Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum Part 6

Patrick points out that in all things he sought to listen to the voice of G.o.d, and to be guided by the inspirations of His Holy Spirit. Like St.

Paul in similar circ.u.mstances, he refers to the perils by which he was encompa.s.sed, and the many toilsome duties of his episcopacy. He then vindicates his own disinterestedness, and challenges his accusers to show that he ever received a single farthing for preaching the Gospel and administering baptism to so many thousand persons, even in the remotest parts of the country, where the Word of G.o.d was never heard before. Not that the people were not generous, for they offered him many gifts, and cast their ornaments upon the altar; but he returned them all lest even in the smallest point the unbelievers might have cause to defame his ministry, or question the purity of his motives.

Finally, he appeals to the success of his ministry in the conversion of Ireland, as the best proof of G.o.d's approval of his work, and bears n.o.ble testimony to the sanct.i.ty and zeal of his new converts. "The sons of the Scots, and the daughters of their princes, became monks and virgins of Christ ... not by compulsion, but even against the wishes of their parents, and the number of the holy widows and continent maidens was countless." Even the slave-girls, despising their masters' threats, continued to persevere in the profession and practice of holy chast.i.ty.

Still in his old age he was surrounded by dangers, but it mattered not; at any moment he was ready to die for Christ, and he solemnly calls G.o.d and His Angels to witness that, in returning to preach the Gospel in the land of his captivity, he came solely for the Gospel's sake, and his only motive was to preach the glory of Christ and share in the recompense of the Gospel. "And this"--said the Saint in beautiful and touching words--"this is my confession before I die."

This Confession contains many interesting references to the personal history and apostolic labours of St. Patrick, which are not always remembered; and which ought to be separated from the more uncertain and controverted facts of his history.

His father was Calp.o.r.nus, or Calp.o.r.nius, a deacon, who was the son of Pot.i.tus, and Pot.i.tus was the son of Odissus, a priest. The text, however, leaves it doubtful whether the word priest belongs to Pot.i.tus or to Odissus.[89] His father dwelt in the township (vico) of Bannavem Taberniae. He had also a small villa not far off, "where I was made captive at the age of about sixteen years." He was in ignorance of the knowledge of the true G.o.d,[90] which is to be understood of his defective training as a Christian during the years of his boyhood; for he adds that he did not keep G.o.d's Commandments, and was not obedient to the priests--our priests--as he calls them, when they admonished him to attend to his salvation. Therefore it was G.o.d punished him by this captivity in a strange land, at the end of the world. But that G.o.d pitied his youth and ignorance, and showed him mercy, consoling the captive as a father consoles his son. For which he earnestly thanks G.o.d, and takes occasion to profess his faith in the Holy Trinity, as Arianism was then rampant in the Church. After much hesitation he resolved to write this Confession in order to show the true motives of his own heart to his friends and relations.

The reason of his delay and hesitation was the rudeness of his style and language in consequence of his captivity when he had to make use of a strange tongue. But he should be forgiven, for the conversion of the Irish was the epistle of salvation, which he had written by deeds, not by words, not in ink, but in the Spirit of G.o.d. Though he was a stone sunk in the mire, a man of no account in the eyes of the world, yet G.o.d in His mercy exalted him; for which he will always give earnest thanks to G.o.d. Hence he wishes to make known G.o.d's goodness in his regard, and to leave it as a legacy of G.o.d's mercy to his brethren, and to the thousands of spiritual children whom he baptized.

When he came to Ireland (Hiberione), his daily employment was to feed cattle (pecora); but then it was the love of G.o.d began to grow within him, and he used to pray even up to a hundred times a day and as many in the night; he used to rise before the dawn to pray in the woods and mountains in the midst of rain, and hail, and snow.

One night he heard a voice saying to him in sleep--"your ship is ready"--and he travelled 200 miles to the port, where he had never been before, and where he knew no one. Thus after six years' captivity he succeeded in reaching this port. The master of the vessel at first would not take him on board, but afterwards he relented, when Patrick was returning to the cottage where he had got lodging. He was called back, and invited to go on board as one of themselves; but he declined familiar intimacy[91] through fear of G.o.d, because they were Gentiles.

In three days they disembarked in a desert land, through which they travelled for twenty-eight days, and were well nigh starving, until relieved at the prayer of Patrick. Reference is then made to the great stone that seemed to fall upon him in a dream, from the weight of which he was relieved by invoking Elias. It seems, too, that he fell into a second captivity, which continued for two months; but the text here is uncertain, and can scarcely be relied on.

