Introduction

The most celebrated Saint in Irish History, Saint Patrick’s own popularity has probably been the worst menace to his memory. Yet, despite the myths that threaten to destroy the real historical figure, his own writings still remain, a testament to the tremendous influence his life and teachings had in shaping the course of the Irish church in the Middle Ages and beyond. Patrick’s unique ability to make the Catholic religion relevant to the Irish people—influenced no doubt by his personal experience as a slave in Ireland and his practical, but culturally relevant, practice of converting the nobility first—served to make him the most successful missionary in Irish history. Finally, his truly remarkable ability to transform pagan institutions for the furtherance of the Church was especially valuable in the expansion of monasticism in Ireland.

Historical Context

At the time of Patrick’s arrival in Ireland as bishop there were relatively few Christians, and the Irish had a reputation among the English as an uncivilized and barbaric people. The reason for this is that Britain had been heavily influenced by Roman rule, unlike Ireland, which had remained relatively independent until the withdrawal of Roman troops from Britain in 407.[1] Their fear of the Irish was not altogether unfounded—Patrick’s own life attests to this fact—he received his introduction to the Ireland, when, as a boy, he was kidnapped from his home in England by a group of Irish raiders.[2]

Despite the fact that there was little evidence of Roman civilization in Ireland (roads, etc.), and very few Christians, the plethora of folklore that would lead one to believe Patrick was the first to bring Christianity to Ireland is simply untrue. There is abundant archaeological evidence to support the existence of Christianity in Ireland prior to Saint Patrick’s arrival in 432.[3] Saint Prosper, a contemporary of Saint Patrick, writes in his Chronicle that Palladuius was in fact the first bishop to be sent to Ireland, just one year prior to the arrival of Saint Patrick. Unfortunately, Palladius’s missionary approach failed to impress the natives and he was promptly chased out of Ireland and died in Britain shortly thereafter.[4] Patrick’s distinction lies, therefore, not in his being the first bishop of Ireland, but in the fact that he succeeded where others had failed.

Patrick’s Culturally Sensitive Approach to Mission Work

When examining the influence that Patrick had on the people of Ireland, one can easily get caught up in the dubious accounts of over-zealous hagiographers.  While tales concerning Patrick’s various mythic exploits—driving all the snakes out of Ireland and cleverly illustrating the Trinity with a shamrock—are charming, they have no basis whatsoever in historical fact. Yet, despite the numerous questionable sources that exist concerning Patrick, his own writings provide the best insight into what he truly accomplished. His success in bringing the Gospel to Ireland was truly remarkable. If his own figures are to be believed, as he tells his readers in paragraphs 14 and 50 of his Confession, he baptized a somewhat ambiguous “many thousands of people.”[5] Whatever the exact numbers, there was something in Patrick’s approach to evangelizing the Irish that significantly influenced a group of people who usually rejected anything of Roman origin, whether it be Christianity, or Roman roads. 

The most important reasons for his accomplishments was that he was willing to allow Christianity to become, to a certain extent, infused with Ireland’s native culture.[6] Patrick made his message culturally relevant to those who heard it and it is evident that his earlier experience as a slave in Ireland aided him considerably in tapping into the Irish psyche. Patrick knew enough about the Irish to understand it would be impossible for them to accept a Gospel that completely destroyed their native culture. By allowing Celtic Christianity to take on aspects of Ireland’s ancient pagan past, Patrick was able to bring Christianity to Ireland with very little bloodshed, giving it a chance to spread more quickly and with less resistance.[7] This is evidenced by the fact that there were, in point of fact, few, if any, early Irish martyrs.[8]  Saint Patrick himself was eager to preserve his own life—in his Confession he informs the reader that he was not below bestowing gifts upon local chieftains in order to insure his own safety[9].

This lack of martyrdom and genuine desire to present the gospel in a clear, but culturally sensitive manner, demonstrates the unique form Christianity took on in Ireland. Christianity met so little resistance after Patrick that a 7^th century Irish scholar felt compelled to come up with different levels of martyrdom, which became categorized as white, green, and red.[10] Red, the highest level, was the only colour that actually involved dying for one’s faith. Because of the lack of so-called “red” martyrdom in Ireland, the Irish Church placed a higher value on asceticism and missionary fervour, two qualities that, beginning with Patrick, came to represent the nature of Sainthood in Ireland. [11]

Patrick’s Emphasis on Converting the Nobility and Establishing a Native Clergy

In addition to giving gifts to local chieftains and being sensitive to local customs and laws, one of the most important reasons for the relatively peaceful manner in which the Irish accepted Christianity was Patrick’s continued perseverance in converting members of the Irish nobility. The time Patrick spent in Ireland as a young man made it clear to him that little advancement would be made for Christianity in Ireland without the nobility’s support.[12] But Patrick’s interest in the nobility did not stop with their conversion: it was his desire to establish a native clergy that would be able to continue his work in Ireland after his death.

