Nearly every myth associated with St Patrick has been discredited. He did not bring Christianity to Ireland, he did not banish select parts of the fauna and he is technically not a saint (having never been officially canonised).
Catholicism was a different beast on the wild western edges of Europe in the fifth century. The rules were flexible. Teaching warped and twisted in different localities to be more relevant and easily accepted by reticent pagans.
It is not often discussed now, and is more often swept under the carpet, but priests of the time married. And they had children. For centuries, even popes got in on the act.
For example, Pat’s dad was a British deacon, Calpornius. His granddad was also a priest, Potitus. Family get-togethers must have been a right laugh, as Pat himself describes himself as a sixteen year old non-believer.
In other words, Ireland’s patron saint was a teenage rebel, going against his forebears’ convictions. He probably hung out on mudhut corners, smoking and drinking mead, trying to get into local wenches’ undergarments and wearing a black hooded tunic.
Bibliography
Patrick dissected by Heidi Toth on Suite 101
Our Lady of the Rosary Library on St Patrick (Ultra conservative Catholics, surprise, surprise, don’t mention the whole snakes thing)
As ever, Wikipedia
Patrick’s Memoir, his Confessio
Medieval Ireland, Gerhard Richter, Gill and Macmillan, 2005
This article was posted by Ronan McDonnell on
Monday, October 10th, 2011 at
12:02.
It is archived in Short Post and tagged bishop, catholic, clerical marriage, Ireland, st patrick, teenager.
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