Foreword. Practically everyone in the Western world has heard of the man called Saint Patrick. However, hardly anyone knows anything about him. About the only two things that most people know about Patrick is that he was Irish and Roman Catholic. In truth, he was neither. He was British, and he belonged to the independent Celtic Church. Although Patrick is the most famous person of his age, the real man has been buried under a cloud of myths. Myths such as he used the shamrock to explain the Trinity.
He was sent to Ireland by the Pope. He was a wonder-worker who staged miraculous duels with the druids. He drove all of the snakes out of Ireland. Even the famous hymn known as the Lorica, or Breastplate of Saint Patrick, which is one of my favorite hymns, was not written by Patrick. It doesn't even reflect Patrick's thoughts and spirituality. Sadly, it's our loss that the real Patrick has been hidden in this cloud of fables. Christians today can learn much from the life of the real Patrick.
In particular, his life reveals how God can do exceptional things with ordinary people. It also teaches us the need to persevere in prayer and to wait on God. The real Patrick was a fairly ordinary Christian with an extraordinary prayer life. Prayer and faith were the keys to his success, not staging dramatic miracles. At the same time, God did intervene miraculously in Patrick's life, just as He intervenes in the lives of praying Christians today.
In contrast, there is very little we can learn from the mythical Patrick, other than that if we could perform incredible miracles, perhaps we, too, could convert a nation. Ironically, the life of the real Patrick is just as fascinating as that of his mythical counterpart, if not more so. There's certainly no need to embellish his life with a lot of fables. He gave up a comfortable life as an upper-class citizen of Roman Britain to live in poverty, suffering, and constant danger in Ireland.
Forsaking all, he brought Christ's love to the hated enemies of his own people, to the very nation who had once kidnapped and enslaved him. Although ridiculed and rejected by his own people in Britain, Patrick changed the course of an entire nation. He was one of the greatest missionaries who ever lived. Why the Mythical Patrick Was Created. Sadly, outside of Ireland, Patrick was hardly known in his own lifetime (385 AD to 461 AD).
By the time most of the European Church had heard about Patrick, Western civilization had collapsed and the Middle Ages had set in. By then, few persons had any concept of history as a science. Medieval writers of history were not as concerned about the authenticity of their information as they were in telling a good story. It's usually difficult to sort fact from fable in the histories written during the Middle Ages.
Furthermore, by medieval times, most professing Christians had lost any understanding of the force of the gospel when powerfully preached by a godly man of integrity. After AD 600, Western Christianity spread primarily through the influence of kings and the power of the sword, although there were some exceptions. So the medieval chroniclers had no grasp of how a simple man of prayer and faith could have had such an impact on a whole nation.
In their minds, Patrick's success must have been attributable to dramatic miracles. In reality, what converted Patrick's hearers were not sensational miracles, but the power of the gospel and the convicting force of the Holy Spirit. Not only were Patrick's words powerful, but his whole life was an incredible witness to the potency of love, faith, and prayer. How I Have Retold the Story of the Real Patrick.
Our only genuine sources of historical information about Patrick are the two brief writings he has left us: his testimony and his letter of excommunication sent to the British king, Coroticus. Accordingly, in writing this biography, I first prepared a list of all the events he mentions in his two works, putting the events in their probable chronological order. That gave me the blueprints for the present work.
At the end of each chapter, I have noted from which chapters of Patrick's testimony (confessio), or letter of excommunication (epistola), my information has come. Unfortunately, Patrick's writings provide us with only a bare outline of the events of his life. To be sure, they do tell us a lot about Patrick: his personality, his thoughts, his spirituality, and his emotions, but they furnish us with precious few details about anything else.
They give us only brief allusions to what was happening in the Roman world around him. They say virtually nothing about daily life in the fifth-century Ireland and Britain, and they provide only sketchy descriptions of other persons who interacted with Patrick. So, to tell the true story of Patrick, one that realistically describes the world he lived in, I have had to reconstruct from other sources the historical background and the details of everyday life in Patrick's day.
I have primarily used Bede's ecclesiastical history to furnish the historical details about the collapse of Roman Britain and the coming of the Angles and Saxons. For my details about daily life, I have drawn from both ancient Roman writers and modern historical works. I have used the works of the Nicene and pre-Nicene Christian writers for my details on church life and methods of evangelism in Patrick's day.
To familiarize myself with the land and climates of Ireland and Britain, I spent several weeks in those places during different seasons, walking on the same soil that Patrick trod, experiencing the same weather he did, gazing at the identical hills and rocky beaches that he looked at. Equipped with this supplemental information, I have taken each event that Patrick mentions in his writings and tried to put myself at the scene of action, asking myself questions such as: How did this scene look?
What were the houses like? How were the people dressed? What would have been the topics of conversation? How did the landscape look? What was the weather like? Without these historical details, we have only an extended encyclopedic treatise on Patrick, not his life story. In Appendix 2, I have set forth some of my suppositions and other notes concerning this supplemental information. As you will discover, I have used dialogue to relate most of the events of Patrick's life.
Obviously, in reconstructing such dialogue, I have exercised a bit of artistic license. However, when it is God who is speaking to Patrick in one of his dreams, I have used Patrick's literal language and footnoted where the passage can be found. Reconstructing the people who surrounded Patrick has been the hardest challenge.
Although Patrick mentions numerous people, he furnishes us with only four actual names: his grandfather, Potitus; his father, Calpornius; a man named Victoricus, who appears in a dream; and the petty British king, Coroticus. To bring Patrick's story to life, I have had to look elsewhere for the names and personalities of the people with whom he interacted. When possible, I have used names provided by Patrick's seventh-century biographers, Muirchu and Tirechan.
Otherwise, I have simply assigned typical period names to the people of Patrick's life. In Appendix 2, I have listed the names of the major people appearing in this biography and have explained whether they are historical, traditional, or literary. Acknowledgments. Special thanks go to my wonderful wife, Deborah, who encouraged me on this book and tirelessly proofread my manuscript. Thanks to our children, Andre, Heather, and Isaiah, who have never tired of hearing me relate the story of Patrick's life.
I am most grateful to Mike Wood, Jim Freeman, Chester Weaver, and Stephen Jane for their helpful input. I cannot thank Alex Alexander enough for his skillful help in designing the cover. I give my thanks to the kind people of Ireland who helped me get to know both the people and land of that beautiful country. Most of all, I am deeply indebted to Jilletta Eckhart, my editor, without whose help this story would never have come to life.