Patrick
Patrick (c.390-461), patron saint of Ireland, is chiefly remembered today as an excuse to get wrecked on March 17th. He was born in Roman Britain, probably somewhere in Cumbria; his grandfather was a Christian priest, and his father a deacon. According to his Confession, Patrick was not a devout Christian despite his upbringing, and at the age of 16, he was captured as a slave with thousands of others by Irish pirates. With the benefit of hindsight, Patrick said that ‘we deserved this, because we had gone away from God, and did not keep his commandments’ (Confession, 1).
Like many other embryonic saints, Patrick worked as a shepherd, and passed the time in prayer, having realized immediately his sin in ignoring God. Receiving a prophetic dream one night in which he was told that he would soon return to his homeland, Patrick escaped after six years’ enslavement, and returned via a port 200 miles away from his flock after many misadventures in a strange, still-unidentified land. After taking orders, studying in continental Europe though his written Latin remained notoriously rusty, Patrick returned to pagan Ireland as bishop after another vision which implored him to convert the Irish.
This was no easy task. As a foreigner, Patrick had an uncertain legal status in Ireland, and was at the mercy of the fierce warrior kings whose faith he effectively insulted in trying to convert them. He was imprisoned several times, and threatened with execution. Patrick also refused gifts from the pagan kings – both an insult and an action running contrary to the diplomatic system at the time – and was forced into contests with druids, according to Columbanus in the 7th century. Though historians doubt that Patrick converted Ireland single-handed, it is indisputable that he made a hugely significant contribution.
Also doubtful are the folkloric accounts of his miraculous deeds. Famously, Patrick is credited with ridding Ireland of snakes (a manifestation of the devil, remember). However, there is no evidence in the fossil record for snakes in post-glacial Ireland, and the story likely echoes Moses and Aaron’s staffs turning into snakes (Exodus 7:8-17). Likewise, the story of Patrick using a shamrock to explain the Trinity is first mentioned as late as 1726. In all saints’ lives, the important thing is not what the saint factually did or did not do, but what they were believed to have done.