By REV. G. F. MACLEAR, B.D.
(ABOUT 372-466)
[Illustration: A book. [TN]]
The original name of St. Patrick was _Succat_, which is said to signify
"strong in war." Patricius appears to have been his Roman name. He was
born of Christian parents at some period between A.D. 372 and A.D. 415.
His father, Calphurnius, was a deacon, his grandfather, Potitus, a
priest Though an ecclesiastic, Calphurnius would seem to have held the
rank of decurion, and may therefore have been of Roman or provincial
British extraction. His birthplace was a spot which he himself calls
Bonavem Taberniae, and which in all probability may be identified with
the modern Kirkpatrick, between Dumbarton and Glasgow.
The parents of Succat, as has been already said, were Christians, and it
would seem that the Gospel had been preached to some extent in the
neighborhood of his father's home. Whatever amount, however, of
instruction he may have received was rudely interrupted, when he was
about sixteen years of age.
The coasts of Scotland were at this time exposed to the frequent
incursions of Irish chieftains, who landed from their swift barks,
ravaged the country, and having carried off as many of the inhabitants
as they could, consigned them to slavery. In one of these expeditions
the house of Calphurnius was attacked, and Succat, with two of his
sisters and many of his countrymen, was carried away and conveyed to the
north of Ireland.
Here he was purchased as a slave by Michul or Milchu, a chief of North
Dalaradia, who dwelt in the valley of the Braid, near Mount Slemish, in
the country of Antrim. The work assigned him was that of attending his
master's flocks and herds, and in his "Confession," which he wrote
toward the close of his life, he describes how he wandered over the
bleak mountains, often drenched with the rains, and numbed with the
frosts. His period of servitude lasted six years; and during this time
he would seem to have made himself acquainted with the language of the
native tribes, and to have learned their habits and modes of life. At
length he succeeded in effecting his escape to the seaside, where he
took ship, and, after a tempestuous passage, regained his father's
house. His stay, however, was destined to be very short. In a predatory
excursion he was a second time taken captive, and again, after a brief
interval, succeeded in making his escape.
Had he listened to his parents, he would now have remained with them,
but he was bent on a very different occupation. "The Divine Voice," he
says, "frequently admonished me to consider whence I derived the wisdom
which was in me, who once knew neither the number of my days nor was
acquainted with God; and whence I obtained afterward so great and
salutary a gift as to know and to love God." During the weary hours,
moreover, of his captivity, he had often reflected how blessed a thing
it would be if he, to whom it had been given to know the true God and
his Son Jesus Christ, could carry the glad tidings to his master's
people and the land of his exile.
One night, he tells us, he had a dream, in which he thought he saw a man
coming from Ireland with a number of letters. One of these he gave him
to read, and in the beginning occurred the words, "The voice of the
Irish." While he was reading it, he thought he heard a voice calling to
him across the Western Sea, "We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and
walk among us."
Obedient, therefore, to what he deemed to be a plain leading from
heaven, and resisting the arguments and entreaties of relatives and
friends, who mocked at his enthusiastic resolve, he set out for the
monasteries in Southern France, there to prepare himself for the work of
preaching the gospel in the land of his captivity. Amidst the
conflicting legends which now follow him at every step, it seems
probable that he repaired to the monastic schools of Tours, Auxerre, and
Lerins, where he studied and was employed for some little time in
pastoral duties, having been ordained successively deacon and priest.
There, too, he would seem to have been elevated to the episcopate, and
thence with a band of fellow-laborers he set sail for Ireland, about the
middle of the fifth century. Landing on one of the islands off the coast
of Dublin, he and his companions tried unsuccessfully to obtain
provisions, which they greatly needed. Thence sailing northward they put
in at a strait called Brene, and after landing at the southwestern
extremity of Strangford Lough, advanced some considerable way into the
interior.
They had not gone far before they encountered a native chief named
Dichu, at the head of a band of men. Mistaking St. Patrick for the
leader of one of the many pirate crews which at that time often
appeared upon the coast, he was on the point of putting him to death.
But struck by the missionary's appearance, and seeing that both he and
his companions were unarmed, he hospitably received them into his house.
