St Patrick

The story makes Patrick challenge the royal authority by light ing the Paschal fire on the hill of Slane on the night of Easter Eve. It chanced to be the occasion of a pagan festival at Tara, during which no fire might be kindled until the royal fire had been lit. A number of trials of skill between the Christian missionary and Loigaire's Druids ensued, and the final result seems to have been that the monarch, though unwilling to embrace the foreign creed, undertook to protect the Christian bishop. At a later date the saint was probably invited by Loigaire to take part in the codi fication of the Senchus Mor in order to represent the interests of the Christian communities. On another occasion Patrick is re ported to have overthrown a famous idol known as Cenn Cruaich or Cromm Cruaich in the plain of Mag Slecht (county Cavan).

Patrick is stated to have visited Connaught on three different occasions and to have founded churches, one of the most impor tant being that at Elphin. As regards Ulster our information is very scanty, though we find him establishing churches in the three kingdoms of the province (Ailech, Oriel and Ulidia). Patrick's work is more closely identified with the north of Ireland than with the south. Traces of his mission, however, are to be found in Ossory and Muskerry. But his task in the south was doubtless rather that of an organizer, and a kind of circular letter has come down to us which was addressed by Patrick, Auxilius and Iserninus, to all the clergy of the island. There is some evidence that he made a journey to Rome and brought back with him valuable relics. On his return he founded the church and monastery of Armagh, the site of which was granted him by Daire, king of Oriel, and it is probable that the see was intended by him to be specially connected with the supreme ecclesiastical authority. Some years before his death, which took place in 461, Patrick resigned his position as bishop of Armagh to his disciple Benignus, and possibly retired to Saul in Dalaradia, where he spent the remainder of his life. The place of his burial was a matter of dispute in early Ireland, but it seems most likely that he was interred at Saul.

Writings.

Two highly important documents purporting to have been written by Patrick have come down to us. The one is the Confession, which is contained in an imperfect state in the Book of Armagh (c. 807), but complete copies are found in later mss. The Confession, written towards the end of his life, gives a general account of his career. Various charges had been brought against him by his enemies, among them that of illiteracy, the truth of which is borne out by the crudeness of his style, and is admitted by Patrick himself. The other document is the so-called Letter to Coroticus, a British king of Strathclyde, whose sol diers had in the course of a raid in Ireland killed a num ber of Christian neophytes on the very day of their baptism while still clad in white garments. Others had been carried off into slavery, and a deputation of clergy which Patrick had sent to ask for their release had been subjected to ridicule. In his Letter the saint in very strong language urges the Christian subjects of the British king not to have any dealings with their ruler and his bloodthirsty followers until full satisfaction should have been made. The text of this letter occurs in a number of mss. but is not contained in the Book of Armagh. It is however certain that it was known in the 7th century. A strange barbaric chant com monly known as the Lorica or Hymn of St. Patrick is preserved

in the Liber hymnorum. This piece, called in Irish the Faed Fiada or "Cry of the Deer," contains a number of remarkable gram matical forms, and late editors believe that it may very well be genuine.

From such slender material it is not easy to form a clear con ception of the saint's personality. His was evidently an intensely spiritual nature, and in addition to the qualities which go to form a strong man of action he must have possessed an enthusiasm which enabled him to surmount all difficulties. His importance in the history of Ireland and the Irish Church consists in the fact that he brought Ireland into touch with western Europe and more particularly with Rome, and that he introduced Latin into Ireland as the language of the Church. His work . consisted largely in organizing the Christian societies which he found in existence on his arrival, and in planting the faith in regions which had not yet come under the sway of the gospel.

AUTHORITIES.-Apart from the Letter and Epistle mentioned above our chief sources of information with regard to the life of St. Patrick are contained in the Book of Armagh. The one is the memoir by Tirechan, a bishop who had been the disciple of Bishop Ultan of Ardbraccan in Meath (d. 657). The first part of this memoir, which was probably compiled about 67o, deals with the saint's work in Meath, the second with his activity in Connaught. Various additions are appended to this compilation, and there are still further additional notes. The other biography was written towards the end of the 7th century by Muirchu Maccu Machtheni, who dedicated his work to Bishop Aed of Slebte (d. 700). (See edition by N. J. D. White, 192o). The first portion deals with Patrick's career down to his arrival in Ireland and contains an unvarnished statement of fact. But when the story passes to Ireland Muirchu's narrative becomes full of the mythical element. Muirchu influenced later biographies. Bury has shown that both Urethan and Muirchu drew from written material which existed in part at any rate in Irish. Among later lives we may mention the hymn Genair Patraicc, commonly attributed to Fiacc, which is considered by the latest editors to have been originally composed about 800. Three anonymous Latin lives were published by Colgan in his Trias Thaumaturga (Louvain, 5645), and there exists an th-century Irish life in three parts published by Whitley Stokes for the Rolls series (1887). A Latin translation of a different copy of this work, now lost, was published by Colgan. Lastly a life by an otherwise unknown Irish writer named Probus occurs in the Basel edition of Bede's works (1563) and was reprinted by Colgan.

See J. B. Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and his Place in History (London, 1905) ; J. H. Todd, St. Patrick the Apostle of Ireland (Dublin, 1860 ; H. Zimmer, article "Keltische Kirche" in Realency klopiidie fur protestantische Theologie and Kirche (19o1; trans. by Miss Meyer, "The Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland," London, J. Gwynn, Liber Ardmachanus; Whitley Stokes, The Tripartite Life St. Patrick (London, 1887) ; N. J. D. White, "The Writings of St. Patrick" (critical edition) in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (5904) ; Liber Ardmachanus (does. relating to St. Patrick) edited by J. Gwynn (1913) ; • F. R. M. Hitchcock, St. Patrick and his Gallic friends (1916) ; Muirchu, The Writings and Life of St. Patrick, ed. N. J. D. White (192o). (E. C. Q.; X.)