St. pAtRicK'S CONfESSiON: (cHAptERS 4-5)

Ancient Celtic Christian Monastery Ruins - Inishmurray, County Sligo, Ireland (Photo: © Irish Tourist Board)

                               

                                  “The LORD is near to all that call upon him;                                     to all that call upon Him in truth.” 

       -Psalm 145:18

St. pAtRicK'S CONfESSiON: ApOStLE tO iRELANd

cHAptER 4 (Of 5)

   

 Now, it would be tedious to give a detailed account of all my labors or even a part of them. 

 

Let me tell you briefly how the merciful God freed me from slavery and from twelve dangers in which my life was at stake — not to mention numerous plots, which I cannot express in words; for I do not want to bore my readers. 

 

     But God is my witness, who knows all things even before they come to pass, as He used to forewarn even me, poor wretch that I am, of many things by a divine message.  

 

How came I by this wisdom, which was not in me, who neither knew the number of my days nor knew what God was? 

 

There was given to me afterwards the gift so great, so salutary—to know God and to love Him, although at the price of leaving my country and my parents?

    

And many gifts were offered to me in sorrow and tears, and I offended the donors, much against the wishes of some of my seniors; but, guided by God, in no way did I agree with them or acquiesce. 

 

It was not grace of my own, but God, who is strong in me and resists them all. 

 

As He had done when I came to the people of Ireland to preach the Gospel, and to suffer insult from the unbelievers. 

 

     Hearing the reproach of my going abroad, and many persecutions even unto bonds, and to give my free birth for the benefit of others. 

 

Should I be worthy, I am prepared to give even my life without hesitation and most gladly for His name, and it is there that I wish to spend it until I die, if the Lord would grant it to me.

 

     For I am very much God’s debtor, who gave me such grace that many people were reborn in God through me and afterwards confirmed, and that clerics were ordained for them everywhere.  

 

     For a people just coming to the faith, whom the Lord took from the utmost parts of the earth, as He once had promised through His prophets: “To You the gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say: ‘How false are the idols that our fathers got for themselves, and there is no profit in them.'”  

 

And again: “I have set Thee as a light among the gentiles, that Thou mayest be for salvation unto the utmost part of the earth.”

 

     And there I wish to wait for His promise who surely never deceives, as He promises in the Gospel: “They shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob” — as we believe the faithful will come from all the world.

    

For that reason, therefore, we ought to fish well and diligently, as the Lord exhorts in advance and teaches, saying: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  

 

And again He says through the prophets: “Behold, I send many fishers and hunters,” says God, and so on.  

    

Therefore,  it was most necessary to spread our nets so that a great multitude and throng might be caught for God, and that there be clerics everywhere to baptize and exhort a people in need and want, as the Lord in the Gospel states, exhorts and teaches, saying:

 

“Go now, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever that I have commanded you: and behold I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

 

     And again He says: ‘Go  into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to everyone.  Those that believe and are baptized shall be saved; but those that do not believe shall be condemned.”  

 

And again: “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations, and then shall come the end.” 

 

     And so too the Lord announces through the prophet, and says: “And it shall come to pass, in the last days, says the Lord: ‘I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.  

 

And upon my servants, and upon my handmaids I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.'”

    

And in Hosea, He says: “I will call those who were not my people, my people; …and those that had not obtained mercy, to be those that  have obtained mercy.  And it shall be in the place where it was said: ‘You are not my people; there they shall be called the children of the living God.'”

    

Then how did it come to pass in Ireland that those who never had a knowledge of God, but until now always worshipped idols and things impure, have now been made a people of the Lord, and are called sons and daughters of God, and that the sons and daughters of the kings of the Irish are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ?

    

Among others, a blessed Irishwoman of noble birth, beautiful, full-grown, whom I had baptized, came to us after some days for a particular reason: she told us that she had received a message from a messenger of God, and He admonished her to be a virgin of Christ and draw near to God. 

 

Thanks be to God, on the sixth day after this she most laudably and eagerly chose what all virgins of Christ do. 

 

     Not that their fathers agree with them: no — they often ever suffer persecution and undeserved reproaches from their parents; and yet their number is ever increasing. 

 

How many have been reborn there so as to be of our kind, I do not know — not to mention widows and those who practice continence.

 

     But greatest is the suffering of those women who live in slavery. 

All the time they have to endure terror and threats. 

 

But the Lord gave His grace to many of His maidens; for, though they are forbidden to do so, they follow Him bravely.

