Saint Patrick - Confessions and the Lorica

Saint Patrick (died March 17, 492), the Apostle of Ireland, captured in his native Britain by pagan Irish raiders and sold into slavery - maybe the first writer in history to advocate its abolition , writes of his life in The Confession of St. Patrick:

I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.

While enslaved for years as a pig herder, his faith in God grew. Guided by a voice which told him, "You do well to fast: soon you will depart for your home country", and later, "Behold, your ship is ready", he escaped his enslavement and travelled 200 miles to a ship which he boarded. He travelled for years, being for a time taken as a slave again.

After returning home, he received a vision in a dream calling him back to Ireland:

And after a few years I was again in Britain with my parents [kinsfolk], and the welcomed me as a son, and asked me, in faith, that after the great tribulations I had endured I should not go any where else away from them. And, of course, there, in a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: "The Voice of the Irish", and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and the were crying as if with one voice: "We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us." And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke. Thanks be to God, because after so many ears the Lord bestowed on them according to their cry.

Eventually, despite the impediment of some grave sin committed in his youth, he was ordained and did return to Ireland where he played his well known part in the conversion of the country which came to be known as the land of Saints and Scholars :

So, how is it that in Ireland, where they never had any knowledge of God but, always, until now, cherished idols and unclean things, they are lately become a people of the Lord, and are called children of God; the sons of the Irish [Scotti] and the daughters of the chieftains are to be seen as monks and virgins of Christ.

How is it, indeed? The The Confession of St. Patrick is short and well worth reading.

Another writing of St. Patrick, which some scholars attribute to a later time, is his prayer known as the "Lorica" (Latin for "Breastplate" - a piece of armor) or "Deer's Cry". I find it very moving:

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength
of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion
and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience
of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet
with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the
apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds
of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to
pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's
eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to
protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From
temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a multitude.
I summon today all these powers between me and
evil,
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against
spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that
corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ shield me today
Against poison,
against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may
come to me in abundance.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind
me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my
right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth
of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in
the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the
invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a
confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation