Six Years a Slave

Over the course of recent time tomorrow will be, particularly those of Irish ancestry or those who desire such for that one day a year, celebrated as a day to drink green beer, wear fifty shades of green, dress as a leprechaun, or attend a parade, perhaps even in a city who dyes its river green.  It is often used as an excuse to party, although those who party may know they are honoring a Saint, may even realize the Saint was a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church, and they are likely know that March 17 is his feast date, recognizing the date of his death.  But, it is likely few of those revelers truly understand the trials this man faced in late adolescence, his insecurity of not having completed his formal Roman education, how different was the message he preached, or the humility and, well, saintliness, in which he approached his work.  Even fewer would understand that the preservation of ancient western culture is in large part due to this one man.  To understand we need to take ourselves back in time over 1600 years ago, to a world quite different from our own.  In doing so one cannot look at the era long ago with the world view and values held today, but rather one needs to sense the values and conditions of that time.

But, first let us go back further (another 1,000 years) to about 600 BC when the tribe of Celts set up shop in Gaul, and in 400 BC would settle the Britain.  In 350 BC another group of Celts, likely from the Iberian Peninsula would settle in present day Ireland.  Two different ethnic groups would develop over the centuries, although linked by distant ancestry.  Britain would see itself become part of the Roman Empire and its civilizing effects in 43 AD.  Much of the occupation of Britain from that to the fall of the empire would end up falling within the Pax Romana, the great peace.  Yet, Rome would grow complacent and believe its past glories would forever continue.  It would be a victim of its own success (with the reasons why, a story in itself) when in 406 AD Vandels, Sueves, and Alans from the “other” side of the Rhine (that is what we know today as Germany) would cross the Rhine and end up wreaking havoc and destroying not only the empire built by Rome, but also much of western civilization.  Rome, the Eternal City, would fall in 410 AD. The chaos and destruction set forth by these groups would last through the mid to late 5^th century and its destruction would stop only at the Pyrenees.  The western portion of the empire would see its last emperor in 476 AD.  The relatively quick destruction of the one great power would leave a large vacuum and an unregulated Europe would struggle in the ruins of the once mighty Roman Empire.  It was a time of darkness. It would take time before the next institution would settle-in and bring order to the rampant disorder resulting from the barbarian invasions. As Thomas Cahill writes, a “world in chaos is not a world in which books are copied, and libraries maintained.” Likewise, he would note, it was not a world for which the schedules of learning and classes for young scholars is transmitted year by year. This is shown today by the conflict in Syria where, only a few years in UNICEF is concerned about a lost generation of Syrian students, who have no ability to learn within the strife presented.  Taken over more than three generations 1600 years ago when learning was not near as present as today and one gets a sense why the western world would enter into what is often termed the dark ages.

Celtic Settlements History

Not all barbarians were on the east side of the Rhine, there were also the Celts.  They populated the island we know as Ireland, never having truly known the benefits of a civilized life.  Not unlike their ancestors of central Europe they lived in tribes of extended families each family ruled by its own king, who was a rather ruthless tribal leader.  Tribes and clans retain their importance in society to this day, and these links go back to the early hunter-gatherer elements and early human mobility.  Perhaps it is part of our DNA.  Into this situation was a man to live, who would help alter the course of history.

Patricius was born in 387 AD to a father who was a curialist, perhaps a tax collector, in the Roman government which governed the place of his birth near present day Dumbarton, Scotland.  His mother, Conchessa, was a near relation to St Martin of Tours (316-397), patron of Gaul (France).  Patricius would have enjoyed an indulgent, comfortable upper-middle class life as a Roman citizen in the far outpost of the Empire. Patricius was not, at birth, Irish, he was a Briton, yet he has come to be synonymous with Ireland.  This is due to the most trying, and in hindsight, the most significant portion of his life.

Icon of St. Patrick

When Patricius was 16 years of age a large group of Celts set forth in their small water craft, to run up the west coast of Britain.  On this single trip they would capture 1,000’s of young persons to be sold into slavery.  Patricius would lose the benefits brought about by his family’s station at the periphery of the empire, and find himself a slave in or around Antrim.  What is interesting is that Ireland, not far from Britain was never part of the Roman Empire.  Perhaps the Romans thought it not worth an effort, or that the inhabiting Celts were not easily vanquished by the legions.  Through much of history the Romans seem to have never found a land they did not want, leading this writer to believe the reason is more the latter than the former.  If so, a testament to the warring skills of the Irish tribes.

Typical Irish Monastic Settlement from 6th century
Inishmore

As a slave, he found his primary duty was as a shepherd, a position as low then as it was 400 years earlier in Judea.  He was provided little clothing, and even less human contact. His owner, Miliucc, one of  likely 100's of local kings or tribal leaders, was not a nice man.  Cahill comments that “in the slavery business, no tribe was fiercer or more feared than the Irish.” Patricius did not really believe in God, and thought priests were foolish.  This even through his grandfather was a priest, his mother near related to Martin of Tours, and his father was said to be a deacon.  As a slave for six years, Patricius would learn lessons that would serve him the rest of his life.  In his most difficult ordeal, and with levels of deprivation we can only imagine, he would learn what it meant to pray. Prayer was his companion when he spent weeks on end in the verdant hills of Ireland tending the sheep of the slave owner.  Prayer was his comfort when he was faced with the tribulations of dealing with persons who thought they better than him.  Prayer brought him to the function as the had of God.  In his solitary confinement he recognized what it was to be silent and to listen.  Six years a slave, he had grown.  He had become a man that six years earlier he would never have imagined becoming—a holy man. 

