THIS LEADS TO ONE OF THE MOST amazing parts of Patrick’s ministry. One Easter morning, shortly after Patrick has finished baptizing and anointing a great number of new converts, the British (and supposedly Christian) warlord Coroticus raids a newly converted part of Ireland. Irishmen are executed while the women and children are led off to slavery, many still in their baptismal garb. Patrick sends an emissary to plead for the captives’ re-
cause Patrick had just kicked one of the most powerful and ruthless men in Britain out of the good standing of the shaky and fragile Roman Empire. Instead of vindicating Patrick, the British bishops write to the pope and get Patrick recalled to a punitive tribunal in Britain. BETRAYED AND REALIZING HE risks his death by entering Coroticus’ territory without the protection of the church,
The man who was mad enough to evangelize the people who enslaved him, excommunicate a warlord, and walk unarmed through a country notorious for human sacrifice doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would run from the hostile tribunal bent on his destruction or capitulation. lease; when Coroticus laughs in his face, Patrick excommunicates him and plans a personal visit to the petty tyrant. The shepherd of the Irish writes to Coroticus, “I am not sure who I should pity more— the murdered, the captives you took, or you who have been enslaved by the devil.” The rest of his biblically-laced letter goes on to fight for the human rights of the Irish—1300 years prior to Paine's or Jefferson’s writings on intrinsic human rights—and to call for the abolition of slavery and equal treatment of all humans, 1400 years before the heyday of the American abolition movement. A whole lot better than getting rid of snakes, no? WELL, PATRICK ALSO SENDS THIS “Letter to Coroticus”—one of two works of his still in existence—to the Bishops of Britain as well as the warlord. The bishops just about mess their pants, no doubt be-
Patrick writes his Confession, defending his work on behalf of one of the most barbaric peoples in Roman eyes as part of God’s mission to reach “the ends of the earth.” Patrick’s disciples continue on his work and create the Celtic monastic and evangelistic model that penetrates almost every corner of Europe in the 7th-9th centuries, but Patrick is never heard of again. THERE ARE TWO SCHOLARLY camps in regards to what happened to Patrick. The first is that he died peacefully in Ireland of old age. The other is that he was killed when he obeyed the summons to the tribunal, whether he was intercepted by Coroticus’s troops or executed for disturbing the peace in the church. I lean towards the later; the man who was mad enough to evangelize the people who enslaved him, excommunicate a warlord, and walk unarmed through a country
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