National Republican., 1883-03-17
WHO ST. PATRICK WAS.


WHO ST. PATRICK WAS.
In the old old days when Ireland had
kings and courts and the harp of the Huy
Neill sounded through Tara's halls in rivalry
with the bards of Eber at Cashel there came
into the green isle aWelshman named Malrwyr
or Succath, who, little later, under the name
of Patrick, won Tor himselfa crown of holiness
brighter than any man has worn since the mar
tyrdom of Paul. Tradition has carved its
arabesque wreathings and studded its spark
ling gems amid the historic jewels and
wreaths of that crown until the race, the
birthplace, and even the name of the great
saint had become wrapped iii the mists OF an
uncertainty almost as extensive as his reputa-
tion, and nearly as profound as his great
work. BY sOmo il was believed that he was
born in Scottish kirkpatrick, among the
Picts of Galloway. Others credited him with
Armorican birth, among the Nencdi giving
60 Brittany the honor of producing at once
the loftiest character and the noblest poem
of the Kettle races. Still Others honor the
modern Boulogne as his natal city, and the
Belgic Gauls as his father race And many
others insist that he first saw the light in tho
green old isle over which his genius and his
piety have shed halo of greatness unsur-
passed by any other of her countless heroes,
poets, and saints.
The truth is St. Patrick was born in Wales,
unuOuDUeuly Oh lrlbn DlOOu. III inc COHbJuuV
expeditions made into Britain by the Irish
he was captured when but boy and carried
into that country. Making his escape, he
was few years after again captured and
brought to Ireland ireland was then the
center of cultured civilization, Kettle and
Druidic, but equal in its kind to the Roman
cult it both despised and rejected The
land was filed with colleges, and the col
leges with the brightest students that
ever entered on curriculum. Tara was
capital worthy the one European civilization
that neither mingled with nor yielded to the
Roman while Cashel was its worthy rival,
even more intensely Milosian. In this land
came Patrick, and for years dwelt there until
one great purpose filled his soul. He became
possessed with tho dea of converting his
eountrymen to Christianity. For this purpose
he prepared himself, sought the blessing of
the pope on his mission, was consecrated
bishop in Scotland, and at the age of 90
crossed the channel to Ireland, where he lived
and wrought for siNty-three years-wrought
results surprising those of any other man be-
tween Paul and Luther, wrought on for years
past the average length of mans life, until on
that memorable seventeenth Of March, 405,
In the present county of Armagh, among the
ancient Ulaid, lac laid down his cross and
took up the crown so richly earned and doubt
less so noby won.
Tho importance of Patrick's work cannot
be overstated. Tradition has been buster and
more fruitful with him than with any other
man that ever lived But tradition has not
been able to make him myth, nor to dim the
outlines of his figure or his work. Though
not the first to attempt the Christianizing of
Ireland nor as wholly successful as he
Is generally assumed to have been, he was
the greatest, and is entitled to all the
honor and fame with which admiring graft
tude has crowned him-not the first, for
among Others the immortal Palladius preceded
himn-ot wholly successful during his life,
Tor DruidiC rites were observed u century
afer his death; among tho Firbolgs in the
forests west Of the Shannon and long after
tho Norman conquest the bards, inspired
with Druidic spirit, sang the glories
of every sept from Antrim to the south
ern lakes, from Tralee to Kildare. But
nowhere else in Europe among pagan peoples
had u theological conquest been more COM
plete and pure than was Patrick's among the
Irish. Its results were prodigious. For cen
turies the Irish church was the purest
in Europe. For centuries the profound
and brilliant Irish intellect furnished
the great luminaries Of Christianity
its triumphant champions against all
forms of skeptcsm, its most ardent aud sue.
Cesstul missionaries, its truest and ablest de-
tenders alike of individual liberty and church
unity. Disciples of Patrick converted the
Germans TO Christianity, carried the knowl-
edge of the true faith among the Slaves,
ohSstened and corrected the errors and false
doctrines of the Greeks, and steadily
rciuted the hercsies that yearly sprang
up among the Latns and amid the
insufcrable horrors Of the tyranny and per-
secution Of the Saxon and Norman English
for the past 200 years has the spirit of Patrick
survived among his cOuntrymon, helping them
TO Withstand succession of horrors that else
where has no parallel, not even In the iunCiful
imagination OF eastern romancers.
So the Irish of to-day, who parade to his
memory wherever the children OF the green
isle dwell, are paying morited homage to the
greatest figure of theological history that
Europe has seen since Paul was crucifed at
Rome in the insane times of the omperors