Saint Patrick

Above: Saint Patrick

It is commonly supposed that the druidic religion prevailed in pagan Ireland; but we know very little of the nature and ceremonials of this Irish druidism. In the oldest Irish traditions the druids figure con- spicuously. All the early colonists had their druids, who are mentioned as holding high rank among kings and chiefs. They are often called men of science to indicate their superior knowledge. Many worshipped idols of some kind: some worshipped water; some, fire; some, the sun.

They were skilled in magic-indeed they figure more conspicuously as magicians than in any other capacity -and were believed to be possessed of tremendous preternatural powers. They practised divination, and foretold future events from dreams and visions, from sneezing and casting lots; from the croaking of ravens and the chirping of wrens. They bitterly opposed Christianity; and we know that. there were druids in the country long after St. Patrick’s time, who continued to exercise powerful influence.

Our most ancient secular and ecclesiastical literature attests the universal belief in the side [Shee] or fairies, who, as we are told were worshipped by the Irish. These were local deities who were supposed to live in the interior of pleasant green hills or under great rocks or sepulchral cairns, where they had splendid palaces. Many of these fairy hills are still known all over the country, each with its tutelary deity and they are held in much superstitious awe by the peasantry.

The fairies were also believed to inhabit the old raths and lisses, so numerous through the country, a superstition that still lingers everywhere among the people.

In some places idols were worshipped. There was a great idol, called Crom Cruach, covered all over with gold, on Moy Slecht (the plain of adoration) in the present county of Cavan, surrounded by twelve lesser idols, all of which were destroyed by St. Patrick These thirteen idols were all pillar-stones; and accord- ing to our ancient, authorities pillar-stone idols were worshipped in many other parts of Ireland as well a at Moy Slecht.

We know that there were Christians in Ireland long before the time of St. Patrick, but we have no evidence to show how Christianity was introduced in those early ages. In the year 431, Pope Celestine sen Palladius ” to the Scots believing in Christ ” to be their first bishop. There must have been Christians in considerable numbers when the Pope thought this measure necessary; and such numbers could not have grown up in a short time. Palladius landed in Wicklow, from which he w.-as expelled by the local chief; and lie died soon afterwards in Scotland.

The next mission had very different results Although Christianity was not propagated in Ireland by the blood of martyrs, there is no instance of any other nation that universally received it in as short a space of time as the Irish did,” and in the whole history of Christianity we do not find a missionary more successful than St. Patrick.

It is pretty certain that Patrick was born either in Scotland or in Armoric Gaul: the weight of authority tends to Dumbarton in Scotland. His parents were Christians : his father Calpurnius was a deacon, and also a dccurion or magistrate in a Roman colony. When Patrick was a boy of sixteen he was taken captive with many others and brought to Ireland about the year 403, in one of these predatory excursions, already spoken of (106), by Niall of the Nine Hostages. He was sold as a slave and spent six years of his life herd- ing sheep on the bleak slopes of Slemish mountain in Antrim.

Here in his solitude his mind was turned to God, and while carefully doing the work of his hard master Milcho, he employed his leisure hours in devo- tions. We know this from his own words in the Con- fession (19):-” I was daily tending the flocks and praying frequently every day that the love of God might be more enkindled in my heart; so much so that in one day 1 poured out my prayers a hundred times and as often in the night: nay, even in woods and mountains o. remained and rose before the light to my prayers in frost, and snow and rain, and suffered no inconvenience, nor yielded to any slothfulness, for the Spirit of the Lord was fervent within me.”