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S ANOTHER ST. PATRICK’S DAY approaches we are reminded again of the saint who was credited with the conversion of Ireland. Not many saints’ feast days make it on to our cultural calendar but St. Patrick is one of the lucky (?) ones. Of course it is the idea of drinking green beer, partying all night, and celebrating one’s Irish roots (real or not) that gets the attention of the nation, not the missionary work of Patrick. But still there is something about Patrick that captures our imagination. We have a vague sense of the stories (not all of which are historical): his taming of the fierce Irish tribes; his ridding Ireland of snakes; his use of a shamrock to teach about the Trinity. I THINK PATRICK INTERESTS US, in part, because his sensibilities seem to connect with our postmodern sensibilities. For one, he saw the created
be no small feat. He wrote: “every day I am ready to be murdered, betrayed, enslaved—whatever may come my way. But I am not afraid of any of these things, because of the promises of heaven; for I have put myself in the hands of God Almighty.” The fact that he died of old age in his late 70s is a vindication of this trust. WHO, THEN, WAS PATRICK AND what can we learn from his life? What can we learn from Celtic Spirituality, which had its origin in Patrick, that will feed our spiritual lives? LET ME BEGIN WITH A QUICK summary of the life of Patrick and then explore Celtic spirituality. PATRICK WAS, BY ALL ACCOUNTS, your average 4th/5th century, middle-class, Romanized Briton from a
There is something about Patrick that captures our imagination.... his sensibilities seem to connect with our postmodern sensibilities. world as a place where God was alive and present. The sun, the moon, and the changing of the seasons were all opportunities for prayer to God. Patrick seems to have an eco-sensibility akin to our own. Then there was his eclecticism. He was not above taking Druid feasts and Christianizing them (rather than condemning them and those who celebrated them). It is said that Halloween and May Day were old Irish festivals that Patrick brought into the Christian calendar. His bravery touches us. He knew that the taming of the Irish would
Christian family. By his own account he was not very religious despite the fact that his grandfather was a Catholic priest (priestly celibacy was a later doctrine). However his life changed radically at age 16 when a fleet of Irish slave traders sweep down the west coast of Britain and captured him and hundreds of other young men. Patrick was taken back to Ireland and sold to a petty king who sent him off into the hills to look after his flocks. The long nights on remote hillsides, hungry and naked, made Patrick into a man of prayer.
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