The
feast of Saint Patrick, we celebrate the day of his sainthood, the ascendancy
to heaven of a British man, who was of Roman heritage, and lived sometime in
the fourth and fifth centuries of the Common Era.
He
is the patron saint of Ireland, but he was not Irish at all, he was a Roman of
the Patrician class, he was from a family of rank, and privilege.
He
is credited with converting the people of Erin, to faith in the Universal
Church, the Church of Jesus, separating the Celtic people from their Gaelic
traditions, and subordinating them to Catholic Church of Rome.
Small
wonder that he was named a saint for this, Patricius.
He won with the word what could not be accomplished through war.
It
should be noted here that Saint Patrick has never been canonized, or even
beatified by any Pope. He is not officially a Saint of the Catholic Church, but
he is recognized in the annals of Saints of the Church of England.
History
tells us that he was a humble man, a rare quality for those of rank. History
also tells us that he proofed the plan of spreading the faith through the
conversion of chieftains, he was a politician first.
He
spread the faith, he established churches earning the rank of Apostle.
History
tells us that his mother was a relative of Saint Martin of Tours, the patron
Saint of Soldiers, Saint Martin of the Sword whose Biography was written by
Pope Saint Gregory the Great, and is in fact a fiction, Saint Martin never
lived, but his story gave license for Christians to be soldiers and brought the
Roman legions into the fold.
He
is said to have had heroic piety, praying day and night, in the mountains and
the woods, through storms of snow and ice and rain, he should be the patron
saint of post men if this were true, but all hagiographies are lies.
His
story tells us that he spent six years as a captive and servant to a Celtic
Chieftain and Druid named Milchu in Dalriada, where he mastered the language
and their stories.
However,
it is more likely that he fled his home to wander abroad in order to escape the
duties that were expected of him as the son of a noble. Such departures were so
common that it was referred to as the “flight of the curiales,” boys running
from their responsibilities.
Rather
than being taken captive it is more likely that he paid for asylum in Milchu’s
house, and paid for the the services of teachers to help him learn the
language.
The
Druids were great teachers and oral historians that much is true.
The
story of his escape (if it was in fact an escape from servitude), and
subsequent journey were of his own account. He cast the entire experience in
dramatic, even biblical terms, both to cover up his crimes of abnegation, and
to acquire fame.
It
is said that he escaped from Milchu and fled to the mainland of Europe, entered
the priesthood and became a missionary. On his return to Ireland however, the
first place he went was to his former home in Dalriada. Where, after some
period of conflict and the affectation of some miracles, Milchu immolated himself
to make way for Patrick. He threw himself on a fire after burning the collected
scrolls and mysteries of his people, a human sacrifice at the foundation of the
church in Ireland.
It
looked more like the ritual destruction of the Celtic people in favor of the
ascending Romano-British invaders.
On
Easter Sunday, 433 a conflict of will ensued, the historians mythologized it as
a battle of divine forces likening the contest between the Roman Saint Patrick and
the CelticArch-Druid, Lochru, to the contest between Moses and the Egyptians,
or Elijah and priest of Baal, and this contest ending with Saint Patrick
magically hurling Lochru into the air, and breaking him to pieces on a sharp
rock.
It
was another ritual murder at the foundation of the Celtic Church, a human
sacrifice to be sure.
This
same Saint Patrick was said to have been able to raise the dead.
It
should be noted the Columbanus, who was the most significant representative of
the Irish Catholic Church after the Dark Ages, who lived and wrote and sent
missionaries from Ireland to Continental Europe, building Churches and found
religious communities, he makes no mention of Saint Patrick at all in his writing,
and asserts that the Church in Ireland was founded by a man named Palladius.
The
entire legend of Saint Patrick could be a myth designed to subordinate the
Irish heart to a British noble of Roman descent.
