Comparatively speaking, the fifth century CE is not an era from which there is much information outside the failing Roman Empire. In the British Isles, it is a mysterious time that conjures images of Celts, druids, barbarian invaders, King Arthur, Pictish warriors, and the introduction of Christianity.
Saint Patrick was from this time, and it is in this maelstrom that he lived and performed his miracles.
How he lived and what he did would live on forever and would result in him being declared the patron saint of Ireland.
Patrick’s Early Life
There are no exact dates regarding the life of St. Patrick. These are as mysterious as the time in which he lived. He is believed to have been born sometime around the end of Roman rule in Britain, likely at the end of the fourth century. Contrary to popular belief, he was not Irish to begin with. He was born in Roman Britain, though where exactly is subject to debate. Conflicting claims suggest he was born in Cumberland/Cumbria in northwest England, southern Scotland, and the village of Banwen in southern Wales.
He was from a family that was either Roman or Romanized. His father, Calpurnius, held a lofty position, described as a senator, a tax collector, and a deacon. His mother, Conchessa, is believed to have been a close relative of Saint Martin of Tours.
His family was highly regarded in religious circles, as his grandfather was also a member of the clergy. Despite his proximity to religion, Patrick wrote that in the early years of his life, he did not feel any particular desire to spend his life as a devout Christian. He was afforded the luxuries of a privileged life and grew idle.
At the age of 16, his life was turned upside down when Irish pirates raided his home. He was captured, taken to Ireland, and enslaved. During his six years as a slave, he worked as a shepherd, and during this period, he found solace in prayer, becoming more devout as the years passed by. He also became fluent in the Irish language and came to understand Irish culture.
After his sixth year of captivity, Patrick claimed to have heard the voice of God telling him that his time in captivity would soon be over and that he should make preparations to escape. The voice told him a ship awaited him in port 200 miles away. In some versions of the legend, an angel appeared to Patrick and told him to dig in a certain spot. Patrick did so and found a stash of gold, which he used to buy his freedom. Fact and fiction merge in different retellings of the story, but the latter was likely a fanciful addition.
Patrick made his escape, and true enough, there was a boat in port that took him back to Great Britain. After alighting on the shore of his homeland, he spent three days wandering the countryside with a group of other people who had been on the boat. They were all starving, and when Patrick prayed for sustenance, the group stumbled upon a herd of wild boars.
The timing of this event proved to the people in his group that faith was indeed powerful, and Patrick received his first dose of religious popularity. He made his way back home and was heartily welcomed by his family, who had feared he was gone forever. Now, at the age of around 22, Patrick took his place in the family again, but unlike before, he was now solidly invested in studying the scripture, and he devoted much of his time to following a Christian path.
A few years after returning home, Patrick had another vision of a man begging him to return to Ireland.
However, before he could preach in Ireland, he needed to travel elsewhere to study to become a priest. This he did in Auxerre in present-day France, where he was ordained a bishop.
He received negative attention from some of his colleagues. News of his financial conduct reached church authorities abroad, and Patrick had to deal with harsh criticism. Patrick was not a greedy man, and he returned gifts given to him. He refused to take money for baptisms or any other religious service, and this angered those priests who did. He was thus accused of financial misconduct. How these accusations played out is unknown, but they may have been another catalyst for Patrick to return to Ireland.
Patrick in Ireland
After receiving his bishopric in his early 40s, Patrick’s first attempt to land in Ireland was met with hostility, according to Irish historian John Bagnell Bury, and Patrick sought a warmer welcome further up the Irish coast. This he received, and he began making friends and allies among the local population. As his reputation grew, he inducted people into his diocese, founded several churches, and baptized thousands.
Patrick was not the first Christian to become a missionary in Ireland, so the Irish people were not shocked by his presence. Neither was Ireland a pagan wilderness, though there was pushback from druids within the pagan culture.
Of course, the truth and the legend of Saint Patrick become intermingled as he lived in a time when documentation of historical events often did not match up with reality and served more as propaganda than as a historical record. Once reaching Ireland, his life becomes a hazy mix of myth and legend.
