AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
What’s not to like about St Patrick’s day, a national holiday and celebration for the 5th Century missionary who brought Christianity to our island. For me though, Magonus Succatus Patricius, to give the man his christened name, is a bit of a conundrum.
For one thing there is his appearance. In most representations out patron Saint looks decidedly Irish, like a stalwart version of Ronnie Drew. But in fact he was of Roman descent and might have had sultry, Latino looks.
His father Calpurnius, a deacon and his grandfather Politus, a priest, were of Roman descent, so Patricus’ family were Anglo-Romans. They were Christians, spoke Latin and lived in Britain shortly before the Roman occupation petered out in 410AD. You can theorise about where they lived – near somewhere called Bannavem Taburniae – and whether it was in England, Scotland or Wales, without fear of contradiction, since no one knows exactly where it was.
The West Coast obviously, given his kidnap from his parents civilised villa by half-naked Celtic raiders to be carried off to slavery across the sea in curraghs with hundreds of others. Scotland is unlikely though, given that Roman Administration didn’t extend beyond Hadrian’s wall and Patricius’ father was an administrator or Decurion.
Leaving aside the familiar story of how Patrick brought us Christianity, one of the other puzzling things is the sheer ubiquity of the man at a time when travel was difficult. The pagan Celts were hostile, there were no towns, just a few roads , much of the country was densely wooded and travel by boat around the coast or by river the easiest option. He was here, there and everywhere in Ireland if you believe he was in all the places associated with his name.
A while ago in Connemara I climbed to Mam Ean (The Crossing of the Birds) a pass between the peaks of the Maumturk Mountains. It’s a place of pilgrimage to a tiny chapel and site known as St Patrick’s Bed. Did he really have a sleepover in a spot where Mass is still celebrated for pilgrims three times a year, or was the name simply added at a site sacred from ancient pagan times? We can’t be sure.
Two of the earliest accounts of Patrick’s missionary travels were written two centuries after Patrick’s death and, again, there is very little we can be sure about. According to historian Muirchu’s version Patrick landed in Wicklow, at the mouth of the Vartry River, then sailed along the coast, landing near Strangford Lough where he makes his first convert near the Struell Wells, a sacred well and bathing place to this day.
He then goes to Slemish in Co. Antrim, hoping to convert his old slave master before sailing down the coast. Then Patrick goes inland to light an Easter fire on the Hill of Slane which results, after much drama, in the conversion of monarch Loegaire of Tara, before continuing on his miraculous mission.
In the other 6th Century account by Tirechan, the saint lands on the East Coast, stops near Holmpatrick to found a church, then moves on to Meath, founding several churches. Then he travels around Ireland founding, yet again, many churches, (these were probably beehive style buildings) from Mayo to Donegal and reaching as far south as Kells in Co. Kilkenny.
Patrick’s Purgatory at Lough Derg doesn’t feature and the story of his fast on Croagh Patrick may be apocryphal but this hardly matters as traditions about them are still believed.
It can be a bit difficult to sort legend from fact where the saint is concerned. The story of how he banished snakes from Ireland – nice one – isn’t true, because there never were any, as naturalists point out. Snakes never made it to Ireland. The symbolism of the three- leaved shamrock was adopted in the 17th Century, rather than being used by St Patrick to illustrate the Holy Trinity, although the plant was sacred to the Celts.
We do have St Patrick’s own words to rely on. His Confession, written in old age, is both an apology and as a testimony to his mission against all the odds and his letter to Coroticus, was a complaint to a despot whose soldiers had abducted Christians from Ireland.
His words reach down through 16 centuries and are instrumental in making us who we are today.
