From Patricius to St. Patrick: Part 1

March 17 celebrates the birth and life of St. Patrick of Ireland. The blogs this week will focus upon the legacy we have received from St. Patrick and the Celtic stream of Christianity and Spirituality. The Celtic stream has existed alongside the Roman and Greek streams for almost as long as Christianity has been in existence. St. Patrick is a good representative of this stream and its history.


A few things need to be kept in mind when studying St. Patrick. The first is that he was not Irish. He was in fact, British, perhaps even the child of Roman colonists in what is now known as Scotland or in Northumbria. His parents were named Calpurnius and Conchessa, and Patrick's full name was actually Patricius Magonus Sucatus. Most accounts place his birth at Kilpatrick near Dumbarton, Scotland, in the year 387. What a Roman outpost was doing that far north is a curiosity to me, but I am not that fully acquainted with the history of the settling and conquest of the lands we now know as the United Kingdom. As a case in point, the Anglo Saxons had not yet invaded Briton, so it was not even known yet as England (Anglo-land) or Angle Terre, as the French French call it. Most of the peoples were descendants of a vast Celtic migration that centuries earlier had spread across central Europe, through Anatolia (present-day Turkey) and westward to western Europe and on to the British Isles. 


Patrick himself was thus more likely to have been of Roman descent than of celtic origins. There are traditions stemming from one of the few documents authentically attributable to Patrick (St. Patrick's Confession) that he had nearly rejected the Christianity of his parents in a pattern that should be recognizable to anyone who is now going through adolescence or has survived that period in their life. what turned his life around was an experience of being captured and taken into slavery by pirates who sold him to a petty Irish warlord. 


More on this tomorrow...


[Image info: {{Flickr |description={{en|Saint Patrick stained glass window from Cathedral of Christ the Light, Oakland, CA.}} |flickr_url=http://flickr.com/photos/mariya_umama_wethemba_monastery/775890856/ |title=St. Patrick |taken=Taken on February 3, 2009 |photogra)]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creating the Beloved Community

Over the course of the next three Sundays, January 10, 17 and 24, I will be preaching on The Beloved Community. Creating the Beloved Community was an idea that was central to the thinking and work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Accordingly, my blogs for the next three weeks will explore aspects of Dr. King's thought and practice that relate to this idea. In addition, I'm going to explore how Dr. King's religious faith found expression in political and social action, all of it filtered through the lens of the Beloved Community. A good overview of Dr. King's concept is found in an article by Kenneth  L. Smith and Ira G. Zepp, Jr. entitled "Martin Luther King's Vision of the Beloved Community."  The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia is also an excellent place to find out about Dr. King's ideas and work. The Martin Luther King, Jr., National Day of Service has extensive information concerning the 40 Day Pledge of Nonviolence .  These are all good
Read more

Salt, Light and Congruent Lives

Image
Main Point for the sermon this week: There is power in religion to align our lives with our deepest values and beliefs. Matthew 5:13-20 ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.  ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.  ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others
Read more

Is the UMC an Old Car?

Image
When I was in graduate school in the mid-90s, I drove a 1980 Toyota Corolla. It had a standard transmission, manually-operated windows, and no air conditioning. But it was fairly dependable for the decade I drove it. During graduate school, it got me between Salem, Oregon, and Berkeley, California, at least once a month, as I returned home to see my family. The drive North and South could be a trial during the Summer months, especially in the Central Valley when the temperatures reached 115°. Not having air conditioning was a problem, so I figured out a system wherein I wrapped an ice cube in a bandana and wrapped it around my forehead, and drove with the windows down. The rapidly-evaporating ice cube cooled my head, but I had to add a new ice cube every rest stop. But it worked. It was not a glorious or glamorous car, but it got me dependably between Point A and Point B. I used it to take my German student friends to experience the Redwoods and to drive down Highway 1 to Claremo
Read more