How the Sons of St. Patrick Preserved the West
When rattling off the names of those who have played a pivotal role in shaping Western civilization, figures such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Henry V, Christopher Columbus, William Shakespeare, the American Founding Fathers, Napoleon Bonaparte, and a handful of others — popes, princes, saints, and soldiers — spring readily to mind. One name which is often left out of the catalogue of greats, but without whom Western civilization may not exist, is that of St. Patrick.
What is fairly certain is that Patrick baptized thousands of the Irish, bringing them into the Christian Faith, and built numerous churches across the country.
On Monday, the Catholic Church — and much of the world — will celebrate the life and legacy of Ireland’s patron saint, but Patrick left a lasting impact on the Western world and his influence is still felt today. In fact, it is at least partly thanks to Patrick and his legacy that Western civilization as we know it exists today at all.
Known as the Apostle of Ireland, Patrick was not actually Irish. He was born in Roman-ruled Britain at the end of the fourth century. According to his Confession, Patrick was kidnapped by Irish pirates as a youth and sold as a slave in the Emerald Isle. During the six years he was enslaved, Patrick came to know and love the Irish people and their culture and he matured in his Christian faith. After escaping captivity, Patrick became a priest and, later, a bishop. He then returned to Ireland to preach the Faith to the people he had come to love so, and to sanctify their culture.
Patrick’s life was one full of adventure and wonder, yielding a host of stories, legends, and myths surrounding the saint. In one tale, Patrick accidentally stabbed the foot of a pagan king with his bishop’s crozier while baptizing him. Upon realizing, some time later, that he had pierced the king’s foot, Patrick asked why the king didn’t tell him. The king answered simply that he thought being stabbed in the foot was part of becoming a Christian, and was thus willing to suffer the pain. Other tales tell of Patrick banishing all snakes from Ireland, healing the sick, bringing cattle back from the dead, and even turning into a deer to escape from Irish pagans hunting him.
How St. Patrick Saved the West
What is fairly certain is that Patrick baptized thousands of the Irish, bringing them into the Christian Faith, and built numerous churches across the country, notably in Armagh, which is still the chief diocese in Ireland today. Thanks to Patrick, Christianity (specifically Catholicism) was the dominant religion in Ireland for nearly 1,500 years, training hundreds of thousands of priests, friars, monks, and missionaries.
It was those priests, friars, monks, and missionaries, the “sons of St. Patrick,” so to speak, who would prove crucial in saving Western civilization. When the Roman Empire fell, Europe descended into chaos. Barbarian hordes rampaged across the continent, resulting in the “dark ages” when the great light of Christianity and the lesser light of Rome were nearly extinguished. It was the Irish who lovingly preserved the flickering candle of Christianity when that of Rome was stamped out.
Irish monks had studied writing and art, mastering both, in order to copy Scripture and, partly due to the location of the wet, windy island and partly due to the defenses devised by the Irish themselves, were long able to withstand the ravages of the barbarians and maintain the knowledge — both the practical and the sacred — that they had learned. This knowledge was then spread to mainland Europe by Irish missionaries.
Reading and writing, sacred art, history, and even written records of Scripture were largely preserved by the Irish and “reintroduced” to the rest of Europe in the wake of Rome’s collapse. From the fall of Rome to the apex of the medieval ages, it was the “sons of St. Patrick” who reintroduced Western civilization to the West.
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