Green and Orange, Part 1

"Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ below me, Christ above me,

Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me,

Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I stand,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye which sees me,

Christ in every ear which hears me."

"The Deer's Cry" - a prayer by St. Patrick

“May the enemies of Ireland never eat the bread or drink the whisky of it,

but be tormented with itching, without benefit of scratching!”

Irish toast

I promise that I haven’t completely abandoned the pets (although, if I had, they could be on that TV ad with the sad Sarah McLachlan song in the background), but last week, I had a request for information about St. Patrick and why he gets his own day.  Now, I can hear some of you saying, “Um, St. Pat’s was last week…why do the topic at all?”  However, not only is it a topic I'm interested in writing about, but I’m actually really glad that the day came and went before I wrote this.  It gave me a perspective on what I’m writing that I might not have had if I had written it on time (ha!).  I did intend to make it just one post, but I need to stop deluding myself into believing that these topics I'm picking are just "one page and done" kind of topics.

Shamelessly, I LOVE St. Patrick’s Day.  It is because I’m Irish?  The tasty food?  The Shamrock Shakes?  Maybe it’s because I look great in green.  Or maybe it’s just because any day that encourages me to drink Guinness is a great day.  Whatever it is, I’ve always seen this holiday as a great stopping point between Christmas and my birthday – my two other favorite holidays.

I’ve always had a vague idea of why St. Patrick was important, but I couldn’t really say that I knew a whole lot about his history before I did my reading for this post.  I would guess that most people out on St. Patrick’s Day would have to say the same.  Another facet I had to to consider about this topic is that my family is actually Protestant Irish and from Northern Ireland – not Catholic Irish from the south.  Technically speaking, this means we should not be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, but instead should be getting down on William of Orange Day, July 12.  My grandfather was born on William of Orange Day, and in his honor, I always wear a little bit of orange on St. Patrick’s Day.  However, until now, I could only claim an extremely basic understanding of who William of Orange was, too.  With more information in my back pocket, I feel like I have a totally different view on these two historical figures, the part they played in history, and March 17 in general.  So, settle back with a pint and dig into this information with me!

Myth and fogginess surround St. Patrick and his life.  Scholars know for sure that St. Patrick lived during the 4^th and 5^th centuries.  I read he was born in 373, 386, 387, 389, 390, and 395 AD.  Some authors said he was Welsh; some said he was British.  He might have been born in southwest Britain or he might have been born in west Britain.  So, with all that confusion let’s just start with this – we know for a fact that St. Patrick was a real guy who lived in the 4^th and 5^th centuries.  He was not Irish, but was a citizen of the Holy Roman Empire and was born somewhere in what we now call the United Kingdom, what was then referred to as Briton.  His given name was Maewyn Succat and he was raised a Christian in a well-to-do family.  When he was sixteen years old, he was kidnapped by Irish slave raiders and taken to modern-day Antrim.

County Antrim is up at the top.

He was sold to a farmer named Milcho and was put in charge of a flock of sheep.  Maewyn spent the next six years of his life on Slemish Mountain with flocks of sheep.  Although he had been raised a Christian, he hadn’t really taken Christianity seriously until this point in his life.  Being sold into slavery and being taken far, far away from your home and family could bring a person to talk to God a bit, and that’s just what Maewyn did.  He prayed, he contemplated, he prayed some more.

Slemish Mountain

The Irish at this time were pagans; they had avoided Roman occupation and therefore had avoided conversion to Christianity.  The Celtic people were ruled by kings, yes, but the kings were swayed by polytheistic priests called Druids.  Druids emphasized the power and wisdom of nature.  In many ways, the Druids had more power than the king.  Kings depended on the Druids to predict the future and tell them whether or not it was a good idea to go to war.  To do this, Druids practiced magic, made sacrifices to nature, and paid attention to animal signs.  Though based on myth and superstition, Druidism gave the Irish people a system of belief and a pattern to follow in life.

Maewyn’s faith became real to him during these six years of his life.  He rejected Druidism and simply wanted to get back to his normal life in Briton.  One night, he heard the voice of God saying, “You will soon go to your own country.”  (This quote comes directly from a letter St. Patrick wrote regarding his own life.  This letter is one of the two authentic sources about St. Patrick that have survived.)  He escaped, walked 200 miles to reach the Irish Sea, and got on a boat going to Briton.  Maewyn did make it home but life didn’t really go back to normal.  He had a dream where he saw a man bringing him a letter from the Irish people asking him to come back to Ireland.  In response to his dream, Maewyn joined a monastery.  Rome sent a bishop named Palladius to begin the work of converting the Irish people in 431.  However, his mission didn’t go so well and an opportunity for Maewyn to return to the Irish people opened up.  Maewyn went to Rome for an interview; he got the job – and a new name, Patritius.  It’s believed he landed in Ireland in 433 and he spent the rest of his life with the Irish people.  No one really knows the exact year St. Patrick died (either 461 or 492, depending on the source), but somehow historians do know he died on March 17, which is why we celebrate it on that day.

The Irish Sea is on the right side.  You can get an idea of how far Maewyn walked to gain his freedom.

I won’t get into all the details of how St. Patrick went about converting the Irish people, but if you want to read about it, check out the books I will list at the end of the next post, particularly Irish History for Dummies.  It’s a pretty inspiring story, actually.  What I admired most as I read about St. Patrick was how he just jumped right in and got his hands dirty with the local people.  He was already familiar with the local customs and language, and he truly loved the Irish people.  St. Patrick used everyday items to help the people understand the God of Christianity.  The most famous example of this is how St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity.  The shamrock has three leaves, yet only one stem – just as the Trinity has three Persons, yet is only one Person.  Simple illustrations like this one helped convert the Irish people, slowly but surely.

This is the time in St. Patrick’s life when some of the more-well-known stories about him emerged, some true, some not.  It is said that St. Patrick got rid of all the snakes in Ireland by beating a drum and making the soil fatal to them.  A variety of miracles are attributed to him (which is part of how he became a saint).  A good number of stories endure that tell how he was imprisoned, threatened, enslaved, and (almost) stoned multiple times.  He set up churches, consecrated 350 bishops, and sent missionaries all over Ireland.  Obviously, St. Patrick’s work in Ireland is important because it brought the Gospel to pagan people.  But, so many of the sources I read also said that St. Patrick created a church structure that survived the Dark Ages, brought Latin and learning to Ireland, and helped educate the greater population of Europe through the monasteries he established.  The Christianity movement brought about Ireland’s “Golden Age” but also had a huge impact on the rest of Europe.  I didn’t end up needing the book, but one of the sources I pulled is called How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe.  What St. Patrick did in Ireland had an effect on so much more of the European world than just this beautiful little island.

Now, you may be wondering how William of Orange connects to all of this.  Just stick with me.  Next week’s story will be a little shorter.  Then…applications.  I do love my applications.  J