St. Patrick video

Pie and Coffee proudly presents: “The Real Saint Patrick” by The Duffy Brothers.

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* SEE! Saint Patrick stickfighting with a leprechaun!

* HEAR! Saint Patrick talk about his life!

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The Real Saint Patrick

by Michael Cahill

St. Patrick lived in a time of great violence and martyrdom. Although most stories about the saint are legendary, scholars claim two writings are authentically his: the well-known Confessio and the lesser-known Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus. Both of these writings reveal a very humble and non-violent person who had a great faith in the Trinity.

St. Patrick rejected the life of “nobility,” “municipal senator,” and his patriarchal title, to be in solidarity with the poor slaves in Ireland, because “God respects the estate of the lowest.”

St. Patrick’s counterpart today would be Oscar Romero. Like Romero, he rejected the abuse of power and militarism in his day. “Not only those committing this evil but those who consent to it shall also be condemned.”

Like other Fathers of the Church he spoke out clearly against war and the military, quoting scripture.

“Thou shalt not kill. Homocide cannot be with Christ. He who hates his brother is a murderer. He who does not love his brother abides in death.”

Like John Paul II—who said to youth in Ireland, “I beg you on my knees not to listen to those who train you in the ways of violence”—St. Patrick said to his people, “I beg you, you who are holy and humble of heart, not to suffer yourselves to be flattered or deceived by such persons, not to take meat or drink with them, nor to receive alms from them, until they atone to God and those for whom Christ died and was crucified.”

St. Patrick’s letter to the soldiers speaks to us today concerning the deceased whom “the sword has cruelly exterminated: for it is written—weep with those that weep, and again if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.”

All quotes are from “Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus.”