Since we all plan to do something on St.Paddys day I thought Id throw this
into the mix. Undoubtedly there are varying opinions especially among the
Irish people themselves. But as 1/4 Irish myself I felt moved to post this.
Marcel
How St. Patrick Changed the World
By Lawrence Morahan
CNS Senior Staff Writer
March 16, 2001
(Editor's note: Portions of this article were published previously by the
author.)
(CNSNews.com) -
America does not, as a rule, celebrate the lives of saints, although many
consider former presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln to be in
that category.
An exception is made every March 17, however, when Americans turn out to
celebrate the life of a mystic called Patrick, who lived 15 centuries ago,
over 3,000 miles from these shores.
It's often pointed out that March 17 celebrations have little to do with the
saint's life. Today's festivities follow a tradition established in the late
19th century when the Irish, who had known discrimination as immigrants,
celebrated their newfound influence on American politics with colorful
parades that brought U.S. cities to a standstill.
For others, St. Patrick's Day is a substitute for South American "Carnival"
or the German "Fasching" celebrations, a time of drinking and dancing in the
streets.
The fact is the real Patrick is a hard act to follow and probably not an
inspiration to the revelers.
Little written evidence has survived from Patrick or from 5th century
Ireland. But Thomas Cahill, a former religion editor at Doubleday, gives a
rich insight into Patrick and his times in his recent book, "How The Irish
Saved Civilization."
According to Cahill's research, Patrick was a 16-year-old "Romanized Celtic
Briton" living in modern-day Wales when he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and
sold into slavery in pagan Ireland.
The year was around 400 A.D. and the last garrison of Roman soldiers was
getting ready to evacuate Britain to return to defend the Eternal City
against increasing attacks by barbarians.
The Romans had never sailed as far as Ireland, and the country in which
Patrick, or Patricius, now found himself was a curious mixture of rough
justice and spiritual hunger. Slavery was a fact of life in Ireland and human
sacrifices to pagan gods were the order of the day.
With the help of constant prayer, Patrick endured six years of isolation and
physical hardship as a sheepherder and emerged, in Cahill's words, "a holy
man, indeed a visionary for whom there was no longer any rigid separation
between this world and the next."
On his last night in slavery, a voice told Patrick his ship was ready, and he
walked 200 miles in dangerous, unfamiliar territory to the coast where he
found a vessel preparing to set sail for the continent.
After years of study, probably on the island monastery of Lerins, just
offshore from present-day Cannes, Patrick returned to Ireland as a bishop in
432. In the remaining 30 years of his life, he transformed a fear-driven,
superstitious society into an "Island of Saints and Scholars."
Patrick converted the Irish primarily through the power of example. "Patrick
held out to these warrior children, in his own person, a living alternative,"
Cahill says. He showed how it was possible to be brave "and yet be a man of
peace and at peace."
Patrick weaned the Irish away from slavery. "Only a former slave could have
condemned the slave trade with such heat," Cahill said, and called Patrick
"the first human being in the history of the world to speak out unequivocally
against slavery."
Patrick was a peacemaker who made Ireland "unique in religious history for
being the only land into which Christianity was introduced without bloodshed."
Thus began Ireland's golden age of learning. Patrick's missionary work not
only saved the Irish, but ushered in an era that proved pivotal in the
history of Western civilization. At "the Roman lands went from peace to
chaos, the land of Ireland was rushing even more rapidly from chaos to
peace," Cahill says.
Students from the continent, many fleeing the barbarians, were drawn by the
thousands to Irish monasteries and centers of learning. The monks produced
many countless works of art, including The Book of Kells, and in Britain, The
Lindisfarne Gospels, which appeared centuries later.
In time, the Irish monks themselves set out on voyages of conversion. By the
end of the 6th century, 60 monastic communities had been founded around the
coast of Scotland. Irish monks and their students established monasteries
throughout Europe, in key centers such as Trier, Wuerzburg, Regensburg, Saint
Gall and Bobbio, to name but a few.
Thus Patrick was a man for all races and all times. His life changed the
world - which might help to explain the enduring popularity of St. Patrick's
Day celebrations.
