StP_FactandLegend

"Because I am exceedingly in debt to God ...that through me ...clerics should everywhere be ordained for a people newly come to belief whom the Lord took from the uttermost parts of the earth. ...they who never had knowledge of God, but up till now worshipped only idols and abominations are called children of God; sons of the Irish and daughters of their kings are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ."

How do we explain the great success of Patrick as a missionary? One thing we know about Patrick from the Confession and from the stories in the Lives and in our folklore is his sympathy and ease of relationship with the kings and nobles of Ireland in his time.

Patrick had one great advantage as a missionary: he spoke Irish fluently when he came back to Ireland as Bishop. His six years on the cold hillside as a slave stood to him as missionary. The human tragedy of his slavery was turned by God into a blessing.

In the Lives of Patrick, and in the folklore surrounding his first visit to Cashel, there is a lovely story about Patrick and Aengus, the son of the King of Munster. Patrick had preached to the royal family and the other nobles in the area. They had accepted Baptism, and during the ceremony Patrick, by accident, pierced the foot of Aengus with the sharp point of his crozier. Aengus bore the agony in silence; and when Patrick asked him why he had not complained, he answered: "Because I thought that it was the rule of faithe!"

Such - the Lives and the folklore of Cashel would have us believe - was the impact of Patrick's preaching on the newly converted!

an tAthair Pádraig Ó Máille S.P.S.