The Fifteenth Centenary of St, Patrick

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 36, 3 September 1924, Page 21

The Fifteenth Centenary of St, Patrick

A Suggested Form of Commemoration |

In little more than seven years time, Ireland and all who are of Irish origin throughout the world will be reminded that a thousand and half a thousand years have passed since the greatest event in Irish history took place—St. Patrick's mission to Ireland. All will earnestly wish to see that event worthily celebrated, and each one will wish to have some part in its worthy celebration. It is not too soon to be thinking about it, nor too soon to consider preparations. Seven years will not \ be too long a time for the actual work of preparation, in order that the commemoration may be worthy of the event, worthy of the man who was chosen to achieve it, and worthy of the people who were born again 1500 years ago to be a Christian nation. Saint Patrick was the father of this nation. Seeing how God had blessed his work, in the humble and simple yet attractive words of "his Confession before he should die," he wrote with the love and. tenderness of a father about "the children that he had begotten" in the Chris-" tian Faith. And ever since, the Irish people have loved and revered him as their father, the father of their nation. Other nations reverence the memory of the apostolic men to whom they owe their spiritual regeneration, yet I think it is true that no other people on the earth has. for its apostle and patron saint the vivid and universal filial love and honor that the Irish have felt towards • Patrick in every age, through every change of destiny, at-home or in exile, in misery and in prosperity, in servitude and ~ in freedom, even to this day. His name unites them and uplifts them, and they rejoice to be united and uplifted in his name. Beyond doubt they will look forward with eagerness to the opportunity of his fifteenth centenary, the fifteenth centenary of Christian Ireland. Traditional Love for St. Patrick. Let us recall to mind how our forefathers, in their earliest written traditions, joined together -their love and honor for Patrick and their love and honor for Ireland. They tell of his prayers on Cruach and how, when his angel came without the granted boons, Patrick would not » be denied and sent his petitions back to Heaven with the messenger until at last they were granted. He asked that Ireland should never lose the Faith; that she should never be conquered by foreigners; that before the last catastrophe of the world and the evils of the last days, Ireland might be sunk beneath the sea; and that, when the Day of Judgment came, as the twelve apostles were to sit upon thrones to judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel, so it,might be granted to him to be the judge of the Irish nation. Another tradition says that this promise was given to him in his last sickness: Victor said: Honor to Armagh, to Christ render ye thanks! unto Heaven soon shalt thou go, thy prayers have been granted thee: the hymn thou hast chosen in thy life shall be a breastplate of protection for all; around thee on the Day of Doom ; the Men of Ireland shall go to judgment. . Most of -the old traditions concerning Saint Patrick ' have come to us through-religious- writers. . There' is, ~ however, one. tradition which is as old as the earliest of his Lives and which is of special interest because it comes from the laity, the men of secular learning.who first wrote the Laws of Ireland, and 'because it preserves their. testimony to the social outcome of Patrick's work and doctrine., This tradition is found in the lawtract Corus ftescna, one ]of the books of the Senchus Mor, written probably in the second half of the seventh century, : about two centuries .-. after Saint Patrick's death: — -i ■-''' ' •■*•

———————————— V By Professor Eoin Mac Neil!, D.LITT Minister of Education in Studies. ,