 

     Therefore, then, even if I wished to leave them and go to Britain — and how I would have loved to go to my country and my parents; and also to Gaul, in order to visit the brethren and to see the face of the saints of my Lord! 

 

     God knows it!  That I much desired it; but I am bound by the Spirit, who bears witness against me if I do this, telling me that I shall be guilty; and I am afraid of losing the labour which I have begun — nay, not I, but Christ the Lord who bade me come here and stay with them for the rest of my life, if the Lord will, and will guard me from every evil way that I may not sin before Him.

 

     This, I believe, I ought to do, but I do not trust myself as long as I am in this body of death, for strong is he who daily strives to turn me away from the faith and the purity of true religion to which I have devoted myself to the end of my life to Christ my Lord. 

 

     The hostile flesh is ever dragging us toward death, that is, toward the forbidden satisfaction of one’s desires; and I know that in part I did not lead a perfect life as did the other faithful. 

 

I acknowledge it to my  Lord, and do not blush before Him, because I do not lie: from the time I came to know Him in my youth, the love of God and the fear of Him have grown in me, and up to now, thanks to the grace of God, I have kept the faith.

 

     And let those who will, laugh and scorn — I shall not be silent; nor shall I hide the signs and wonders which the Lord has shown me many years before they came to pass, as He knows everything even before it happens, in the world.

    

Therefore, I ought  to give thanks to God unceasingly, who often pardoned my folly and my carelessness, and on more than one occasion spared His great wrath on me, who was chosen to be His helper and who was slow to do as was shown me and as the Spirit suggested. 

 

     The Lord had mercy on me thousands and thousands of times, because He saw that I was ready, but that I did not know what to do in the circumstances. 

 

     For many tried to prevent this, my mission; they would even talk to each other behind my back and say: “Why does this fellow throw himself into danger among enemies who have no knowledge of God?”

 

 It was not malice, but it did not appeal to them because — and to this I myself admit —  of my rusticity.  

 

And I did not realize at once the grace that was then in me; now I understand that I should have done so before.

 

St. pAtRicK'S CONfESSiON: tHE Gift Of GOd

cHAptER 5 (Of 5)

     

Now I have given a simple account to my brethren and fellow servants, who have believed me because of what I said, and still say in order to strengthen and confirm your faith. 

 

Would that you, too, would strive for greater things and do better!  This will be my glory, for a wise son is the glory of his father.

 

     You know, and so does God, how I have lived among you from my youth in the true faith and in sincerity of heart. 

In the same way, as regards the pagans among which I live, I have been faithful to them, and so I shall be. 

     

God knows it, I have overreached none of them, nor would I think of doing so, for the sake of God and His Church, for fear of raising persecution against them and all of us, and for fear that through me the name of the Lord be blasphemed; for it is written: “Woe to those through which the name of the Lord is blasphemed.”

    

For although I be rough-hewn in all things, nevertheless I have tried somehow to keep myself safe, and that, too, for my Christian brethren, and the virgins of Christ, and the pious women who of their own accord made me gifts and laid on the altar some of their ornaments, and I gave them back to them, and they were offended that I did so.

 

     But I did it for the hope of lasting success — in order to preserve myself cautiously in everything so that they might not seize upon me or the ministry of my service, under the pretext of dishonesty, and that I would not even in the smallest matter give the unbelievers an opportunity to defame or defile.

 

     When I baptized so many thousands of people, did I perhaps expect from any of them as much as half of a small coin? 

Tell me, and I will restore it to you. 

 

Or when the Lord ordained clerics everywhere through my unworthy person and I conferred the ministry upon them free, if I asked any of them as much as the price of my shoes, speak against me and I will return it to you.

 

     On the contrary, I spent money for you that they might receive me; and I went to you and everywhere for your sake in many dangers, even to the farthest districts, beyond which there lived no one, and where no one  had ever arrived to baptize, or to ordain clergy, or to confirm the people. 

 

With the grace of the Lord, I did everything lovingly and gladly for your salvation.

 

     All the while, I used to give presents to the kings, besides the fees I paid to their sons who travel with me. 

 

Even so they laid hands on me and my companions, and on that day they eagerly wished to kill me; but my time had not yet arrived.

 

     And everything they found with us they took away, and me they put in irons; and on the fourteenth day, the Lord delivered me from their power, and our belongings were returned to us because of God and our dear friends who we had seen before.

 

     You know how much I paid to those who administered justice in all those districts to which I came frequently. 

