READINGS IN IRISH HISTORY

New Zealand Tablet, 9 November 1916, Page 15

READINGS IN IRISH HISTORY

Bx ‘ Shanachie,’

CHRISTIAN IRELAND: ST. PATRICK. ; We now introduce tlie reader to the Christian period of Irish history. In general it may be said that Christianity really dawned on Ireland when St, Patrick with his little band of missionaries landed on her shores in the year 433. That there were Christians in the country prior to this date is beyond question : Palladius had been sent some years before by Pope Celestine ‘to the Scots believing in Christ.’ We know, however, his mission was unsuccessful and that for St. Patrick was reserved the glory of converting Ireland. Lest it should seem abrupt and unnatural to bring St. Patrick before the reader as he appeared in 433, we will mention briefly the most widely-accepted facts in regard to the parentage, birthplace, and early youth of him, through whose agency, under God, Ireland became Christian. It will be necessary, therefore, to get into their proper historical perspective those incidents in the saint’s early life which Providence planned to prepare him for the great work of the conversion of a nation. For this purpose it seems well to take a backward glance and review the condition of the worldwide Roman Empire towards the eve of the fifth century. ‘ Ihe unity of the Empire is gone,, anarchy and tumult are supreme; factions, consuming each other in the capital, scarce cease their conflicts when the Goth is at the gate. . . . The Roman soldiers are leaving Britain, the first Frank has entered Gaul. From the frosty summits of Alp and Appenine, long lines of savage enemies look down upon their prey. The time of the barbarian has come ; one thousand years of slavery have now to be avenged. Along the vast frontier sounds the dull roar of cursing multitudes; the boundaries of distant provinces tremble with the tramp of steed, and from cold Cumbria to sunlit. Numidia the outposts of the old civilisation are listening to the shrill trumpets of kings and chieftains summoning savagery to vengeance. They gigantic Gothic footmen, from dim lands of marsh and forest beyond the Vistula ; they come, in hordes of Hunnish horse, lithe-limbed and agile, from the vast plains that stretch into the sunrise beyond the Caspian; they come in ceaseless crowds of Vandals and Visigoths, of Heruli and Franks, across Carpathian steep and Pannonian plain, up the valleys of great rivers, over the wintry waves of Baltic and Euxine; they come like lava from (he mountain, to burn and wither, the earth, like floods of winter, to ravage and submerge the land ; they come, led by Alaric and Genseric, and Attila, and a thousand nameless leaders, moving in the might of multitudes—to the wreck of Rome.’ During this period so fraught with disaster for imperial Rome Nial of the Nine Hostages ruled in Ireland. Undisputed master at home, he made incursions into Britain and even into Gaul. The withdrawal of many of the Roman legions from tire outposts of the Empire had left those provinces an easy prey to the depredations of adventurous warriors like Nial. It was during one of his warlike incursions into Britain that the Irish king swept down upon the shores of the Clyde,, snatched up a Christian youth named Succat, and carried him, together with other captives, into Ireland and there sold him as a slave. This happened in the year 403. How came this Christian youth of Roman parentage to be in Britain at this time The answer is obvious. Britain was then, and had been for 345 years, a Roman' province. Many of the officers and soldiers of the Empire professed the Christian faith and lived with their wives and families in the garrisoned towns. Thus, according to Cardinal Moran, St. Patrick was born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387. His parents were Calphurnius and Conchessa. Galphurnius, the saint’s father, belonged to a Roman family of high rank and held the office of decurio in Gaul or Britain. His mother, Conchessa, is said to have been a near relative of St, Martin of Tours. Patrick was in his sixteenth yea? Whm C.ame.d off into captivity by Nial and mid

as a slave to a chief named Milchu in the present Co. Antrim., For six years Patrick faithfully tended Milchu s flocks on the slopes of Slemish. He touchingly tells us in his Confession of his prayers and vigils during these years of captivity and probation: ‘The love of God and His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that while in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain.’ Thus for six years was the youthful slave trained in solitude, in slavery, and amid the rigors of the elements to be the apostle of a nation and the spiritual father of a numerous family of saints. Then at the bidding of an angel Patrick fled from his master, bent his steps towards the West, along a journey of 200 miles, probably towards Killala Bay, where, after some difficulty, he got on board a ship bound for Britain. Soon he was among his kindred and friends again; they fain would have him stay with them always. No, an unmistakable voice ■was calling him to the service of God. Hence it is not surprising to see Patrick within a short time in the Monastery of St. Martin at Tours; then in the island of Lerins, a famous seat of learning and piety ; and later still under the guidance of St. Germain at Auxerre, who subsequently ordained him priest. A local tradition asserts that Patrick labored under St. Germain at Auxerre for some time and subsequently accompanied him into Britain, whither the latter was sent by the Pope to combat the Pelagian heresy. Amid all these scenes Patrick s thoughts ever turned towards Ireland. O holy youth, come back and walk once more amongst us ! that was the cry that ever rang in his ears, the call to him from the children of the Irish race from the woods of Focluth, bv the shores of the Western Sea. ‘ Pope St. Celestine crowned his pontificate by an act of the most far-reaching consequences for the spread of Christianity and civilisation, when he entrusted St. Patrick with the mission of gathering the Irish race into the fold of Christ.’ (Cardinal Moran.) It was St. Germain of Auxerre who commended Patrick to the Pope. A writer of St. Germain’s life in the ninth century thus attests this important fact: ‘Since the glory of the father shines in the training of the children, of the many sons in Christ whom St. Germain is believed to have had as disciples in religion, let it suffice to make mention here, very briefly, of one most famous, Patrick the special Apostle of the Irish nation, as the record of his work proves. Subject to that most holy discipleship for eighteen years, he drank in no little knowledge in Holy Scripture from the stream of so great a well-spring. Germain sent him, accompanied by Sergetius, his priest, to Celestine, Pope of Rome, approved of by whose judgment, supported by whose authority, and strengthened by whose blessing, he went on his way to Ireland.’ Patrick on his return journey from Rome received at Ivrea the tidings of the death of - Palladius, and turning aside to the neighboring city of Turin, received episcopal consecration from its great Bishop, St. Maximus, and thence he hastened to Auxerre to make, under the guidance of St. Germain, due preparations for the Irish mission.