BLOG 3/17/14. WILL THE REAL ST. PATRICK PLEASE STAND UP!
So today is St. Patrick’s Day. So, who in the world was the real St. Patrick? Indulge me while I let my missiological passion come to the defense of one of the great missionaries of all Christian history. This has nothing to do with green beer (which is an offense to true Irishmen. I mean, if you really want to celebrate the authentic Irish drink, go for a Guinness, which is the national drink of Ireland).
Patrick was a youth in Roman Britain in the fifth century, and in a family that contained some clerics of the church, though he was uncommitted to a vital faith in Jesus Christ. He was kidnapped by some Irish pirates and sold into slavery in western Ireland, where he labored as a sheepherder for six years. These were evidently soul-searching years for him, and in a mystical set of communications was determined that he should escape, which he did. He fled across the island and persuaded a ship-owner to transport him back to Britain. In Britain his Christian faith became articulate and became the most formative force in his young life.
Long story short: Patrick had a vision that he should go back to Ireland and become a missionary to the very folk who had enslaved him, which he did. Our sources here are very limited, but he ultimately established a base of operations and a Christian monastic community in Armagh. He is considered the father of the Christian church in Ireland (with many myths surrounding his life). The long-term fruits of his life are quite amazing. His spiritual heirs—persons such as St. Columba, St. Brigid, and St. Brendan—continued the missionary passion of Patrick, and were ultimately responsible for a vital mission that took them again to Britain, and ultimately to the continent.
Consider that the only church that there was in the fifth century was the Roman Church, but with communications with Rome being virtually non-existent, Patrick was essentially operating in independence of any influence from the Holy See in Rome, so with his heirs. But what they accomplished culturally is awesome. A few years ago Thomas Cahill wrote a marvelous work entitled: How the Irish Saved Civilization, which records how the Irish monastics retrieved and copied the great works of European culture in their monasteries, when the libraries of Europe were being devastated by vandals.
Changing focus a bit, St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is a day of sober Christian reflection within the church. But it is more of a celebration of Irish-ness, or Irish cultural history, than anything else. My own sense is that you’ve almost got to be Irish to appreciate the Irish psyche, and Irish-ness. It is very unique. The Irish are a fascinating mix of melancholy and mirth, of song and poetry, of profound piety and sensuousness. It is a culture replete with the myths of leprechauns and elves, all of which seem so strange to our own scientifically sterilized culture, our digital age that has little place for colorful myths and legends and imagination—of elves and leprechauns. I’m not sure we are at all the richer for this mentality, and sometimes I envy the Irish.
Recently, Seamus Heaney died, who was a much-loved voice for the Irish folk. One of the obituaries described him in four words: warmth, humor, caring, and courtesy. Heaney was a product of the Irish culture, and those words are a glimpse of the Irish personality. So on this St. Patrick’s Day, hoist a Guinness in honor of the Irish heritage, and remember that Patrick did what every true believer in Christ should always be doing: being one contagious with his faith in Jesus Christ and being a messenger of that liberating faith to the areas where it is yet unknown—from next door to the ends of the earth.