Emerging from this emphasis on converting the nobility came another of Patrick’s policies, central to the success of the Celtic Church:  Patrick’s practice of obtaining clergy members from the ranks of the Irish nobility. This procedure encouraged the people of Ireland to embrace their newfound faith; since they were being led by a clergy composed of their own people, rather than by foreign priests imported from near-by Britain and other more Christianized areas.[13] This pragmatic approach characterizes Patrick’s missionary work. Knowing the influence that the Irish nobility had over the common people, Patrick focused much of his attention on converting members of the upper-classes to Christianity and bestowing upon them church offices.[14] Patrick’s emphasis on encouraging the growth of a native-born clergy ensured the support of both the nobility’s and the populous. The nobility’s affirmation of Christianity made missionary efforts easier, and that the people’s ability to see their countrymen in positions of ecclesiastical authority helped guarantee Christianity’s popularity long after Patrick’s death.

Unfortunately, while Patrick’s cultural sensitivity led to the widespread acceptance of Christianity in Ireland, it appears to have done little to impress the Catholic Church in Britain and the rest of the world. The Venerable Bede, in his Opera Historica, makes several references to the waywardness of the Irish Church. His chief complaint was that the Irish Church celebrated Easter on a different day than the English Church.  His account of Pope Honorius letter to the Irish church—“earnestly exhorting them that they should not reckon their own small number, set as [it] were in the utmost ends of the earth, to be wiser than the churches of Christ”[15]—helps clarify the way in which the Roman Church viewed Catholicism in Ireland. It is clear from Bede’s account that the Pope felt Ireland persisted in its improper observation of Easter out of an entirely improper sense of pride and stubbornness.

This derogatory view of the Irish church is further accentuated later in the same chapter, in which Bede highlights the fact that Pope Honorius was followed in his distaste for the Irish celebration of Easter by Pope John, who also wrote concerning the Irish church’s failure to make their Easter coincide with that of the rest of the Church.[16] Bede initially plays with the idea that the reason for this improper calculation is the result of a desire to align the date of Easter with that of the Hebrew Passover (something the council of Nicea had declared almost heretical), but eventually acknowledges that this accusation is false.[17] He ends his discussion of the matter by putting the blame on the Irish’s apathy towards keeping a correct observation of Religious services, [18] a disguised admission that the Celts had different method of calculating the dates of religious observances.

While Bede is writing more than 200 years after Patrick’s death, his work serves to illustrate that little had changed in the Briton’s view of the Irish church since Patrick’s time. Patrick had battled over different issues perhaps, but the impression of the Celtic church as backward and unrepentant remains remarkably constant. Saint Patrick’s letter to Coroticus, a British prince who had been plaguing the Irish countryside with murder and mayhem, calls for Coroticus’ removal from the ranks of the faithful, unless he turns from his evil ways.[19] Patrick’s frank disapproval of Coroticus’s actions was looked down on by the English church, which saw Coroticus’s as a somewhat heroic figure, keeping the barbarian Irish at bay.[20] Patrick had little respect for this view, since he knew many of the Irish who were killed were actually Christians. He highlights this issue in his own account of the incident, describing a group of young Christians slaughtered while still in their baptismal gowns—“even as [the oil] was still gleaming upon their foreheads, they were cruelly cut down and killed by the swords of these same devilish men”[21] This unflattering portrayal of the British prince did little to endear Patrick and the Irish church to the hearts of the English and the Roman church at large. Their disapproval was so great that some scholars believe Patrick’s confession to be an apologetic tract supporting the veracity of his missionary work.[22]

As is attested to in his own account, Patrick had been unpopular with the English church since he had first considered going to Ireland as a missionary. After Patrick’s death, the Irish church’s insistence on determining the date of Easter according to their own ancient—and no doubt pagan—calendar served to distance them from the rest of the Church. Their insistence on preserving the individuality of their Church hearkens back to Patrick’s own refusal to stand idly by while members of the Irish Christian community were murdered under the guise of protecting Britain from barbarians. Up until the second synod of Cashel in 1171-2, Ireland functioned in some ways as an almost entirely separate entity from the English Church, due in a large part to Patrick’s influence.[23] Thus, while the distinctiveness of the Irish church certainly cannot be traced entirely to Patrick’s actions in the 400’s, his method of conversion was extremely influential.

