By_his_own

In Patrick’s writings, the Confession and the Letter to Coroticus, we have two unique, personal, spiritual documents from the darkest of the Dark Ages, fifth-century Northern Europe.

Indeed, they are the only personal documents that can be claimed by either the Church in Britain or the Church in Ireland from that troubled century. We Irish are, moreover, the only nation who have the great privilege of treasuring the writings of our Father in the faith about his founding of the Christian Church in our country.

Strictly speaking, the Confession is the testimony of Patrick’s vocation, his mission and a defence of that vocation and mission against those who falsely accused him. But it is far more than that.

It becomes a confession of sin, a confession of gratitude and a confession of faith in God, a triple confession like the Confessions of St. Augustine. Patrick was looking back over his life when he wrote the Confession a short time before his death, generally believed to be in the last quarter of the fifth century.

The Letter to Coroticus is an impassioned plea to a British warrior, or prince, named Coroticus, who had come into the country and massacred his recently baptised male converts and taken away the recently baptised womenfolk to sell into slavery.

This slavery or “white” martyrdom was worse than the “red” martyrdom of death because it was, for them, the martyrdom of surrendering their virginity. Patrick was appalled at this crime and wrote an impassioned letter urging Coroticus to repent, to return the captives and to do penance for his sins.

Máire Bríd de Paor pbvm