In frequent interviews he now heard the doctrines of the faith, and
after a time was baptized, with all his family. According to some
authorities he also bestowed upon his instructor the ground whereon his
barn was built; and here arose the celebrated church called _Sabhall
Patraic_, "The Barn of Patrick," which still retains the name of Sabhal,
or Saul, and is situated about two miles northeast of Downpatrick.
Leaving Saul, the missionaries proceeded to northern Dalaradia, and the
residence of St. Patrick's old master, Milchu. But nothing would induce
the old chief to receive one who had once been his slave, or to forsake
the paganism of his forefathers. His journey thus ineffectual, St.
Patrick returned to the district where Dichu resided, and made the
neighborhood for sometime his headquarters. Thence proceeding southward,
he determined to visit the central parts of the island, and especially
the famous hill of Tara, where King Laoghaire was about to hold a great
religious festival in the presence of all of his tributary chieftains,
druids, and bards. In this stronghold of druidism he resolved to
celebrate the approaching festival of Easter, and preach the word to the
assembled chiefs. It was Easter eve, we are told, when he reached the
neighborhood of Tara, and having erected a tent, he made preparations
for spending the night with his companions, and kindled a fire for the
purpose of preparing food. As the smoke curled upward in the evening
air, it was observed by the druids in the king's tents and caused the
greatest consternation. To kindle any fire during the solemn assembly of
the chiefs, before the king had lighted the sacred flame in the palace
of Tara, was a sin of the greatest enormity, and the druids did not
scruple to warn the king that if the fire of the stranger was not
extinguished that night, unto him, whose fire it was, would belong the
sovereignty of Ireland forever.
Messengers were accordingly sent to discover the authors of the
sacrilege, and to order them to appear before Laoghaire. The
missionaries went, and their fearlessness when in the presence of the
monarch and his nobles won for them a respectful hearing. On the
following day St. Patrick again addressed the chiefs, doubtless in their
own language, and proclaimed to them the doctrines of the faith.
Laoghaire himself, indeed, did not profess to be a convert, but he gave
permission to the man of God to preach the word, on condition that he
did not disturb the peace of the kingdom. During the ensuing week,
therefore, when the great public games were celebrated at Tailten, the
missionary and his companions addressed themselves to the youngest
brother of the king, and were so favorably received that he professed
himself a believer, submitted to baptism, and is said to have given the
site of a church called afterward "The Great Church of Patrick."
[Illustration: St. Patrick journeying to Tara.]
The impression thus made upon the chiefs was soon shared by their
subjects, and though the pagan party made frequent attempts to put the
missionaries to death, from which they narrowly escaped, they were
heartily received in Westmeath, Connaught, Mayo, and Ulster, and
before long found themselves strong enough to destroy the great idol
Crom-cruach, on the plain of Magh Slecht, in the county of Cavan; and,
in the district of the clan Amalgaidh, admitted to baptism the seven
sons of the king and many of their people.
To the worshippers of the powers of nature, and especially the sun and
other heavenly bodies, St. Patrick proclaimed that the great luminary
which ruled the day had no self-originated existence, but was created by
One whom he taught them to call God the Father. "Besides him," said he,
"there is no other god, nor ever was, nor will be. He was in the
beginning before all things, and from him all things are derived,
visible and invisible." He told them next of "his only begotten Son
Jesus Christ, who had become man, had conquered death and ascended into
heaven, where he sat far above all principalities and powers, and whence
he would hereafter come to judge both the quick and the dead, and reward
every man according to his deeds." "Those," he declared, "who believed
in him, would rise again in the glory of the true Sun, that is, in the
glory of Jesus Christ, being by redemption sons of God and joint-heirs
of the Christ, of whom, and by whom, and to whom, are all things; for
the true Sun, Jesus Christ, will never wane nor set, nor will any perish
who do his will, but they shall live forever, even as he liveth forever
with God the Father Almighty, and the Holy Spirit, world without end."
Such, as it would seem from his "Confession," was the Gospel he
proclaimed, and his words, confirmed and illustrated by his own intrepid
zeal, ardent love, and sincere and devoted life, made a deep impression
on the minds of the Celtic chiefs. With the religious enthusiasm deeply
seated in the primitive Celtic character, which many years before won
for St. Paul so warm a reception in Galatia, their hearts were touched
and they welcomed the missionary, and believed the word which he
preached.