He succeeded, however, in reaching the home of his parents in Britain--in Britannis--and they most earnestly besought him to remain with them, now that he had escaped from so many dangers.

But the Angel Victor, in the guise of a man from Ireland, gave him a letter in which the "voice of the Irish" called him away; the voices of those who dwelt near the wood of Focluth, from which he seems to have escaped, also called upon him to come once more and walk amongst them. The Spirit of G.o.d, too, spoke within his soul and urged him to return to Ireland. The same Holy Spirit encouraged him to persevere when objection was made by certain elders to his elevation to the episcopacy. Therefore, he was encouraged to undertake the great task, and his conscience never blamed him for what he had done.

It would be tedious, he adds, to recount all his missionary labours, or even a part of them. Twelve times his life (anima) was in danger, from which G.o.d rescued him, and from many other plots and ambuscades also, and therein G.o.d rewarded him for giving up his parents and his country, and all their gifts, and heeding not their prayers and tears, that he might preach the Gospel in Ireland, where he had to endure insult and persecution even unto bonds. But he strove to do the work faithfully, and G.o.d blessed his efforts, and those wonderful things were accomplished by the apostle, to which we have already referred.

Hence, though anxious to visit his parents and his native country in Britain, and even to revisit the brethren in Gaul--here referred to for the first time--and to see the face of G.o.d's Saints there, he was bowed in spirit, and would not leave his beloved converts, but resolved to spend the rest of his life amongst them.

Yet he was not free from temptations against faith and chast.i.ty, but in Christ Jesus he hoped to be faithful to G.o.d unto the end of his life, so that he might be able to say with the apostle, "Fidem servavi." G.o.d, too, deigned to work great signs and wonders by his hands, for which he will always thank the Lord.

He confidently appeals also to his converts, who knew how he lived amongst them, how he refused all gifts, and spent himself in their service. Nay, he it was who gave the gifts to the kings and to their sons--and sometimes they plundered him and his clerics of everything; and once bound him in iron fetters for fourteen days, until the Lord delivered him from their hands. When writing his Confession he was still living in poverty and misery, expecting death, or slavery, or stratagems of evil; but he feared not, because he left himself into the hands of G.o.d, who will protect him.

One thing only he earnestly prays for, that he may persevere in his work, and never lose the people whom he gained for G.o.d at the very extremity of the world.

This Confession clearly shows that St. Patrick was a native of some part of Britain, and that he met more opposition in preaching the Gospel in Ireland than is commonly supposed. He was put in bonds of iron on one occasion for fourteen days, and even in his old age was living in poverty and in daily fear of death. It shows, too, that although the Saint was an indifferent Latinist, he was intimately acquainted both with the letter and spirit of the Old and New Testament, which he quotes constantly, and always from the version called the _Vetus Itala_--a strong proof of the authenticity of the Confession. It is singular that no reference is made to the Roman Mission, or to his ever having been at all in the City of Rome. But neither does the Saint refer to St. Germa.n.u.s, although all the Lives agree in saying that he spent many years in Gaul with that holy and eminent prelate, nor does he even tell us where or by whom he was consecrated bishop. Nothing, therefore, can be deduced from his silence regarding St. Celestine and the Roman Mission, especially in face of the ancient and authentic testimonies which a.s.sert it.

II.--THE EPISTLE TO COROTICUS.

The Epistle to Coroticus, or more properly to "the Christian subjects of King (Tyrannus) Coroticus," is also without doubt the genuine composition of St. Patrick. It bears a striking resemblance to the Confession in its style and language, sometimes even entire phrases are re-produced from the Confession with scarcely any change of language. It is not found in the _Book of Armagh_, but it is found in several ancient MSS. dating back to the tenth century. From a reference made to the pagan Franks, it must have been written before their conversion to Christianity, which took place A.D. 496. It is evident, however, that it was written towards the close of the Saint's missionary career--probably some time between A.D. 480-490.

