days, when St. Paul wrote his Epistle
to them.
His party landed at the
mouth of the River Vartry, on the spot where the town of Wicklow
now stands. He did not tarry long here but sailed northwards
and landed eventually at Strangford Lough. There a Chieftain called Dichu,
after being baptised, gave Patrick a barn in which to found a
Church. This barn, or ‘Saul’, was his first Church.
After
travelling around Ireland Patrick made for Tara and for the High
King Laoghaire . When he arrived, Laoghaire and his court and
the Druids had gathered for the pagan Easter fire. The king
forbade any fire to be lit before his but Patrick violated this
order and lit his own fire. It is stated that the king was
outraged and wished to punish him but was convinced to do
otherwise. Although Laoghaire did not become a Christian
himself he gave Patrick a safe conduct throughout Ireland.
There is an old story that,
when he wanted to help them to know what he meant by the
doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Patrick stooped and plucked a
shamrock from the grass at his feet, and showed them how it was
three leaves and yet but one leaf. And this, it is said, is the
reason why, year after year, we sometimes wear the shamrock on
St. Patrick's Day.
The Druids
worshipped the oak tree, the mistletoe and the sun. This was a
foundation on which Patrick could build. He taught, baptised,
ordained and consecrated bishops. It is known there were 3,000
priests and 365 bishops. Although these numbers seemed great it
must be remembered that the county was divided into tribes and
this structure demanded a superfluity of clergy. Patrick spent
Lent on Croagh Patrick Mountain where legend says he cast out
serpents and spirits.
Patrick
consecrated his Churches on Sunday. The word for Sunday is Donagh and today many places in Ireland retain this word in
their name. Patrick founded the Church on the episcopal basis
i.e. bishops, priests and deacons.
Armagh, as stated earlier,
became the site of the principal church, and the place for the
chief bishop (the Primate, as we now call him) of all Ireland,
who built his church there in 445 AD, on the hill where the
Cathedral of St. Patrick still stands.
This dates it earlier than Canterbury at 595
AD.
He was
often lonely and discouraged, but he never ceased, as long as he
lived, to work and to
pray
for the Irish people. It is
thought he
died on 17th March in 461 AD and is buried at Saul
in County Down.
Patrick’s faith
remained the
simple and pure Christian faith based on
baptism, communion and the scriptures. This was before its materialistic
bishops of Rome began to embellish it with the multitude of unscriptural dogmas that were to
ultimately trigger the Reformation in Europe some 1,000 years
later. Patrick's faith and practice was similar to that of the modern
Church of Ireland.
We have some of
Patrick’s own writings in the form of his letter to Coroticus, a
Welsh prince and also his Confession.
"St.
Patrick's Breastplate" (No. 326 in the Irish Church Hymnal) is
believed to have been written by him.
We also
have the earliest documented account of his life, the book of
Armagh, written about the end of 7th century by
Muirchu and Maccumacthone, son of Cogitosus, who died in 670 AD.