According to folklore, the high king of Tara, at the time of the pagan ceremony of Ostara (Easter), had forbidden anyone from lighting fires. Patrick and his followers ascended a hill near the town of Tara and lit a bonfire, which immediately drew the ire of the king of Tara. He sent soldiers to deal with the situation, but Patrick and his followers chanted a poem that rendered them undetectable to the pagan soldiers. The Christians were able to move through the soldiers like a herd of deer.
The story continues with the soldiers being unable to douse the flames and much of the community converting to Christianity after Patrick arrived and defeated the druids in a debate. Although the king did not convert, he allowed Patrick to continue his mission.
Another famous legend, and one for which Saint Patrick is most famous, is how he banished the snakes from Ireland, driving them into the sea. He was not the first to be credited with this feat. A written source from the late seventh/early eighth century credits Saint Columba as having performed the task, while the version involving Saint Patrick was written in the 12th century. Ireland, however, never had any snakes, so the stories are most certainly fanciful tales.
The building of Patrick’s first church in Ireland is also a fanciful tale. It is written that he wanted to build his church on a hill in Armagh and that he was forbidden to do so by an Irish chieftain named Dáire, who instead gave Patrick land to the east of the hill. Dáire’s horses, after grazing on the church land, died, and Dáire ordered Patrick to be killed, but before his soldiers could carry out the deed, he suddenly fell ill. His men begged Patrick to heal their chieftain, and he did so with the aid of holy water, which he also used to resurrect the dead horses.
In gratitude, Dáire gave Patrick the hill of Ard Mhacha upon which to build his church; today, this is the site of the head church in Ireland.
Of course, there are many other stories and legends revolving around Saint Patrick. The common metaphor of comparing God to a shamrock is attributed to Saint Patrick. This comparison described the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as three entities but essentially all part of the same being, just like the three leaves on a shamrock.
Stories of Saint Patrick continued to be invented, embellished, and exaggerated in the centuries following his death. One story even states that when he was a baby being baptized, a blind man was told by a heavenly voice to hold the baby’s hand and make the sign of the cross on the ground. From this cross, water sprang forth and cured the man’s blindness.
Historian Thomas Francis O’Rahilly suggests that there may have been two Patricks who took different approaches to the Christianization of Ireland. The first is really the first bishop of Ireland, named Palladius. He came to convert, while the other came to introduce the Irish people to a friend who had saved him in his time of need.
While the difference may seem like subtle variations in wording, stories may portray two different characters, one militant and the other humble, and the two people may have been conflated. It is argued that the real Saint Patrick was accepted into Irish life as a person who acted through love, humility, and compassion.
His legends also speak of Saint Patrick undergoing much suffering in the name of Christ. He was imprisoned no fewer than 12 times.
Veneration & Sainthood
It is unclear exactly when or how Saint Patrick died, but it is traditionally thought to have been on March 17, 461 CE, after having preached in Ireland for 40 years. March 17 is known as Saint Patrick’s Day and is his Feast Day in the Catholic calendar.
Although he is revered as a saint today, he was never formally declared a saint by the Church in Rome, as in the early days of Christianity, saints were declared at a regional and local level. Thus, following his death, Patrick received great veneration throughout the Christian community in Ireland, and it was there that he was considered a saint.
He is claimed to be buried in Down Cathedral, Downpatrick, County Down (now in Northern Ireland), but this claim is subject to debate and has never been proven.
Despite being an icon of Catholic veneration, Protestant and Orthodox Christianity also revere Saint Patrick as a saint. Renowned for the many churches he built, Saint Patrick is considered the patron saint of engineers. Apart from being the patron saint of Ireland, he is also the patron saint of Nigeria and people afraid of snakes.
The legend of Saint Patrick is a confusing mix of truth, legend, and myth. Whether his deeds were true or not, however, Saint Patrick exists as a figure in high regard and emulated by the faithful worldwide.