This Coroticus or Cereticus, was most probably a semi-Christian King of Dumbarton[92] or Ail-Cluade, and seems to be the same referred to in the _Book of Armagh_ as Coirthech, King of Aloo. He is called in the Welsh genealogies Ceretic the Guletic, which term corresponds exactly with Tyrannus in St. Patrick's letter. Other Welsh authorities, however, have made Coroticus a petty King of Glamorganshire and identified him with Caredig or Ceredig, of the Welsh genealogies;[93] but the former is the much more probable opinion, especially as we find that Coroticus was the ally of the "apostate Picts and Scots," in their b.l.o.o.d.y raids on the sh.o.r.es of Ireland. After the death of St. Ninian, who converted some of the Scots and southern Picts to Christianity, these latter fell away from the faith, and aided by the King of Dumbarton harried the coasts both of England and Ireland.

It was probably towards the end of St. Patrick's laborious life that the incursion took place, which called forth this indignant letter of the Saint. The raiders had landed somewhere on the eastern coast of Ireland, and carried off into slavery a number of men and women, on whose foreheads the holy oil of confirmation, which then usually followed baptism, was still glistening. The white garments which the neophytes wore were stained with their own blood, or the blood of their slaughtered companions.

Thereupon the Saint wrote these letters, which he sent by one of his own priests, whom he had taught from his infancy, to be handed to the soldiers of the tyrant, and read for them, as it seems, in his presence. In the first letter he asked to have the Christian captives and some of the spoils restored; but they laughed at the demand in scorn, wherefore the Saint wrote this second letter in which he excommunicates Coroticus and his abettors, calling upon all Christian men not to receive their alms, nor a.s.sociate with them, nor take food or drink in their company, until they do penance and make rest.i.tution for their crimes.

Incidental references are made by the Saint to his own personal history.

He himself for G.o.d's sake preached the Gospel to the Irish nation, which had once made himself a captive and destroyed the men-servants, and maid-servants of his father's house.[94] He was born a freeman, and a n.o.ble, being the son of a decurio,[95] but he sold his n.o.bility for the benefit of others, and he did not regret it. It was the custom of the Gaulish and Roman Christians to pay large sums of money to the Franks for the ransom of Christian captives; but "you--you often slay them, or sell them to infidels, sending the members of Christ as it were into a brothel." "Have you," adds the Saint, "any hope in G.o.d--what Christian can help you or abet you?"

Then Patrick in pa.s.sionate grief bewails the fate of the captives. "Oh! my most beautiful and most loving brothers and children, whom in countless numbers I have begotten for Christ, what shall I do for you? Am I so unworthy before G.o.d and man that I cannot help you? Is it a crime to have been born in Ireland? And have not we the same G.o.d as they have? I sorrow for you--yet I rejoice--for if you are taken from the world, you were believers through me, and are gone to Paradise."

And then in the last paragraph he expresses a hope that G.o.d will inspire those wicked men with penance, and that they will restore their captives, and save themselves for this world and for the world to come. Like the Confession, this letter abounds in quotations from the old version of the Bible before it was corrected by St. Jerome.

In the Brussels MS. of the _Book of Armagh_ there is a chapter which purports to give an account of "Patrick's conflict against the King of Aloo," whom it calls _Coirthech_, and a little lower down the name is given as Corictic. When Patrick failed to convert him by his letters and admonitions, which the tyrant despised, he besought the Lord to drive this reprobate "from this world and from the next." A very short time afterwards, as Coroticus was sitting on his throne, he heard a certain magic song chanted, and hearing it he came down from his seat in the hall of justice. Thereupon all his n.o.bles took up the same chant; whereupon suddenly in the midst of the market place, Coroticus was changed into what seemed a fox in the presence of them all, and running away like a stream of water disappeared from their eyes, and was never afterwards heard of.

III.--THE LORICA, OR THE DEER'S CRY.

The Lorica, or Shield of St. Patrick, is a rhythmical prayer said to have been composed by the Saint to implore the divine protection, when he and his companions were approaching Tara for the first time to proclaim the unknown G.o.d in the very stronghold of druidism, sustained as it was by all the power of the Ard-righ of Erin. It was a bold and perilous thing to do--thus to face the pagan king and his idol priests on the very threshold of their citadel; and it shows how strongly armed in faith St. Patrick was on that day, when he so dared to bid defiance to the powers of darkness.