The Coming of the Faith. "The Men of Ireland had kept the Law of Nature until the coming of the Faith in the time of Laoghaire son of Niall. In his time came Patrick. After the Men of Ireland had believed for Patrick [i.e., had been converted by him], the two Laws were united, the Law of Nature and the Law of the Letter. Dubhthach moccu Lughair, the fili, made known the Law of Nature [to Patrick]. It was Dubhthach who first did reverence to Patrick; it was he who first stood up in his presence in Tara. Core son of Liighaidh [and father of Nad Fraoich, king of Cashelj first bent the knee to him: he was held a hostage by Laoghaire. Now Laoghaire withstood Patrick because of the Druid Hatha Mac Umhoir; this man, the Druid, had foretold to Laoghaire that Patrick would rob him of the living and the dead: "he shall free slaves, he shall magnify kindreds of base degree,' through the orders of the Church and- the service of God in penance, for the Kingdom of Heaven is accessible to every kin of men who have 'believed, to free, kins and base kins alike; even so, the Church is open before every man, whosoever cometh under her law." Tradition here, as often' elsewhere, represents by prophecy what was believed to be fact: that Patrick had brought freedom to slaves and that the Church paid no regard to those distinctions of race and kindred which were so much alive in the national memory. The testimony does not stand unconfirmed. In the letter to the people of Coroticus we have the Saint's own denunciation of the enslavement of Christians, and possibly it is on this ground mainly that he declares the Picts (of Galloway) to be apostates. In the Laws themselves, inferiority of race- or kindred is nowhere held to be a bar.excluding from any degree of franchise or civil status. On the contrary it is laid down as an axiom that "a man is better than his origin" (is v j err fer a ckiniud), and again "that the man of low degree may sit in the seat of the free' (doer i suidiu soir) by virtue of "his art or his thrift or his talent that God gives him." The son of a serf could become a freeman by admission to a monastic school, "for there is no Latin learning without franchise." Patrick, therefore, in the most ancient of our written traditions, worked for the unity of the Irish people not only in religion but also in civil and social life, by the example of the Church and by teaching the people that there are no barriers of . race and class in the Kingdom of Heaven. And so our ancient laws concern themselves neither with Gaedhil nor Picts nor Fir Bolg, but only with Fir Erenn, the Men of Ireland. The Saints of Ireland. Oengus Ceile -De shapes into a poem of skilful metre a calendar of the saints of Ireland and of the universal " Church, filling out his verses with, dignified adjectives and phrases, according to a custom derived from the ancient Druids who, •as Caesar tells us, were wont to convey in* "✓ struction"-through "a great number of verses." His calendar 'is metrical rather .than poetical, but when he comes to the feast of the national patron, he breaks into poetry; .'... '..:■*< Flame of a splendid sun, "•.'-;.'• . Apostle of Ireland entire," i ; »' \i V'.,; /Patrick with his .many thousands '■; v ;; ; Be the shelter -of our misery! • .-iTiie- author of the.poem known as "Fiacc's Hymn,'* a short metrical-life of Saint Patrick composed probably in the ■' eighth < century, regrets the departed glory of the ancient seats of power,. but rejoices in the new centres of >still greater power, of religion and learning: "The kingship has, long since departed from Emania, it is still in Armagh though it grieves me to see Tara deserted, Down? >patrick : is, a mighty church; Even that valiant, landloping foreigner, _ who seized Downpatrick and set himself up : as

