Patrick: The Pilgrim Apostle of Ireland

Maire B. de Paor has produced a gem of a work, greener than the Emerald Isle itself. In our 21st Century, secularized American culture the 5th Century Patrick has been lost amid the green, fuzzy wigs and breath-blown foam topping of the good 'ale.

de Paor meticulously analyzes the only two extant pieces of literature Patrick left for his spiritual posterity. I do agree with the reviewers on Amazon. Reading her work is not exactly an easy slide down the rainbow. However, for those willing to put in the time and effort, the reward is worth far more than any pot of gold could provide. You will perhaps be ... as I was ... quite inspired to do a check-up on the status of your spiritual life with Jesus, longing to sell all disturbances of that relationship to perserve your soul (see Matthew 16:23--25). de Paor does a magnificant job of demonstrating his work to be that of no mere "rustic," as Patrick loved to refer to himself. His command of language and literary device in artistic-literary communication is surpassed only by the depth and power of his orthodox Christian faith. Not only does she include her adept and comptent commentary on his two works, she also includes them (in both Latin and English!!!), as well as a masterful description of Patrick and the socio-political situation into which he was born and into which he found himself enslaved in in Ireland. Patrick is a study-must for we American believers, who take seriously the call to help build the Church right slap-dab in the midst of our own personal and cultural depravity.

There is only one point of question/concern I have with her work. In relating how she came to entitle her work, she writes, "But above all else, the title has been chosen so that this book may be a source of comfort for the youth of Ireland who are leaving our shores today, and, in particular, for those among you who, like Patrick, are 'illegal aliens' on foreign soil. May this lonely exile be the point of departure for your inner, spiritual renewal as it was for Patrick, so that our pilgrimage, like his, 'may not be in vain'" (p. 211, 212). I shall hope she is wishing this work will inspire the same quality of Christian Spirituality that Patrick was given by the Holy Spirit and to which he embraced. I to pray this for the people in my own churches to whom I am reading his Confessio. However, she almost sounds like the spirituality she is encouraging is a re-embrace of Irish-racial-pride. I get this from reading the first sentence in the quote with the second. Perhaps this is a misread ... I do hope so. Afterall Patrick "sold" his social status to become the slave of Christ in order to help the Irish to enter into the citizenship of Heaven. May we American Christians never sell our citizenship in Heaven for our American citizenship.