The Saint was by no means insensible of the danger to which he exposed himself, nor of the strength of the wily foe whom he challenged so boldly to the combat. But he put his confidence not in man but in G.o.d, and this poem is simply the poetic expression of the sentiments which filled and strengthened his soul on that momentous occasion. This is the key to the meaning of the poem--"It was to be a corslet of faith for the protection of body and soul against devils, and human beings, and vices; and whoever shall sing it every day with pious meditation on G.o.d, devils shall not stay before him."[96]

It is then easy to understand why it was called the Lorica, or Corslet of Patrick; because it was his defence against the ambushes set for him by Laeghaire and his Druids when he was approaching Tara. But it was also called the _Faed Fiada_, or Deer's Cry; because it was said that the apostle and his companions escaped the ambush by seeming to their enemies to be a Deer and her fawns in flight to the shelter of the woods.

Patrick knew that the Druids of Laeghaire possessed magical powers; they even claimed dominion over the elements, and therefore strong in the faith of the Holy Trinity he appeals to the Triune G.o.d of all the elements to shield him against evil. G.o.d sometimes permits the powers of evil to use His creatures as instruments to injure the wicked and try the good; and therefore the Saint calls upon G.o.d to use His creatures on this occasion for His own glory and the protection of His servant. It is in this sense that Patrick calls to his aid not only the Holy Trinity, but all the elements created by G.o.d, but sometimes perversely used by the Druids for evil purposes.

"I bind unto myself to-day The strong name of the Trinity, By invocation of the same Three in One and One in Three....

"I bind unto myself to-day The virtues of the star-lit heaven, The glorious sun's life giving ray, The whiteness of the moon at even, The flashing of the lightning free, The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks, The stable earth, the deep salt sea, Around the old eternal rocks.

"I bind unto myself to-day The power of G.o.d to hold and lead, His eye to watch, His might to slay, His ear to hearken to my need.

The wisdom of my G.o.d to teach, His hand to guide, His shield to ward; The word of G.o.d to give me speech, His heavenly host to be my guard."

This is merely a specimen of the beautiful Gaedhlic hymn as translated--and well translated--by Mrs. Alexander. Even to this day the original is chanted by the peasantry of the South and West in the ancestral tongue, and it is regarded as a strong shield against all evils natural and supernatural.

We know from the _Book of Armagh_ that it has been thus recited at least from the eighth century, so that even then its use was universal, and in a certain sense obligatory. St. Patrick is there declared ent.i.tled to four 'honours' in all the churches and monasteries of Erin. First, his festival was to be celebrated for three days and three nights with every kind of good cheer except flesh--that being forbidden in Lent; secondly, a special offertory was to be immolated in his honour, which seems to imply that there was a special offertory, and perhaps preface for the Ma.s.s on these days; thirdly, his Hymn--that is, the hymn in praise of Patrick written by his nephew, St. Sechnall--was to be sung during these days; and fourthly, "his Irish Canticle was to be always sung" in the liturgy, as it would seem, and apparently also throughout the entire year. So it appears that from the earliest ages this Canticle was regarded in the Irish Church as the genuine composition of St. Patrick, and the greatest efficacy was attributed to its pious recitation.

IV.--SECHNALL'S HYMN OF ST. PATRICK.

'The Hymn of St. Patrick'--that is, the Hymn composed in his honour by St.

Sechnall, to which reference is made in this extract from the _Book of Armagh_--is another very singular and interesting literary monument of our early Celtic Church. It has been published with valuable notes and scholia by the late Dr. Todd in the first volume of the _Liber Hymnorum_.[97] This curious Latin hymn, which is justly regarded both on internal and external evidence, as the genuine composition of St. Sechnall, or Secundinus, owed its origin to a singular circ.u.mstance. The following is Colgan's account taken from the Preface to the Hymn, as given by a very old but unknown authority:--

Secundinus (in Irish Sechnall), the son of Rest.i.tutus, a Lombard of Italy by his wife Darerca, a sister of St. Patrick, was the author of this Hymn.

It was composed at Dunshaughlin, county Meath, which in Irish is called Domnach-Sechnaill, from the name of its founder. It was written in the time of Laeghaire Mac Neil, then king of Ireland; and it must have been written before the year A.D. 447, when, according to the Four Masters, "Secundinus, the son of Patrick's sister, yielded his spirit on the 27th of November, in the seventy-fifth year of his age." The object of the writer was to give due praise to Patrick, also to offer it as a kind of apology for having offended the Saint. For, on one occasion, Sechnall was reported to have said that Patrick would be perfect if he had insisted more strongly in his preaching on the duty of alms-giving for works of charity; for then more property and more land would have been devoted to pious uses for the good of the Church. This remark was carried to the ears of Patrick, and moreover was probably misrepresented. St. Patrick was much displeased with his nephew, and said it was "for sake of charity he forbore to preach charity;" that is, in order that the holy men who were to arise after him might benefit by the oblations of the faithful, which he left untouched for that purpose. Then Sechnall sorrowed much for the rash judgment of which he had been guilty, and humbly asked pardon of the Saint, who readily granted it. But in order fully to atone for his sin, Sechnall composed this hymn in honour of Patrick.