: ; Prince of Ulster, came under the spell of Saint Patrick's v f memory, and caused a hew Life of the saint to be written by' Jo'pelyn'i the monk; of Furness—the beginning of a pro- " cess again and again to be renewed, foreign conquest failing through the foreigners becoming Irish. ~ ■: : n . Memory of St. Patrick Through the Centuries.; In our own day, Saint Patrick's memory, the power that he had in life projected onward through the centuries, stands guard over Ireland's unity. Armagh, Down- . k- patrick, Sliabh Mis, nothing can separate them from "the \ .apostle of Ireland entire." Among the memories of my childhood's home on the Antrim coast, I can recall how often I walked the mountain road, higher and higher, until a well-known-spot was reached where the great dome - of Slemish began to appear above the other hills.* On the other side of the valley of Glenarm was the site of the ancient church of Gleoir, founded by the apostle. That was where my mother's kin belonged. Nearer home, a path along the front of the. cliffs that rise above the coast road led to Saint Patrick's Well. It was not right to pass the well without making a votive offering of some part of your belongings; the combined sentiments of reverence and thrift had brought about a uniformity of observance,, and the well came to be commonly named the Pin Well. At the foot of Slemish is Baile Luig Phadraig, "the Hamlet of Patrick's Hollow"—there in my early memory lived the last native Irish-speaker in that district, who had the reputation of always saying his prayers in Irishl think his name was Harry MacLoughlin. On the further side of the Braid valley from Slemish is Skerry, Seiridh Phadraig, "Patrick's rocky hill." On the top of this hill there is a ruined church, standing on the site of a church "\ which the saint is recorded to have founded, and surrounded by a burial ground in which some of my kinsfolk had buried their dead from time immemorial. In this burial ground is a rock on which the angel Victor was supposed to have left his footprint—it was pointed out to me more than forty years ago. The legend was known to the author of Fiacc's Hymn more than a thousand years ago. He tells ~X how the angel came to Patrick in his captivity: "Victor Jr said to the slave that he should flee from Miliucc across the waves: he set his foot upon the flag, its'trace remains, '■ it does not fade." Southward "towards the Lagan lay the lands of Dal Buain, whose lord, Miliucc moccu Buain, had held Patrick for six years in slavery. It is a grim story and may well be a . true one that tells how Patrick came back to Miliucc. The apostle had triumphed in Down. He had won over the rulers of the Ulaid. But by "the law of nature" which still prevailed in Ireland, he was still . the slave of Miliucc, a runaway slave. Under the protection of his new and powerful converts, he set out to revisit his old master and purchase his liberty, so that he migM .•-.,•-. work in freedom and without reproach. Miliucc feared to meet him or to refuse him, and gathering his wealth into his stockaded homestead he set fire to all and- perished - in the flames. Patrick began his mission among the Ulaidh ~ of Down, because it was from them, as he relates,'from Kilultagh, Coill Ultach, "Silva Ulutica," on the borders of Dal Buain, as I claim to have proved, and not from a "wood of Fochluth" which he had never seen, that "the ; voices of the Irish" had come to him in a dream, saying: "Come, holy youth, and walk once more among us." In Down he began his great work, in Down he ceased from it, in Down were buried beside him later Brigid and Colum Cille. Armagh was and is his metropolis, Patrick's city, a * city of religion and of learning;. Armagh with its "Saxon Third," where free education was provided for the youth of England; Armagh in which the last king of Ireland,, » just on the eve of the Anglo-Norman invasion, endowed a / i chair for the perpetual benefit of the youth of ; Ireland and .3 t Scotland; Armagh which holds the dust of many an Irish r king, among them Brian B6ramha. : * :i; - • ? • . '•• > 7. The Fifteenth Centenary. Hgj These places will cease to-belong to Ireland when Patrick is forgotten. I write in the confident hope that his , & I people will begin to think how they can -best remember ■'.'< ; - him when the fifteenth centenary of his great undertaking / comes round. I do not doubt that they will wish to make p I 1932 a memorable year, and that they will prepare to do I.•;':.:•'; honor to Patrick and to the nation which began through - ' '- him a new and glorious life, honoring him and Ireland in ft>!

