Page 68 - Demo

68 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
During Patrick’s time in Ireland some 300 churches were founded, the greatest of them being that which he himself founded at Ard Mhacha-‘Armagh,’ about the year 444. As a result of Patrick having destined Armagh to be a great city, from his day to the present, Ar- magh has been the seat of the Irish primacy. Furthermore, the school which developed there in the centuries succeeding Patrick gained such a reputation that it drew to it scholars from across the globe, as well as from the four corners of Ireland. So it was that from Armagh, Patrick spent several years of moderate tranquility directing and strengthening the religious affairs of the country. It is claimed that he then retired to the site of his first church at Sab- hall, where in or about the year 461 he died. Tradition informs us that Tassach, the Bishop of Raholp, administered the last rites to him on his death-bed. Patrick was waked for twelve days, which days were afterwards known as Laethe na Caointe-‘The Days of Lamentation’, when it is told, an entire nation bewailed Patrick’s passing, as the most mournful loss it had ever known. Legend has it that during the twelve nights succeeding his death, an angelic radiance lit up all the territory wherein his body lay, so that there was no night.
It would appear that Patrick’s labours in Ireland genuinely succeeded in changing the nature of the Irish people. From finding them a fierce martial race, who were fond of war- ring, yet at the same time, also a remarkably civilized and learned race, he left them a more peaceful people, given to a new learning and piety. The poet Caoilte said of him: “There was a demon at the butt of every grass-blade in Eire before thy advent; but at the butt of every grass-blade in Eire to-day there is an angel.”
Two writings of Patrick’s are in existence: his Confessio or Confession, an account of his life and work, which we referenced earlier, and his Letter or Epistle to Coroticus. This Coroticus was a British chief who made raids into Ireland, slaughtered many, and carried off captives- among them being scores of newly converted and baptised Christians. Both of these works are preserved in the ancient Book of Armagh into which they were copied about the year 810 by the scribe Ferdomnach, who states that he copied them from the manuscripts in Patrick’s own handwriting. Furthermore, both documents were written in poor Latin, ‘rugged and abrupt,’with little of the grace and dignity associated with that classical language, a style which shows Patrick, to be what he confessed to being- ‘a humble and weak scholar’.
He begins his Epistle to Coroticus with the words: “I, Patrick, the sinner, unlearned, no doubt”; and begins his Confession: “I, Patrick, a sinner, the most rustic and the least of all the faithful.” Yet, despite this direct simplicity, there is also a convincing manner, charm, and
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