It consists of twenty-three stanzas, the stanzas beginning with a letter of the alphabet in regular order from the first to the last. Each stanza consists of four strophes or lines, each line of fifteen syllables. So that it was written in what the grammarians call trochaic tetrameter catalectic. In Irish prosody, however, regard is had in measuring the feet rather to the accent or beat of the verse than to the length of the syllables.

When the hymn was composed Sechnall asked permission to read for Patrick a hymn, which he had composed in praise of a certain holy man, who was still alive. Patrick readily granted this request, for he said he would gladly wish to hear the praises of any of G.o.d's household.

Then Sechnall read the poem, suppressing the first line only, which contains Patrick's own name as the subject of the eulogy. Patrick listened attentively until Sechnall came to the line in which the subject of the poem is described as 'greatest in the kingdom of heaven'--_maximus in regno caelorum_. "How can that be said of any man?" said Patrick. "The superlative is there put for the positive," replied Sechnall; "it only means very great." Patrick appeared to be pleased with the poem, whereupon Sechnall insinuated that Patrick himself was the subject of the poem; and, according to the Bardic custom he asked for a reward for his poem. When Patrick, however, learned that the poem was about himself he was not well pleased, but knowing Sechnall meant well in writing it, he did not wish to grieve him by a refusal. So he answered that Sechnall might expect that our Saviour in His mercy would give the glory of heaven to all who recited the hymn piously every day both morning and evening. "I am content," said Sechnall, "with that reward; but as the hymn is long and difficult to be remembered, I wish you would obtain the same reward for whomsoever recites even a part of it." Then Patrick said that whoever faithfully recites the last three verses of the hymn morning and evening shall obtain the same reward, and Sechnall said, "Deo gratias," and was content.

It was only natural that this hymn, having such a promise of salvation, though written in Latin, should become very popular, and be recited in the monasteries and churches of Ireland as one of the four "Honours of St.

Patrick." It bears intrinsic evidence both in style and language that it was written during the lifetime of St. Patrick. He is represented in the hymn as still keeping all G.o.d's commandments, and as one who _will_ possess the joys of heaven, and will reign with the apostles as saint and judge over Israel.[98]

Of Sechnall himself little is known. All the authorities agree in saying that he was the son of Patrick's sister Darerca, whom others call Lupait, and sometimes Liemania. It is said that she was taken captive at the same time as St. Patrick himself, and was carried with him by the captors to Ireland, and there sold as a slave in the district called Conailli Muirtheimne, which is better known as the patrimony of the greatest of Erin's ancient warriors, the heroic Cuchullin. It included the territory around Dundalk, and stretched northward to the modern barony of Mourne, with its unrivalled mountain scenery.

All the authorities say that Sechnall's father was Rest.i.tutus, 'a Longobard of Leatha;' or, as some writers add, 'Armoric Leatha.' Now the Lombards known to history did not conquer the territory, which bears their name, until the middle of the sixth century. This difficulty is met by a.s.suming that 'Leatha' means Brittany in France, and although we have no historical evidence that a colony of the Longobardi ever dwelt there, still a Roman soldier of the Longobardic race might have been living there, and might have been married to one of the sisters of St. Patrick.

The word Armorica, as it is in Latin, and Airmoric in Celtic, really signifies any western land bordering on the sea; and it is quite possible that in this sense the word should have been applied to Ayrshire or Wigtown in Scotland. Others have suggested that the word Lungbaird, as it is in our earliest native authorities, means nothing more than a 'long-bearded' man of Leatha, or Amorica, which is by no means improbable.

This would also help to explain why Eochaidh O'Flanagan, an old poet of the eleventh century, calls St. Sechnall by the surname Ua Baird, or O'Ward, as if the tribe name was really that of Bardi, whom some authorities describe as an ancient race of Gaul or Saxony, from whom the Longobardi derived their origin.[99] Later authorities, knowing nothing of any Longobardi except those of Northern Italy, would readily enough fall into the anachronism of placing them there in the time of St. Patrick.