manner that -will bring the world to honor them. The time is not a day too long for a worthy preparation. ug vv wuv iOi'iii "nidi w« common* oration uugliu VL> take, it is not for any one person to order beforehand. Since I have the word, I shall offer some suggestions. Others will have other ideas. It is likely that no single unified form of commemoration will commend itself to all, nor is" it at all necessary to have only one. Better that the commemoration should be such, that all who desire to join it should be able to do so in a manner that would most fully interest and satisfy them. I think, however, that it will be a matter of common agreement that the outcome of the common effort should not be transient, and. that out of this centenary and of the action of the united Irish people in Ireland and abroad some thing or some number of things that will be permanent and noble, fitting the occasion, reverent of the past yet fruitful for the future, ought to arise. Whatever results are desired, certain matters of preparation seem obvious. The preparation should be such that everyone everywhere who may wish to join in any degree in the commemoration may be enabled so to join. There should be some not too rigid form of association for the purpose, localised at first, leading up to joint counsels and joint action later, yet avoiding anything like an enforced uniformity. It must, I fear, be acknowledged that we sometimes give way to a certain tendency to adopt the political model in matters of voluntary association — act by means of authority and law; and even that we go farther, adopting the religious model, setting up doctrines, investing them with an absoluteness which only divine authority and conscience can give, and claiming a compulsory moral character for them, in spheres of action to which no such orthodoxy can rightly -be applied. It is a form of juvenility will rarely find a crowd of children left to themselves in which there is not either a tyrannical majority or a tyrannical minority. The juvenile are ardent lovers of liberty and haters of restraint, each for himself, not quite so much for others. Those who are eager to get things done and ambitious to be in the doing of them are apt to be more or less Intolerant. The result is that the bearings get warm and the machine goes out of order. At the risk of appearing didactic, I venture to. say so much in favor of as much freedom as is consonant with common action. v , Advance Provision Necessary. ' . It is also obvious that, with a view to the ultimate result, there must be material provision, which in our time means chiefly financial provision. People need hardly be reminded of the danger of such provision being wasted in mere preparations. The O'.Rahilly, God rest .him, when he was honorary treasurer of the Irish Volunteers, caused a wise rule to be: adopted : and was Vigilant in having it observed. He had the income of the organisation divided into two parts, one part, to bear current expenses, the other part for equipment, and he rigorously forbade and" prevented the fund for equipment being applied even temporarily to current expenses. Every form of organisation or association that uses money tends to spend more and more on current expenses; not always because of neediness or greediness, but often because there is nothing easier than spending money. , For the purpose under discussion, .a system of small recurrent contributions seems desirable. There will doubtless be ! large numbers who will desire to participate and who will only be able to participate in this way. -'"'.'V . / _" ' '." Now, as ; to the form which the commemoration ought to take it is perhaps due from me tljat, I should make some suggestions, if it were only to get away from vagueness. s? 7.'--" ,/.'- v •' . V v /. -. • .'. , -.' ~'."•". -"''■■'"" = -',"■•• ' ' . It may be anticipated that there will be religious celebrationsand .; that people will come from many lands -to be present at them. Those who had the privilege of the thirteenth, centenary commemoration of Saint Columbaiius at Bobbio last year will; look for something commensurate when Ireland and all her colonies join to celebrate the fifteenth centenary of -Saint Patrick. When I speak of something commensurate, it is not a comparison between saints that I wish;'tb suggest".; Bobbio ik a small ■ town in the heart of the * Apennines, where Saint t Ublum^

