Patrick: Patron of Ireland
Tales of the Irish saints are filled with as much fantastic embellishment as those of the ancient Celtic gods. They are attributed miraculous powers that rival those of the ancient druids, and their biographies detail all sorts of fantastic adventures, from flying to battling dragons. The reality of their lives is more difficult to pin down.
Accounts of the life of Patrick are no exception, filled with fanciful details and miraculous feats. Patrick's biographies are muddled, complicated by the fact that written records were not introduced to Ireland until well after the introduction of Christianity. Further complicating matters, no connection can be made between Patrick and any of Ireland's early churches, although the general consensus is that he was active in Ireland at the end of the fifth century
The earliest record of the life of Patrick is contained in two letters that are generally recognized as his own. One of these is a letter condemning Roman raiders who have carried off some of his congregants, but the more important document is his confessio, or confession, which contains a brief account of his early life along with his defense against barbs from unknown accusers. While St. Patrick's confessio is filled with self-deprecation, it is also filled with boasts about the many people he has converted and baptized. He seems especially proud to have converted a number of wealthy members of the nobility.
The Confessio
Patrick relates in his confessio that he was born to a wealthy Roman family in Britain, the son of a deacon, although he claims he himself was not a Christian. He enjoyed a life of privilege until, at the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped along with many of his countrymen by Irish raiders. He was taken to Ireland, where he lived the next six years under the servitude of Milchu, a chieftain and a druid priest, working as a shepherd and suffering from cold and deprivation.
By Patrick's account, Milchu was a cruel and intolerant master, and Patrick grew to hate the druid religion. The young slave sought solace through daily prayer, and he tells that after six years of fervent supplication, a voice appeared and commanded him to seek “his ship,” as his captivity was at an end. Patrick fled his master and sought out the nearest port, where he found a waiting ship. He credited God for his deliverance from slavery, and when he returned to his family, he made the decision to devote his life to God.
Patrick traveled to France and entered the religious life, eventually becoming ordained. He spent twenty years rising through the ranks of the church, until, twenty years after leaving Ireland, he was consecrated a bishop. Patrick then made the decision to return to the place of his captivity, and to Christianize pagan Ireland. His family implored him not to leave, but a vision convinced him that he had to return. He writes:
And after a few years I was again in Britain with my parents, and they welcomed me as a son, and asked me, in faith, that after the great tribulations I had endured I should not go anywhere else away from them. And, of course, there, in a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as it from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: “The Voice of the Irish,” and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and they were crying as if with one voice: “We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.” And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke. Thanks be to God, because after so many ears the Lord bestowed on them according to their cry.
Patrick records in his confessio his many successes in baptizing thousands, ordaining priests, and convincing many women to become nuns. Patrick remained in Ireland until he died, a few years before the end of the fifth century.
Patrick of Legend
Later tales of St. Patrick have none of the humility of Patrick's own writing. They rival the tales of the druids in their fantastic accounts of wizard's battles, although Patrick accomplishes his miracles through prayer rather than magic. Many stories of Patrick's exploits involve triumphs over the druids. In a version of the story of Loeghaire, his druid councilors stand against Patrick in his attempt to light an Easter fire, an opposition to pagan custom. Patrick prays for the death of the pagan priests, and the ground opens up to swallow them. There are numerous variations on this theme — Patrick prays, and God smites the pagans.
Not all of Patrick's magic came about by prayer. Irish tradition claims that Patrick possessed many of the same spells credited to the druids, including the ability to make himself invisible, through the use of the faeth fiada (“cry of the wild beasts”).
Patrick and the Snakes
One of the most famous tales of St. Patrick is his driving of the serpents from Ireland. This certainly mythical tale purports to explain the lack of snakes in Ireland, but it also carries overtones of Christian/pagan conflict. If the snakes are viewed as the emblems of the druids (who revered the serpent as one of their holy symbols), the tale takes on another level of meaning; namely, that the serpents are not animals, but the pagan way of life.
This interpretation is borne out by many other references to battles with dragons or serpents undertaken by the saints, which invariably occur on sites formerly sacred to the druids. This is not to say such battles necessarily took place at all. Instead, these stories may use poetic license to deal with the embarrassing reality of many a church sited on former pagan holy grounds, which may have mattered much more as the centuries passed.
Oddly, the tale of the snakes echoes the ancient story of the Fomorians, described as sea-serpents, who are driven into the sea by the Tuatha Dé Danann.
