Saint Patrick – Patron Saint of Ireland
Patrick was the son of Calpurnius, a deacon, who lived in a town called Banna Venta Taberniae in Britain. It is impossible to be sure which actual city it is today, but many assume that it is Carlisle in England, which borders Scotland. His family had a small farm there, and it was where he lived until he was 14 or 16 years old. Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave. He stayed there, working as a shepherd for six years before escaping and returning to his family. Two letters written by Saint Patrick still exist and one of them is known as The Letter of Declaration. In the Declaration letter, he claims to have had a vision in which a man named Victoricus came to him with many letters and gave one to Patrick called The Voice of the Irish. At this he called out to her the following words: “We beseech you, holy servant, come and walk among us.”
The Statement also covers a variety of charges against him, but again these are not explicit, only mentioning that he returned gifts to people, did not accept payments for baptisms, and then focuses on having baptized thousands of people. He also ordained priests to lead the new Christian communities and also made some women nuns. It is very important to note that since Patrick was not Irish, he would have been treated as a foreigner in Ireland and refusing King’s favor would have been a difficult thing to do. He refers to being beaten and, in fact, robbed and chained.
The best available date for Patrick’s death is AD 460. C. and March 17, so Ireland has this as a public holiday, since Patrick is its patron saint. He is said to be buried in Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, along with Saint Columba and Saint Bridget, although there is no actual corroborating evidence.
Saint Patrick is credited in myth with cleansing the snakes from Ireland, although all the evidence strongly suggests that snakes in Ireland did not exist after the Ice Age. There have been various suggestions that he refers to the serpent, the symbol of the druids of that time. Myth also credits Patrick with explaining the concept of the Holy Trinity using a shamrock, but again, nothing exists to prove this. It is also a popular legend that Patrick introduced the Celtic Cross, a symbol that combines a cross with a ring, surrounding the intersection, and is quite popular in jewelry even today.
There was a story, recorded by monks probably to remove the Celts’ own stories and replace them with Christianity. A beautiful lady named Niamh and a man named Oisin met and fell in love, and they went to Tir Na nOg where they stayed for many years. Oisin felt homesick and Niamh granted him permission on the condition that she remain on her magical horse and not set foot on Irish soil. However, she stopped to help a man who was trying to lift a large stone and when he leaned over, the bridle broke and he fell to the ground. He instantly turned into a white-haired old man and as he lay dying, Patrick passed by and the couple discussed their respective civilizations. How much is true and how much is myth, I leave to you, reader.
After this began a fusion of pagan and new Christian Ireland. With the introduction of Christianity came the Latin language and the introduction of documented literature, revealing how the political map of Ireland developed over the events of several years. Territories of various sizes became divided into various kingdoms. Not long after Christianity began to spread, a monastic movement began. What Patrick had brought to Ireland is best described as having bishops and (Episcopal) dioceses, whereas what happened in Ireland was monasteries becoming the central unit of administration. Most likely this happened because the tuath represented the central unit of administration. These tuaths were controlled by families and this tied in well with monastic expansion. For example, the first abbots of Iona belonged to the same family as the person who founded it, Saint Colm Cille. The monasteries almost grew out of the intense personality of their original founders and are today classified as saints, such as Brigid of Kildare (Mary of the Irish) and Jarlath of Tuam. Even in the episcopal stronghold of Armagh, the direct successor of Saint Patrick was not in charge, but remained subservient to the abbot in charge.
The religious and cultural influence of Ireland was strongly influenced by the arrival of many saints, such as Patrick, Finnian, Enda and Auxilius. The rule of the Gaelic septs continued through the fifth and sixth centuries. The High Kingdom of Ireland arose from the Conn of the Hundred Battles and had been passed down from son to son. As these branches grew and developed, the various families grew and collapsed in power and this continued for centuries. As a family grew stronger, they made war on their distant relatives, and nothing as such remained constant. Needless to say, as families grew older, they divided further, creating more and more units, and so it went on.
They left their mark on the Irish landscape in the form of ring forts, essentially the farmhouses of ancient Ireland. These were created where agriculture was good, and often near the top of a hill with a good view of the countryside. They provided a strong defense mechanism and were known as rath and the area that would have been occupied inside was called lios. Houses and buildings would have been housed inland with service huts on the outer ring and then led out into the fields. In areas where the land was less favourable, stone ditches would have been built and referred to as caiseal, and if large in size, referred to as dun.
One point worth remembering is that money did not exist in Ireland and cows were the main measure of wealth along with the size of land a person owned. Ancient Irish texts known as The Brehon Laws give us an indication of how social structures were organized at that time. Clearly these were influenced by the early Christian church and schools run by the Christian church would have taught the principles of the early church fathers, based primarily on the Old Testament. Status and honor simply meant everything and an offense against any of them would have been considered an outrage. The hierarchical and aristocratic society, therefore, considered that any offense of this type against a person of a higher level in the social order justified a greater penalty than against a person of a lower level in the structure. This structure had a very clear hierarchical order. Even then there were defined structures with three grades of kings, below them nobles, freemen, and unfreemen.
As churches and schools began to dictate society, levels of scholarship increased, and in turn, Irish scholars began to make their impact in Europe. Diciul, for example, was a monk from Ireland who taught in Charlemagne’s palace and was famous for his study of world geography. Monasteries contributed significantly to the arts, with shrines, relics, and ornate books. One such ecclesiastical masterpiece is, of course, “The Book of Kells.”
This long marriage of Christian and Celtic cultures left Ireland in what can best be described as a conservative society and it remained largely a rural society. Towns would not form until the arrival of the Vikings. Ordinary housing at the time was known as a “rath” and was usually built on top of a hill and surrounded by some type of circular fence. This civilization was very family focused with a normal family group all descended from a great grandfather and this group was known as “derbhfhine”. Each member of this derbhfhine could qualify for a throne should it become vacant. It was designed so that neither a cripple nor a moron could become king, but it also sparked rivalry among all those who qualified by kinship to this family. The king’s inauguration was viewed similarly to a marriage in which the king would be bound to the sovereignty of his kingdom. The party that celebrated this was called “Feis” and that word means “to sleep with” someone. The inauguration would take place when the king was presented with a white rod and each kingdom had its own special site. The king when he began to rule was certainly a powerful man and ruler of his people and also a military commander. He passed laws and also dealt with trade and sports competitions. The king of a tuath was tied by personal loyalty to a higher king who was in turn tied to the provincial king.
There was also an educated class (Aos Dana) that formed a special group and included judges and lawyers and, more importantly, those known as “fili”. They were people considered seers and visionaries and very often they were poets. They wrote well about their kings and updated their genealogy and were generally respected by all.