His last night in captivity he would hear a voice which would inform him that his “hungers are rewarded: you are going home.”  As he sat up, startled, the voice would continue claiming “look your ship is ready.”  Miliucc’s farm was not near a sea, it was inland, and Patricius estimates he had traveled over 200 miles as a fugitive without being stopped and through land he had never traveled.  As he said: “I came in God’s strength…and had nothing to fear.”  He would come upon sailors loading a ship, whose captain eyed him suspiciously.  They did not wish to grant a fugitive travel.  Yet, as he was walking away rather discouraged, the sailors would call him back.  Three days later they found themselves on a continent desolated and deserted due to the ravages of the people from the other side of the Rhine.  For two weeks the group walked inland finding no food as all was destroyed.  At wits end the captain would taunt him, asking him to pray for food. He would respond that they should trust in God, and he will “send food for your journey until you are filled…”   As the ravished sailors lifted their heads having heard Patricius’ speak, having bowed due to the sincerity of this young man, they would find pigs heading down the road.  It would take a few more years for Patricius to make it back to Britain.

As Cahilll notes, the experience as a slave left him no longer as a carefree Roman, but “hardened physically and psychologically by un-sharable experiences hopelessly behind his peers in education.”  One night he would receive a letter simply reading Vox Hiberionacum, or The Voice of the Irish.  He would later hear the voice telling him to “come and walk among us once more.” Patricius would find his life changed and he would enter a phase that would earn him the name St. Patrick. 

He would enter a monastery in Gaul, likely one on an island off-shore of present day Cannes.  Here would feel inadequate with a formal education halted by his six years as a slave.  Yet he would persevere.  What he had learned as a slave well prepared him for his voyage back to Ireland.  He learned humility, and serenity, but also about the tribal customs, networks and language of those inhabiting the island west of Britain.  He was perhaps the first missionary, after St. Thomas I suspect, to go beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire.  The first to go to the barbarians.  The first to Christianize a people without martyrdom.  The first to unequivocally speak against slavery (and no other voice was as strong from then until the 17^th century).  Irish slavery would end about the time of his death in 461 (although some reports have him living until 490’s).  Additionally, a Celtic people heavily into warring would reduce other forms of violence most notably murder and inter-tribal warfare concomitant with the end of slavery.  He successfully was able to redefine pagan virtues as Christian virtues.  He is no longer one with his place of birth.  He has operated at the margins of geography, of human consciousness and his sense as a Briton.  He well knew the snobbery of the better educated Roman citizens which would make him feel inadequate. For he is known to have said “Is it a shameful thing ...that we have been born in Ireland?”  His six years a slave perhaps gave him, through prayer, a new birth, it was his epiphany.  Patrick’s gift to Ireland was his Christianity--the first Christianity not linked to the Roman Empire in history.  He took Ireland from chaos to peace.  Some historians believe that the far south of Ireland saw Christianity before the re-arrival of Patrick in 433. Yet, this does not diminish the affects or totality of Patrick’s remarkable efforts.

Even though his formal education may have been cut short, he realized the benefits of an educated populace.  These acts would set the stage for a re-flowering of the continent after the dark dreary times imposed by the Vandals, Sueves and Alans on the populations of the Roman Empire.  Much was lost during this period, but some was saved by solitary monks working in the stone beehives of Ireland.  Apart from continental Europe, these monks did not censor.  Within 200 years of the death of St Patrick, one of these Irish monks would re-establish centers of learning in Europe, and it is this man that the Bohmemian Havel (Americanized as Hovel) surname recognizes. This all emanates from Patrick.  Once again, Cahill:

Patrick prayed, made peace with God, and then looked not only into his own heart but into the hearts of others.  What he saw convinced him of the bright side—that even slave traders can turn into liberators, even murders and peacemakers, even barbarians can take their places among the nobility of the heavens.

Beehives constructed by Irish Monks.
Some dating to 600's or earlier still stand to this day
Dry-stone construction, i.e. no mortar is used

Patrick would provide a confidence little known or understood to those he approached.  This confidence, combined with his humility and sincerity, was key to his ability to evangelize and yet to avoid martyrdom.  I think he knew he would remain safe, as he had experienced what can happen when he relied on the one who sustained him during his years of captivity.  The well-known prayer, St. Patrick’s Breastplate, has as it last words a simple acknowledgement:  “Of the Creator of Creation.”  He knew that God loved all, a rather different calculation than the pagan druids.

This Bishop of Ireland was meek and humble person in whom people recognized goodness and sincerity.  Even the most battle hardened Celts recognized in him the hand of God.  He embodied the true sense of a Christian.  So, if you do or do not partake in drinking green beer tomorrow, or wear a funny shade of green, perhaps you can take some time to reflect on the changes one man made to this world--how he gathered strength from despair, worked to end slavery and reduce violence, and helped to preserve works from a western civilizations so that they remain in our midst.  His value is more than a parade, his idea more than green beer, and his mark on history flows more than a river dyed green.  

I conclude with a poem by the Irishman Joseph Mary Plunkett (1876-1916):

 I see his blood upon the rose  
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,  
His body gleams amid eternal snows,  
His tears fall from the skies. 

I see his face in every flower; 
The thunder and the singing of the birds 
Are but his voice – and carven by his power 
Rocks are his written words. 

All pathways by his feet are worn, 
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea, 
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, 
His cross is every tree.

Have a good and enjoyable St. Patrick's day.