The name of St. Patrick will be forever linked to the Christian Faith in Ireland. Though Christianity—and even Christian clergy—existed in Ireland from the 4th century, it was not until the arrival of St. Patrick that the Christian Faith began to take root. The influence of Patrick on Irish Christianity was immense, not only in his day but for centuries afterward.
While the early life of Patrick as a slave is well-known, less is known about his latter days, specifically the nature of a controversy he found himself embroiled in with the bishops of Britain during the end of his ministry.
Though Patrick traveled throughout Ireland, the center of his mission seems to have been in the north, in Ulster and Meath, and for many years his efforts were focused on these regions. But as Patrick’s influence grew, his mission expanded, overlapping with the older Christian settlements in the south. There must have been difficult conversations between Patrick and the existing Gaelic bishops, who no doubt would have been reluctant to acknowledge the authority of a Romano-British outsider like Patrick. Tradition tells us, for example, that as St. Patrick made his way through Leinster, the Gaelic bishop St. Ibar at first refused to recognize his authority; and there were probably many such cases. Ultimately, however, Patrick had a commission from Rome, which gave him considerable authority. Eventually, the other Gaelic bishops came to respect Patrick and yielded to his authority.
Gradually Patrick’s fame spread even further, and word of his successes came to Christian Britain. The British Church was not sure what to make of this slave-turned-bishop, and Patrick’s work ended up arousing the hostility of the British bishops. Envious of St. Patrick’s success, the British bishops persuaded an old friend of Patrick to spill secrets about the saint’s past. Patrick tells us in his autobiography:
They dug up a pretext against me from thirty years before, a deed I had confessed just before I was made deacon . . . something I had done one fateful day as a boy. I do not even know whether I was yet fifteen at the time. (Confession, 27)
What was this mysterious sin, so scandalous that the mere retelling of it thirty years hence was enough to compromise Patrick? Was it some sort of dalliance with the local pagan cults? Perhaps a sexual sin? It’s hard to say, as Patrick prudently chose to leave it unexplained.
But whatever its nature, news of it caused a tremendous uproar among the British clergy. St. Patrick was deeply embarrassed at his youthful sins being aired abroad, and he was wounded by the betrayal of his friend. The British bishops used this sin to challenge his suitability for the lofty office he held, suggesting that Patrick should resign his bishopric and yield control of the burgeoning Irish Church to another—presumably from Britain.
Patrick’s response was to put quill to parchment, and the result was the Confession, an impassioned defense of his life and ministry written as an autobiography. Patrick seems to have suspected the real reason the British bishops opposed him was good old-fashioned snobbery; in the Confession, he compares their learning and eloquence with his rusticity:
They seem to polish their perfection without apparent effort; in contrast all my writing, every word I speak, has to be translated into a foreign tongue . . . they do not know how to deal with my homespun ways and lack or learning. (Confession, 78)
Though Patrick had been successful as a missionary, he considered himself somewhat of a country-bumpkin who struggled to express his thoughts in Latin. Elsewhere in his autobiography, he says he is “more rustic than any man you care to name: an exile, unschooled, that much is plain . . . I still blush and fear more than anything to have my lack of learning brought out into the open. For I am unable to explain my mind to learned people” (Confession, 9).
Patrick’s lament about his difficulty discoursing with learned people reveals that he struggled with Latin, the language of education. This was apparently a source of embarrassment for him, as he says that, even late in life, he would still “blush and fear more than anything” to have his unlearned, rustic character thrown in his face. Patrick believed this was at the heart of the British bishops’ opposition to his work.
We don’t know how his Confession was received. But since he has gone down in history as one of the greatest saints in the Catholic Church, we may presume things turned out alright for Patrick in this controversy.
There are so many traditions about St. Patrick that it’s hard to disentangle truth from pious legend. The date of his death is not even certain; the most ancient traditions place his death in 492, while modern scholars tend to favor 461. He was buried on the Hill of Down in a place now known as Downpatrick, in County Down, Northern Ireland. His tomb can still be seen there today, in the open air outside Down Cathedral marked by a massive stone.
St. Patrick’s legacy is so immense that it is difficult to discuss—the entire course of Irish Christianity is stamped with his image. Whatever the nature of his controversy with the bishops of Britian, it is certain that it has not harmed his reputation in the long run. In fact, from uprooting his testimony of it, we might learn how to bear humiliations and betrayals humbly, without allowing our faithful mission to waiver.
St. Patrick, pray for us!
Image from National Gallery of Ireland