Celtic Cross sculpture by Redmond Herrity in Letterkenny, County Donegal
How About a Traditional St. Patrick’s Day?
March, 2010
St. Patrick didn’t drink. In fact, one of the things the Celtic chieftains admired in him was that he could get a good night’s sleep without the drink. Sausage and salted pork are traditional Irish meats; corn beef is American. Cromwell’s armies brought cabbage to Ireland. The Celts wouldn’t have worn green, either—it’s the color of things that die. Purple was the color preferred by royals.
St. Patrick’s Day in America has morphed, party-animal style, into a day to get drunk or, insult-the-earth style, into an excuse to dump green dye in the Chicago River and foam it up. Patrick’s life and the many good stories about him are worth remembering. It seems necessary, too, for most people, including many Irish Americans, to know the real St. Patrick.
St. Patrick was the first published anti-slave activist in history. At a time when British Christians were stealing Irish from along the east coast of Ireland, Patrick wrote: “…But it is the women kept in slavery who suffer the most—and who keep their spirits up despite the menacing and terrorizing they must endure. The Lord gives grace to his many handmaids.” During his life, Patrick negotiated with the court of Coroticus in England for the release of slaves, and, by the end of his life, the Irish slavery trade came to a halt.
Patricius (Patrick) himself, as a boy, was captured in England and made a slave in Ireland, probably around 400 AD. Part of his indenture was guarding sheep up in the mountains, with little clothing to keep him warm, for six years. Then one night he heard a voice in a dream: “You’re hungers are rewarded; you are going home.” He awoke and the voice continued, “”Look, your ship is ready.” He walked two hundred miles to the coast and hitched a ride on a ship carrying Irish hounds back to England.
It took him a few years to make it home. Even then he could not settle himself down, nor make up the years of schooling he had lost. Once night, again in a dream, a man he had known in Ireland, held up letters to him with the inscription, Vox Hibernacum—Voice of the Irish. Patrick then heard the voice of a multitude near a forest on the western sea, crying, “We beg you to come home and walk among us.”
Patrick studied for the priesthood and was then ordained both priest and bishop. He returned to Ireland around 432 A.D. to begin his mission. He traveled Ireland carrying a bata (stick) made of unblemished hazelwood, like the druids would have. But the druids didn’t welcome the competition. It is said that once Patrick and his disciples escaped their enemies in the woods when Patrick said a prayer (now known as St. Patrick’s Lorica) and turned himself into a deer and turned his followers into birds who rode his back out of the forest entrapment. A fine pagan miracle for a Catholic saint to be performing!
I hope those who are not Christian, or even those of us who are no longer Catholic, will forgive the following, but it is part of the historical record that Patrick taught the Irish to give up blood sacrifice (of humans) because he convinced them that the Sacrifice (on the Cross) had already been made. Patrick transmuted the pagan values of loyalty, courage, and generosity into faith, hope, and charity, as writer Thomas Cahill pointed out. Patrick affirmed the natural mysticism of the Irish that the whole world is holy, a legacy not to be lost in our own times of ecological crisis. In the 7th centrury, Adomnán (biographer of St. Colum Cille) extended the peace legacy by raising, for the first time, the Law of Innocents: no women and children killed in Irish wars.
Nor was this conversion of the Celts an easy task. The Irish were a tough lot. It’s said that one time Patrick was baptizing the King of Muenster and he inadvertently jammed the crozier (the bishop’s pointed staff) through the King’s foot. The King did not wince. When Patrick finally noticed what he’d done, he said, “Oh, my God, why didn’t you say something.?” The King said, “I thought it was part of the ceremony.”
The Irish respected Patrick. He was a brave man of peace. He loved the land and people of Ireland. He slept soundly without drink or bad dreams. How did it become that the Irish are said to drink so much? Two historical reasons may be: first, way back in time, it was a way to make sure the water was safe to drink (rationalization though it appears); and second, in subsequent centuries when only the oldest son could inherent land in Ireland, it became unofficial State and Church policy to let (encourage) young men drink all they wanted in the taverns, so they would never consummate certain relationships and inherent a wife and children they could not provide for. There are better forms of birth control for the planet now.
Why then should we be celebrating boozing so much? Drinking your way to a good time or to good art is as inspiring as buying autographed pictures of the Saint at the top of Croagh Patrick.
Matt Talbot (1856-1925) was a Dublin trade unionist and recovered alcoholic who gave most of his money to the poor. Matt Talbot Recovery Centers dot the planet nowadays: in my own Milwaukee, in Seattle, even in Poland, Australia, Scotland, and, of course, Dublin. Some Native Americans (whose cultures make sobriety spiritual as well as anti-racist work) have lobbied the Pope to make the Venerable Matt Talbot into an official Catholic Saint. He could be remembered as an Irish fighter against the slavery of addictions.
This time of year, your local area might have cultural activities worth celebrating. UW Milwaukee’s Celtic Studies often has Gaelic language gatherings, film and history events, music, or cultural lectures. Certainly there is fine Irish music to be found in many corners during March’s madness. Why couldn’t the fine art be toasting, storytelling, sporting, and singing without the alcohol?
This one time it was said, that Patrick was fasting and a mist came down from the mountain. Demons tempted and tormented him, but Patrick defeated them by throwing a bell into the mist. A bell is a call—a call to action, a sponsor’s call, a wake-up call. Ring your own bell. Or check out St. Patrick’s bell in the Irish National Museum.
Wear purple and have a peaceful and sober St. Patrick’s Day.
Rick Whaley, for the oggblog.com
Sources:
Patrick’s Confession and Letters
Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization (Doubleday, 1995)
Prof. John Gleeson’s Irish history and culture lectures at UW Milwaukee
Charlene Spretnak’s The Spirituality of Green Politics (Bear & Company, 1986): a call to and traditions for working with faith-based ecologists.