Who was St Patrick?

Wikimedia Commons, CC BY The patron saint of Ireland was not, in fact, Irish. He was a Roman Briton, who spent his childhood in southwestern England before being kidnapped by Irish raiders, spirited across the sea and enslaved. Many folkloric traditions surrounding St Patrick have accumulated over the centuries. But there is no doubt he was a real person, who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. Across the world today, many countries, especially those with significant Irish populations, celebrate St Patrick on March 17, his feast day. So who was St Patrick – and how did he go from being a kidnapped Briton to Ireland’s national hero?

Makings of a saint Patrick was probably born in the first decades of the fifth century, and died just over six decades later. We can reconstruct his life story thanks to two texts he wrote in his old age. The first is the Confessio (or “Declaration”), in which he defends his life’s mission of bringing Christianity to the Irish. The second is the Epistula, a letter he wrote to a British king, protesting his treatment of Irish Christians. To these we can add a hagiography (or “saint’s life”) written by a monk named Muirchu, who incorporated earlier lost texts. Together, these writings, preserved in manuscripts from the ninth century on, offer a rich fund of information. St Patrick was kidnapped from his home aged 16: ‘almost a boy without any beard’. Andreas F. Borchert/Wikipedia, CC BY

In the Confessio, Patrick informs us his father was a decurion (a minor Roman magistrate) in southwestern Britain. At 16, he was snatched from the family property: “As a youth, indeed almost a boy without any beard, I was taken captive”. Patrick tells us he was without faith at the time – though his father, Calpornius, was a Christian deacon and his grandfather a Christian priest. But in the six years that followed, he found God through prayer as he tended to sheep on the hills of northeastern Ireland, as the slave of an Irish nobleman. When Patrick eventually escaped and returned to his family, they welcomed him joyfully – and “asked me earnestly not to go off anywhere and leave them this time, after the great tribulations which I had been through”. But his time in Ireland had made a lasting impression. He dreamed of an angel named Victoricus, who presented him with a letter titled “the Voice of the Irish”, begging him to return, to bring the message of Christianity there. Patrick would become the effective founder of the Christian Church in Ireland. Following his dream, he travelled to Europe, where he was ordained a bishop, probably at the behest of the pope, and sent to Ireland in the mid-fifth century. This was remarkable: the Roman church was not in the habit of sending out missionaries at this time. Bringing ‘a strange and troublesome doctrine’ Patrick’s writings tell of the struggles he faced. He was (understandably) regarded with hostility by the non-Christian population of Ireland and was imprisoned at least twice. According to his biographer, Muirchu, Patrick actively sought out a confrontation with the high king of Tara, Loegaire, and the druids (members of the learned classes among the ancient Celts) he kept at his court. Patrick staged a public celebration of Easter on the same night as a major pagan festival. The famous prayer, “St Patrick’s Breastplate” (first appearing in 11th-century manuscripts), was allegedly composed as Patrick prepared himself for this conflict. The druids warned that Patrick brought: some strange and troublesome doctrine; a practice brought from afar across the seas, proclaimed by a few, adopted by many and respected by all; it would overthrow kingdoms, kill kings who resisted, win over great crowds, [and] destroy all their gods. But Patrick won King Loegaire over to Christianity, and steadily secured converts. He gathered a community round him at Downpatrick, and established a church at Armagh, which became the seat of bishops after Patrick’s death. In the Epistula, Patrick protested attacks on the Irish by soldiers of British king Coroticus, and the kidnapping of men and women Patrick had baptised as Christians. He appealed for their release, his concerns echoing his own childhood experience of enslavement. We do not know if he was successful. Death and sainthood A large stone slab inscribed with the word “Patric” at Down Cathedral is believed to mark Patrick’s final resting place, though his place of burial is unconfirmed. Although Patrick is officially recognised by Rome, he was never formally canonised by the Catholic church – like many early saints who lived before such formal processes. But already in the eighth century, versions of a “Prayer to St Patrick” were known, including lines referring to him as “Ireland’s apostle”. And in the ninth century, the Book of Armagh instructed that all churches and monasteries in Ireland should celebrate his feast day on March 17. Over the centuries, later writings embellished the stories of St Patrick’s life. The legend that he had driven all the snakes from Ireland, for instance, can be traced to a 12th-century biography written by Joscelin of Furness, who reported that Patrick gathered all the serpents of the land on a high mountain (today’s Croagh Patrick) and flung them into the sea. In fact, Ireland hasn’t had snakes for thousands of years. Other stories, such as Patrick’s use of the three-leaved shamrock to explain the doctrine of the Holy Trinity (or “three in one”) to his congregations, have also made their way into popular myths – despite not appearing in Patrick’s own writings. St Patrick’s Day today St Patrick’s Day celebrations today often involve displays of Irish dancing, Irish music and poetry – as well as drinking Guinness and green beer. The first recorded St Patrick’s Day parade took place in 1762 in New York, where it still continues today. In Chicago, the river that runs through the city is famously dyed green to celebrate. In Australia, rowdy St Patrick’s Day festivities were recorded among Irish convicts as early as 1795. The day was formally recognised by New South Wales’ Governor Macquarie in 1810, when he gave “an entertainment” to government “artifices and labourers” in honour of the day. The hearty drinking often associated with the feast day may seem a far cry from the fasting and hours of silent prayer of Patrick’s own life. But it, too, may arise from a long tradition. As far back as 1681, an English traveller by the name of Thomas Dineley reported that on March 17 in Ireland, people wore green and attached shamrocks to their clothing – and that few could be found who were still sober by nightfall. When we raise a glass to St Patrick this March 17, it’s worth remembering where it all began: with a 16-year-old boy tending sheep on the hilltops of Ireland, more than 1500 years ago.

Meaghan McEvoy has received funding from the Loeb Classical Library Foundation (Harvard Unviersity), the British Academy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.