As time went on, the labors of St. Patrick were lightened by the arrival
of the bishops Secundinus, Auxilius, and Isserninus, whom he had sent
either to France or Britain to receive consecration. Their coming
enabled him to extend the sphere of his operations, and he undertook
missionary tours in Meath, Leinster, Ossory, and Munster. These
continued for several years, during which he was occupied in preaching
the word, baptizing new converts, and erecting churches. Knowing well
how much his own acquaintance with the native language had contributed
to his success, he labored diligently to establish a native ministry
wherever he went. Cautiously selecting from the higher classes those
whose piety and intelligence seemed to fit them for the work of the
ministry, he established seminaries and monastic schools, where they
were trained and educated; and to these schools the young of both sexes
flocked with extraordinary eagerness.
While he was laboring in the southeastern part of Munster, a petty
prince of Cardiganshire, named Coroticus, though apparently professing
Christianity, set out from Wales, and descending on the Irish coast with
a band of armed followers, murdered several of the people, and carried
off a large number with the intention of disposing of them as slaves.
This outrage, perpetrated in one of the districts where St. Patrick was
baptizing, roused his keenest indignation, and he wrote a letter, which
he sent by one of his companions, calling upon Coroticus to restore the
captives, many of whom had been baptized. But his request being treated
with contempt and scorn, he composed another circular epistle, in which
he inveighed in the strongest terms against the cruelty of the marauding
tribe and its chief. He contrasted his conduct with that of the
Christians of the Continent, who were in the habit of sending large sums
of money to ransom captives, and concluded by threatening him and his
followers with excommunication, unless he desisted in future from his
piratical habits. What was the result of the epistle is not known, but
it is to be feared that the attempt to recover the captives was not
successful. Slavery and the trade in slaves was almost more difficult to
root out than paganism, and the inhuman traffic was in full activity as
late as the tenth century between England and Ireland, and the port of
Bristol was one of its principal centres.
Meanwhile, after a somewhat lengthened sojourn in the district of Lowth
and parts of Ulster, St. Patrick reached the district of Macha,
containing the royal city of Emania, the residence of the kings of
Ulster, the remains of which, under the name of the Navan, still exist
about two miles west of Armagh. Here he was cordially received by Daire,
a wealthy chief, who made over to him a pleasant piece of ground on an
eminence, _Druim-sailch_, or "Hill of the Willows." The spot pleased St.
Patrick, and here he determined to erect a church. The foundations were
accordingly laid, and around it rose by degrees the city of Armagh, the
ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland; and here its founder spent the
remainder of his life, only leaving it now and then to visit his
favorite retreat at Saul, round which clustered so many associations of
his earliest labors, and of his first convert Dichu.
Here, too, having called to his aid the bishops Secundinus, Isserninus,
and Auxilius, who next to himself were best qualified by long experience
for the work, he proceeded to hold synods, and to make regulations for
the general government of the churches he had founded. Again and again
he was solicited to revisit his friends and relatives in Scotland, but
nothing could induce him to leave his post. In his "Confession," written
when far advanced in years, he touchingly describes how often he had
been requested to come among his kinsmen once more, but how a deep sense
of the spiritual love between himself and his flock ever retained him in
Ireland.
It was while he was staying at Saul that the apostle of Ireland was
seized with his last illness. He had lived to a good old age, and the
sunset of his life was calm and peaceful. Perceiving that his end drew
nigh, and desirous, as we are told, that Armagh should be the
resting-place of his remains, he set out thither, but was unable to
continue the journey. Increasing weakness, and, as it seemed to him the
voice of an angel, bade him return to the church of his first convert;
and there he closed his eyes in death, probably in the year A.D. 466,
leaving behind him the visible memorials of a noble work nobly done. He
and his fellow-laborers had made for themselves, by the labors of their
own hands, civilized dwellings amid the tangled forest and the dreary
morass. At a time when clan-feuds and bloodshed were rife, and princes
rose and fell, and all was stormy and changeful, they had covered the
islands with monastic schools, where the Scriptures were studied,
ancient books collected and read, and native missionaries trained for
their own country, and for the remotest parts of the European continent.