Title Reveal!

(I think) I've been waiting for this day to finally reveal what the title of this blog comes from.

I'm sure some of you already knew this, and I might have let it slip earlier, but here's the full quotation on this beautiful day!

St. Patrick's Confessio

1 I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our desserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.
2 And there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied my youth and ignorance. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.
3 Therefore, indeed, I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper, so many favours and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity. For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him, our way to repay him is to exalt him and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven.
4 For there is no other God, nor ever was before, nor shall be hereafter, but God the Father, unbegotten and without beginning, in whom all things began, whose are all things, as we have been taught;and his son Jesus Christ, who manifestly always existed with the Father, before the beginning of time in the spirit with the Father,indescribably begotten before all things, and all things visible and invisible were made by him. He was made man, conquered death and was received into Heaven, to the Father who gave him all power over every name in Heaven and on Earth and in Hell, so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, in whom we believe. And we look to his imminent coming again, the judge of the living and the dead, who will render to each according to his deeds. And he poured out his Holy Spirit on us in abundance, the gift and pledge of immortality, which makes the believers and the obedient into sons of God and co-heirs of Christ who is revealed, and we worship one God in the Trinity of holy name.
5 He himself said through the prophet: 'Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.' And again: 'It is right to reveal and publish abroad the works of God.'

In case it's not immediately obvious :) a "confessio" is a confession. St. Patrick wrote this when he came under attack from bishops and priests back home. They accused him of being an upstart basically, they might have been afraid of how quickly he had managed to convert the majority of Ireland and they were probably a tad jealous, since the Germanic tribes they were working on were far more stubborn.

If you read through the confession you can learn a few major things.
1. Saint Patrick is a picture of humility.
2. Saint Patrick wasn't perfect. He admits to having committed a grievous sin in his youth. Scholars still debate what the sin might have been.
3. Saint Patrick knew his Bible!
4. Saint Patrick was courageous. He went through a lot.

There's also a letter attributed to him written to Coroticus, a leader of supposedly Christian men. This letter is fascinating. The main purpose of the letter is to beg for the release of Christian Irish men and women who were taken into slavery by Coroticus' men. As you know, Patrick himself was taken into slavery by Irish pirates, so for this to happen to his own recently converted Irish, it must have been devastating to him.

As you can read on the sign, in Irish he is called Naomh Pádraig (neehv pah-drigc)
I wish we had some more historically accurate renditions of St. Patrick. He probably didn't wear green, or even a bishop's hat, I bet he did have the staff though.

And, yes, the banishing of the snakes is a myth, but one with a purpose. It's believed there never were snakes in Ireland at all since the Ice Age. The story worked as a way of explaining why there were no snakes, and as a way of demonstrating that St. Pádriag's God was real, because God gave the saint power over nature.

Another idea is that the druids may have been known as "snakes," so the story is meant to be read as St. Patrick cast out the druids.