Patrick and Monasticism

Much has been made of Patrick’s support of monasteries, and it is difficult to know the extent to which he may have actually contributed to Irish monasticism. In his introduction to the works of Saint Patrick, Ludwig Bieler refers to Patrick as “a lover of monasticism,” openly declaring his firm belief that Patrick’s ecclesiastical administration was based on a monastic framework.[24] Others claim that Patrick did little himself to further the expansion of monastic communities, but focused instead on building up an ecclesiastical administration that would be able to stand the test of time.[25] In reality it is perhaps difficult to know Patrick’s genuine feelings concerning monasticism, given that we have so few reliable sources concerning Patrick and his beliefs (most scholars tend to give credence only to his own works—his Confession and Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus and the few Hymns and Poems he wrote). What is evident is that Patrick worked with, and was accepting of, the traditional structure of Irish society, which was amenable to monasticism.

The writings of Saint Patrick contain numerous testimonies to the growth of monasticism in Ireland during his own time.[26] His frequent references to monks and virgins are often mentioned in conjunction with the fact that these people chose to live a monastic life after they had been baptized. A key example of this can be found in his Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, in which he bemoans the fact that Coroticus’s soldiers have “devoured the flock of the Lord…the sons and daughters of kings” that were “monks and virgins of Christ” which were so many that “he [could not] count their number.”[27] Accounts like this support the notion that monasticism was popular during Patrick’s time, and that many of Patrick’s converts chose the monastic life.

But does this mean that monasticism was one of Patrick’s chief goals? Considering the fact that Patrick came to Ireland when it was almost entirely pagan, this is rather unlikely. Patrick’s main goals seem to have been the establishment of Christianity through conversion, baptism, and the ordination of clergy.[28] Patrick’s writings make it clear that he saw choosing a monastic life as an outworking of one’s Christian faith, but it is likely that he saw the establishment of monastic communities as a secondary duty.

If monasticism was not Patrick’s goal, why was it so successful? There is one important reason for the rapid spread of monasticism that shows both Patrick’s influence and the unique nature of the Irish church, even in its nascent state. Patrick’s concern with presenting the gospel in a relevant manner has already been mentioned, and the spread of monasticism has often been associated with this. One of the primary reasons for monasticism’s success was the fact that the traditional monastic system was rather similar to Ireland’s traditional social structure, which Patrick and his followers used to their advantage.  The monastic community, with its emphasis on community and the abbot’s rule, was much like a microcosm of Irish society, in which the chieftain led the community, and because of the way in which it was presented to the people, it easily became a prevalent church institution.[29]  Thus, while Patrick was supportive of monastic institutions, their growth can perhaps best be attributed to Patrick’s support of the adaptation of their own, pre-existing cultural institutions for Christian use, rather than his own personal involvement in the establishment of monastic communities.

Another important piece of evidence concerning the unique nature of Irish monasticism is to be found in the fact that the Irish monastic tradition took very little of their structure from other monastic traditions.  This is evidenced by the fact that the rule of Saint Benedict, hugely popular on the continent, never made it to Ireland, where more local interpretations of the role of monasticism continued to flourish well into the Middle Ages.[30]  This is not to say that early Irish Christianity failed to change Ireland—the opposite is true. The Christianity that Patrick brought to Ireland changed it forever, but because of the integration of pagan and religious customs, the Irish were able to forge for themselves a unique monastic system that integrated their newfound faith with the pagan laws that had governed Ireland for centuries.[31]

Conclusion

While often the subject of dubious myths, far from any basis in historical fact, Patrick’s work in Ireland had a tremendous impact in creating the shape of the Irish church. By approaching the Irish people in a way that was relevant to them, he was able to succeed where others had failed. Patrick’s ecclesiastical vision was broad enough to include some of the cultural traditions of the Irish, and to Christianize those that were incompatible with the Christian faith. Finally, the success of Irish monasteries in the Middle Ages, so frequently attributed directly to Patrick, was more a result of the Irish people’s ability to recognize the similarities that existed between their own, traditional societal structure, and the organization of monastic communities. This was facilitated by the knowledge and acceptance of much of Celtic society, exhibited by Patrick and his followers, which allowed monasticism to so easily take root and flourish in Irish soil.

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