St. Patrick of Ireland

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Patrick of Ireland (396-460), commonly known  as Saint Patrick, was a fifth-century Romano-British missionary and bishop in Ireland, where he was known as the “Apostle of Ireland.”  Early medieval tradition credits him with being the first bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, and regards him as the founder of Christianity in Ireland, converting a society practising a form of Celtic polytheism. According to the autobiographical Confessio of Patrick, when he was about sixteen, he was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland, looking after animals; he lived there for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After becoming a cleric, he returned to northern and western Ireland where he served as a bishop.

Legend credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leafed plant, using it to illustrate the Christian teaching of three persons in one God. Icons of St Patrick often depict the saint with a cross in one hand and a sprig of shamrocks in the other. The absence of snakes in Ireland has been noted from as early as the third century by Gaius Julius Solinus, but later legend has attributed the banishment of all snakes from the island to Patrick, who chased them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill.  It was formerly a common custom to wear a cross made of paper or ribbon on St Patrick’s Day.  Saint Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17th, the date believed to be the day of his death.  It is celebrated inside and outside Ireland as a religious and cultural holiday.

Writings:

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Quotes and Excerpts:

“I PATRICK, a sinner and unlearned, have been appointed a bishop in Ireland, and I accept from God what I am. I dwell amongst barbarians as a proselyte and a fugitive for the love of God.”
-Epistle to Coroticus.
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.


“They live in death, companions of the apostate Scots and Picts, blood-thirsty men, ever ready to redden themselves with the blood of innocent Christians, numbers of whom I have begotten to God and confirmed in Christ. On the day following that in which they were clothed in white and received the chrism of neophytes, they were ​cruelly cut up and slain with the sword by the above mentioned; and I sent a letter by a holy priest, whom I have taught from his infancy, with some clerics, begging that they would restore some of the plunder or the baptized captives; but they laughed at them.”
-Epistle to Coroticus.
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.


“But the enemy hath acted invidiously towards me through the tyrant Coroticus, who fears neither God nor His priests whom He hath chosen, and committed to them the high, divine power: “Whomsoever they shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.”
-Epistle to Coroticus.
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.


“I beseech you, therefore, who are the holy ones of God and humble of heart, that you will not be flattered by them, and that you will neither eat nor drink with them, nor receive their alms, until they do penance with many tears, and liberate the servants of God and the baptized hand-maids of Christ, for whom he was crucified and died.”
-Epistle to Coroticus.
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.

“It is the custom of the Christians of Rome and Gaul to send holy men to the Franks and other nations, with many thousand solidi, to redeem baptized captives.”
-Epistle to Coroticus.
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.

 

“I knew not the true God, and I was brought captive to Ireland with many thousand men, as we deserved; for we had forsaken God, and had not kept His commandments, and were disobedient to our priests, who admonished us for our salvation.”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.


“For there is no other God, nor ever was, nor shall be hereafter, except the Lord, the unbegotten Father, without beginning, by whom all things have their being, who upholds all things, as we have said; and His Son, Jesus Christ, whom, together with the Father, we testify to have always existed before the origin of the world, spiritually with the Father, ineffably begotten before every beginning; and by Him were the visible things made—was made man, death being overthrown, in the heavens. And he hath given Him all power over every name of things in heaven and earth and hell, that every tongue should confess to Him that Jesus Christ is Lord, and whose coming we expect ere long to judge the living and dead; who will render to every one according to his works.”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.

“‘Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the Day of Judgment.’ Therefore I ought, with great fear and trembling, to dread this sentence in that day when no one shall be able to withdraw or hide himself, but all must give an account, even of the least sins, before the judgment-seat of the Lord Christ.”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.

 

“But I feel the more grieved that my dearest friend, to whom I would have trusted even my life, should have occasioned this. And I learned from certain brethren that, before this defence, when I was not present, nor even in Britain, and with which I had nothing to do, that he defended me in my absence. He had even said to me with his own lips: ‘Thou art going to be given the rank of bishop,’ though I was not worthy of it.”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.


“Therefore we ought to fish well and diligently; as the Lord taught and said: “Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And again: “Behold, saith the Lord, I send many fishers and many hunters,” etc. Therefore we should, by all means, set our nets in such a manner that a great multitude and a crowd may be caught therein for God, and that everywhere there may be priests who shall baptize and exhort a people who so need it and desire it;”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.

 

“Wherefore behold how in Ireland they who never had the knowledge of God, and hitherto only worshipped unclean idols, have lately become the people of the Lord, and are called the sons of God. The sons of the Scoti and the daughters of princes are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ.”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.

 

“And there was one blessed Irish maiden, of adult age, noble and very beautiful, whom I baptized, and after a few days she came to us for a reason, and gave us to understand that she had received a command from God, and was informed that she was to become a virgin of Christ, and to draw near to God. Thanks be to God, six days after this she most excellently and eagerly entered on this state of life, which all the virgins of God now adopt, even against the will of their parents, even enduring reproaches and persecution from them, and notwithstanding they increase in number.”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.


“I trust not myself as long as I am in this body of death, for he is strong who daily tries to turn me from the faith, and from the sincere religious chastity to Christ my Lord, to which I have dedicated myself to the end of my life, but the flesh, which is in enmity, always draws me to death—that is, to unlawful desires, that must be unlawfully gratified—and I know in part that I have not led a perfect life like other believers. But I confess to my Lord, and do not blush before him, because I tell the truth, that from the time I knew him in my youth the love of God and his fear increased within me, and until now, by the favor of the Lord, I have kept the faith.”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.

 

“I rather spent for you as far as I was able; and among you and everywhere for you I endured many perils in distant places, where none had been further or had ever come to baptize, or ordain the clergy, or confirm the people.”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.

 

“I pray God, therefore, that He may give me perseverance, and that He may vouchsafe to permit me to give Him faithful testimony for my God until my death. And if I have done anything good for my God, whom I love, I beseech Him to grant to me that with those proselytes and captives I may pour out my blood for His name, even if my body should be denied burial, and be miserably torn limb from limb by dogs or fierce beasts, or that the birds of heaven should devour it. I believe most certainly that if this should happen to me, I have gained both soul and body; for it is certain that we shall rise one day in the brightness of the sun—that is, the glory of Christ Jesus our Redeemer—as sons of God but ​as joint heirs with Christ, and to become conformable to His image.”
-Confession of St Patrick
The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1874) by James O’Leary 7th Ed. NEW YORK: Excelsiors Catholic Publishing House.

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