Sixteen hundred years ago, in Roman-ruled Wales, a well-off teenager called Patricius was ripped from civilisation and taken as a slave to serve king Miliucc, one of the many hundreds of Gaellic chieftains currently ruling over the rich and wild lands of the Irish.
There were no Irish towns in 401AD, this was a vast land with a complicated society scattered throughout with farm holdings and war tribes who were ruled by the strongest -male, female it didn’t matter- and all subject to the whims and mysteries of the ancient spirits of the land.
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Despite being cut off from most people in a foreign country and forced into the hungry, isolated life of a shepherd-slave, Patricius showed amazing resilience as he grew from boy to man in the cold and beautiful hills of Antrim. Never one for religion in his youth, he found himself developing a deep spirituality inexplicably centred around a faith in the Christian god, and his holiness helped him endure 6 years of lonely suffering. He found peace in his situation, but after hearing a voice in a dream that told him to “go and seek his ship”, he mustered the courage to escape from his bondage and find his way home. Easier said than done- he was deep inland between Lough Neagh and the mountains of Sliabh Mis- nowhere at all near the coast.
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Walking some two hundred miles from the inland hills of Antrim to the ocean, Patricius risked recapture and murder as he navigated the dangerous territory of his Irish captors. He somehow acquired money for passage on a ship and despite obviously being a slave, convinced the Irish sailors to take him with them to the European mainland- bad timing, since this was around the time the Roman Empire’s borders had fallen to a hundred thousand hungry Germans who were at that moment swarming across the continent ravaging everything in their path (407-8AD).
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After several years of schrewd survival and some heaven-sent good luck, Patricius finally made it home to his adoring- and most likely gobsmacked- parents back in Welsh Britain. The Roman garrison had recently abandoned the isle (409AD) but Britain was still holding onto the structure of the old society. A Roman school drop-out like Patricius was completely unfit for any respected position in the soft and comfortable life of a Roman, and he found himself longing to return to the country where he was once enslaved amongst the strange, passionate, violent and beautiful people who called the Irish lands home.
Despite abysmal holes in his interrupted education due to his years of enslavement, and possessing a very simple, sometimes embarrassingly awkward grasp of Latin, Patricius laboured for years in Gaul and finally attained a theological qualification to become a priest and a bishop, which set him up to do the unthinkable for any sensible Roman citizen- leave the ordered safety of urban life and head out to the people of the country-literally pāgānus in Latin, from which we get “pagan”- immersing himself in the world beyond.
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No more a slave-shepherd to the Gaelic king and a qualified man of books, Patricius returned to the land that was once his prison with the full support of the Christian church, but his passion was entirely driven by love for the Irish people. His deep sympathy for the individual endeared him to the warrior people, and his genuine commitment to their happiness -physically in this world and spiritually in the great beyond- gave him widespread respect and acceptance among the violent Irish society.
A former slave himself, he became the first person in recorded history to speak out strongly against the slave trade, which was -astonishingly- abolished in Ireland during or soon after his death (461AD). The next outspoken slavery reformers would not appear for another 1300 years.
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Loyal, caring, cultural-accepting and fearless, Patricius won over the proud Gaelic people and instilled in them the value of education, at the same time convincing them the value of their immortal soul. Far at the edge of the rest of the world a new type of Christianity developed that was- for the first time in centuries- not intrinsically attached to Roman culture. Now truly an Irishman, Patrick also spoke out for the rights of women whom he recognised as often enduring a lot of the same treatment as slaves. During Patrick’s last 30 years of life, he influenced the development of education and peace throughout the recently-turbulent Ireland, even while the rest of Europe was hurtling into chaos as the Roman Empire well and truly fell apart.
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Across the known world, barbaric people looted artifacts and burned the records of Western literature. The only place unaffected by the madness was the distant backwater kingdoms of Ireland. Patrick’s newly literate Irish Christians faithfully scribed everything they could get their hands on, holding it safely for the hundred or so years it took for Medieval society to establish itself amongst the smoking wreckage of the ancient world. Once the darkest age had passed, Western heritage flowed back into Europe through monasteries, although some of it now contained a distinctly Irish twist.
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Most historians overlook this extraordinary near-miss of the 5th century apocalypse and the role the Irish had in preserving what was nearly lost. The humanity and extraordinary life of Patrick directly led to the existence of the Irish monks, who preserved and gave us back to the world the thousands of years of cultural heritage from the brink of certain destruction that it almost endured.
So go and raise a glass and wear the colour green, if you will, but just remember to say a “cheers” for Patricius.
Happy St Patrick’s Day.
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(This story was written by me and any mistakes or inaccuracies are my fault. It is largely based on what I learned from the book “How the Irish Saved Civilisation” by Thomas Cahill)
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