 

I think I distributed among them not less than the price of fifteen men, so that you might enjoy me, and I might always enjoy you in God.  I am not sorry for it — indeed it is not enough for me; I still spend and shall spend more. 

 

God has power to grant me afterwards that I myself may be spent for your souls.

 

     Indeed, I call God to witness upon my soul that I do not lie; neither, I hope, am I writing to you in order to make this an occasion of flattery or covetousness, or because I look for honor from any of you. 

 

Sufficient is the honor that is not yet seen, but is anticipated in the heart.  Faithful is He who promised: He never lies.

 

     But I see myself exalted even in the present world beyond measure by the Lord, and I was not worthy, or such that He should grant me this.

 

I know perfectly well, though not by my own judgment, that poverty and misfortune becomes me better than riches and pleasures. 

 

For Christ the Lord, too, was poor for our sakes; and I, unhappy wretch that I am, have no wealth even if I wished for it.  

 

     Daily I expect murder, fraud, or captivity, or whatever it may be; but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven. 

 

I have cast myself into the hands of God Almighty, who rules everywhere, as the prophet says: “Keep your thoughts upon God, and He shall sustain you.”

   

  So, now I commend my soul to my faithful God, for whom I am an ambassador in all my wretchedness; but God accepts no person, and chose me for this office — to be, although among His least, one of His ministers.

 

     Therefore  let me render back to Him for all He has done for me. 

But what can I say or what can I promise to my Lord?  I can do nothing that He has not given me. 

 

May He search the hearts and deepest feelings; for greatly and exceedingly do I wish, and ready I was, that He should give me His chalice to drink, as He gave it to the others who loved Him.

 

     Therefore, may God never permit it to happen to me that I should lose His people which He purchased in the utmost parts of the world. 

 

I pray to God to give me perseverance and to deign that I be a faithful witness to Him, to the end of my life for my God.

 

     If ever I have done any good for my God whom I love, I beg Him to grant me that I may shed my blood with those exiles and captives for His name, even though I should be denied a grave, or my body be woefully torn to pieces limb by limb by hounds or wild beasts, or the fowls of the air devour it. 

 

     I am firmly convinced that if this should happen to me, I would have gained my soul together with my body, because on that day without doubt we shall rise in the brightness of the sun, that is, in the glory of Christ Jesus our Redeemer, as sons of the living God and joint heirs with Christ, to be made conformable to His image; for of Him, and by Him, and in Him we shall reign.

 

     For this sun which we see rises daily for us, because He commands so, but it will never reign, nor will its splendor last; what is more, those wretches who adore it will be miserably punished. 

Not so we, who believe in, and worship, the true sun — Christ — who will never perish, nor will he who does His will; but he will abide for ever as Christ abides forever, who reigns with God the Father Almighty and the Holy Spirit before time, and now, and in all eternity.  Amen.

 

     Behold, again and again  I would set forth the words of my confession. 

 

I testify in truth and in joy of heart before God and His holy angels that I never had any reason except the Gospel and its promises why I should ever return to the people from whom once before I barely escaped.

 

     I pray those who believe and fear God, whosoever deigns to look at or receive this writing which Patrick, a sinner, unlearned, has composed in Ireland; that no one should ever say that it was my ignorance if I did or showed forth anything however small according to God’s good pleasure.  

 

But let this be your conclusion and let it so be thought, that — as is the perfect truth — it was the gift of God.

 

 This is my confession before I die.

 

___________________________________________________

Thus ends St. Patrick’s Confession 

___________________________________________________

SAyinGS Of tHE dESERt fAtHERS (AbbA SiSOiS):

 

“A young monk took what

an older monk said to him

as an insult. 

 

The offended monk

decided that he wanted

revenge on the other. 

 

The younger monk

complained to Abba Sisois

about what had happened.

 

I will get back at him, Abba,

the young monk declared. 

 

Monk Sisois told

the offended monk

that he should

turn it over to God.

 

‘Never!’

the Brother said in anger.

 

‘I’ll never be satisfied

until he pays for his

words!’ 

 

 

Monk Sisois stood,

and raised his hands. 

 

He prayed:

‘Lord, we no longer need you.

 

We find both You

and your caring for us

to be totally unnecessary. 

 

As this Brother says,

we are quite well able

to avenge ourselves.’ 

 

The angry young monk was shamed by these words. 

 

He told Monk Sisois

that he repented,

and would no longer

seek revenge on the other Brother.”

 

-Sayings of the Desert

Fathers 

 

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