banus founded a- seat of religion-and learning. Ireland is >. a great and ancient- nation, -to which Saint Patrick "gave a new and -glorious life. If Ireland only does as much in her. proportion to-honor- St.- Patrick -as Bobbio did >last • August to honor one of-his greatest sons, the world will stand and admire. There will also, doubtless, he secular celebrations" and assemblages, and at this stage it would be "Unprofitable" to speculate as to the form they are likely'to take. ; 'What is of more concern to me, I confess, whether'there Will be some lasting memorials of the great occasion, "and" Of what kind. Presumably, many will think of cathedrals and' monumental buildings and inscriptions in stone" or bronze,' nor do I say that they will not be right in so thinking. I trust that the commemoration will ; be on -such, a-- scale that its permanent memorials may be of various'kinds and may satisfy the worthy■ intentions of various * minds. I have no fear that Irish piety will allow itself to be neglected • or ineffective. My plea is for the regeneration of the Insula Boctorum— that the Irish people may : desire and require the celebration of Saint Patrick's year to establish something lasting and fruitful and potent for Irish learning, for our national language— tean-ga - Phddmig "Patrick's language" as our tradition calls it, for our national history, and for our national education. Future of the Irish Language. As for the future of 'the Irish language 1 as a spoken tongue, that depends now entirely, under God, on the cultivated will of the people individually, and if any imagine that they can secure it■ otherwise, 'the sooner they dismiss the delusion from their minds "the '-better. My will, your will, each one's -will operating on -each one's self to acquire the power to speak i Irish and, having -acquired it, to use that is what counts, and that is what ' we have to strengthen or create. Without that, every effort is sheer waste. - Perhaps by the year 1932 there will be less doubt about it. For Irish studies, including Irish 'historical studies, the great and imperative need is publication. We have some capable students and scholars, but very '> little outlet for their researches. For most of them',' publication would be a sufficient reward for what they have done and a grand - incentive to do more. Few can hope to make a livelihood in these days out of Irish learning, few demand it. Most are content to make a livelihood otherwise, -as ? best * they can; but for most Irish studies are a ■ blind-alley. Given sufficient means of publication, there is nothing worth publication that exists in manuscripts or in oral tradition that will not find willing workers to make it the perpetual inheritance of all. For Irish history, what is most needed and is severely needed .is the publication of documents, the raw' material .'of historical study. Still unpublished and existing in manuscript in various libraries '■■ are: Historical Study. 1. The various medieval versions of the Lebor Ga-bah. —This, in an artificial framing, contains a mass of traditions belonging to the mythology of pre-Christian Ireland, also of traditions regarding the different ancient - races forming the people of-Ireland. It is really an epic of preChristian Ireland, not the work of - any one author or of 'any number of named authors, but a gradual growth of centuries, with additions, omissions, and changes of arrangement, according to the notions of transcribers. 2. The Annals.—Published in suitable form for the use of students, we have only the Annals of the Four-Masters, the .Annals of Ulster, and the Annals of Loch Ce. The Annals of Tigernach, so-called, of the highest critical -value, are to be found in O'Conor's, edition,- extremely defective, and in an addition by Whitley Stokes running < through a series -of • numbers of the lievue Celtique, without indexes or suitable' annotation. The Annals of Innisfallen and the Annals of Boyle are found in O'Conor's defective edition also, now wholly out of date. "O'Conor's -editing and translations are full of serious errors; There are -besides various minor chronicles; also poems based *on chronicles, such as those of Flann of Monasterboice edited by me in Archivium Hibernicum, from all of which- great light on our medieval history-may be -derived.' 3. The Genealogies.lt is not to be'supposed that" the Irish- Oenealogies -are mere collections 1 ?bf -pedigrees em-

bodying only the claims of various nobles to high descent. They are an indispensable supplement to the Annals and, in their earlier - strata, to the study of the pre-Christian traditions and legends such as are collected in the Lebor Gabdla. extinction of certain lines, their territorial replacement by other lines, gives knowledge of the local currents- of history. Innumerable ■ entries in the Annals are mere obscure items until they are interpreted by the help of the Genealogies. The Genealogies are moreover a lexicographical and philological mine that has never been methodically explored. In date of compilation they go 'back to the seventh and eighth centuries. Dr. Cox possesses the great Book '-.Genealogies compiled in the seventeenth century by Dubhaltach Mac Fir Bhisigh, containing many pedigrees v of - the Anglo-Norman and Welsh settlers in addition to all the principal- Old Irish families, and a. long-introduction full of invaluable material from older manuscripts now lost. 4. An unmeasured quantity of medieval poetry" concerned with contemporary persons and affairs. 5. The Laws. There are still many ancient Irish lawtracts that have not been, published. The five published volumes of the Ancient Laws of Ireland are so defective in editing' and translation that one cannot well say whether they lead more to knowledge or to error. One of the-greatest living >• authorities on early Indo-European institutions recently avowed to a friend of mine that he found -himself so bewildered and repelled by these volumes as to be forced to abandon the notion of making use of them. Yet I venture to say that our ancient laws belong not less to the history of Europe than to the history of Ireland. 6. Ecclesiastical • History. —Though much has been written and rewritten on this subject, there has been no thorough exploration of ■material, and, as in the case of our secular history, the selective method usually followed is defective and unconvincing. I plead for the institution of a Library of the Monumenta Hiberniae, in the form of a continuous series of uniform volumes, to be published under the direction of a corporate body of competent scholars, with a suitable endowment to be administered under the terms of a permanent definite trust. At the head of such a collection of material would naturally stand the first historical documents known to have b€en written in Ireland, namely, the -Epistle and the Confession of Saint Patrick; for, among his other glories, Saint Patrick has the distinction of being the first of our writers and the first writer of Irish history.