Patrick Essay ⋆ History Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The folklore surrounding St. Patrick is bigger than life, out of proportion to the modest historical information we have. But it is not so outlandish in comparison to the impact he had on Ireland. Patrick began his mission precisely at the time that Celtic spirituality was coming out of the shadows of the Roman Empire and the Western Latin Church. Patrick was born in Britain as Roman imperial order waned. He was kidnapped by Irish pirates at the age of 15 and sent to Ireland as a slave for six years. Most likely during this period Patrick developed a rapport with his captors and learned their native Gaelic language. Though he was born into a Christian and Romanized family, he was not particularly religious until his imprisonment. He began to pray and had some kind of religious experience, an assurance that he would be delivered. He was converted in Ireland.

He escaped from his captors, returned to his homeland, and began studies for the priesthood. It is not certain where he did his studies, but he might have traveled to Gaul where he read and wrote in Latin and learned the particulars of the monastic life. There he had another religious experience, a dream, which confirmed for him that he was to return to Ireland as a missionary. Perhaps as early as 432 c.e. the pope commissioned Patrick as bishop to spread Christianity among the Irish people. He resolutely set off for this remote and dangerous island, never to return to the Romanized world. He probably worked in the northern parts of the island, leaving the south, where there were pockets of Christianity, to the first bishop of Ireland, Palladius. He spent his time consulting and conciliating among local Irish chieftains, educating their sons, preaching among the Celtic peoples, and eventually institutionalizing the Irish church through native ordinations and the establishment of monasteries.

For more than 30 years his work was difficult and exhausting. He was not as inclined to scholarship and writing as he was to hard work and prayer. Thus, he left behind only two compositions: Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, a piece that criticizes the British military authorities for their harsh treatment of Celtic Christians, and Confession, an autobiographical apologia for his life and mission.

The popular stories of miracles involving snakes and shamrocks are the stuff of medieval legends. His writings mentioned above show that Patrick was a devoted and prayerful pastor of his Irish flock, yet conscious of the need to submit to the mainline Latin Church. His creeds and doctrines were most likely quite conventional. Nonetheless, he also allowed for the indigenous church to develop its own monastic forms, and Irish abbots and monasteries soon assumed their dominant position that typified Celtic spirituality. The Western Church celebrates his feast day on March 17.

References:

Bieler, Ludwig, and Richard Sharpe, eds. Studies on the Life and Legend of St. Patrick. London: Ashgate Publishing, 1985;
Freeman, Philip. St. Patrick of Ireland. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.

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