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0:34

It's coming up to midday on an

0:37

unseizably warm Saturday the 16th of March

0:39

2002. On

0:41

New York's 5th Avenue a 12 year old boy

0:43

is marching along the street holding his father's hand

0:45

in a tight grip. He's

0:47

been warned that on no account are they to be separated.

0:50

Not if they ever want to see each other again.

0:54

The avenue is a joyous cacophony of

0:56

noise. The boy can hardly hear

0:58

himself think over the band just ahead. Its

1:01

drummers beat a heart-rousing rhythm competing against

1:03

the hum of a crowd of thousands.

1:06

It's exhilarating, overwhelming. Never

1:09

before has he experienced such a sense

1:11

of collective excitement. Everywhere

1:13

is a sea of green. He

1:16

himself is wearing a green t-shirt and a fluffy

1:18

leprechaun hat that he's persuaded his dad to buy

1:20

from one of the multitude of street vendors. A

1:24

young woman skips over pirouetting around them with a

1:26

grin on her face and a whistle in her

1:28

mouth. When she rejoins her group

1:30

of friends his dad says it looks like they've already

1:33

had a Guinness or two. It

1:36

is the first time the boy has taken part in

1:38

a St. Patrick's Day parade, New York's

1:40

biggest annual street party. And though

1:42

it's taking place the day before the traditional

1:44

date of the 17th to avoid falling on

1:46

a Sunday, it feels like a special one.

1:50

It is just six months since the

1:52

dreadful terrorist attacks felled the twin towers of

1:54

the World Trade Center here. New

1:57

York has been living under a terrible shadow, facing

1:59

up to the Grim reality of a

2:01

new word processing. It's Greece

2:04

and. Today

2:06

is an opportunity for the Big Apple to

2:08

remind itself. And the wider world

2:11

about just what A spirited has.

2:14

But. It hasn't forgotten how to party. It's

2:17

been two hundred and forty five

2:19

years since the home crowd of

2:21

Irish soldiers and Ex Pats first

2:23

gathered near here to celebrate their

2:26

Home Nations patrons. We

2:28

could not have imagined how the city would come to think

2:30

the parade to it's hot. Today the

2:32

boy is one of three hundred

2:35

thousand matches what's done by a

2:37

crowd of three million more and

2:39

historic turn. Among them

2:41

is the New York Senator Hillary Clinton. And

2:43

for the first time ever, the serving

2:46

I was President's Mary Mcaleese. At

2:50

midday them there was a change into.

2:53

The parade old one and a half

2:55

miles of it comes to a halt.

2:57

The boy feels his father rest a

2:59

hand on his shoulder. The band's ringing

3:01

up tunes on every street corner stops.

3:04

The marches sees their rounds

3:07

of traditional Iras songs a

3:09

com descents. As

3:12

one the braids turn south to face

3:14

the direction of the twin towers with

3:16

three thousand people lost their lives last

3:18

year. The boy stares

3:21

at the ground below him as a tunnel. It

3:23

conveys the prayer of the Archbishop of New York.

3:26

Or else sites as a huge

3:28

crowd on of the dead as

3:30

well as emergency workers who faced

3:32

so much. And Nine Eleven. than

3:42

the two minute silence is over

3:44

a raucous tear goes up and

3:46

the parade resumes it's journey onwards

3:48

to st patrick's cathedral music and

3:51

laughter one small selling the skies

3:53

that's is the power of this

3:55

and patrick's day parade in new

3:57

york less a chance to contemplate

3:59

the line of an ancient Catholic

4:01

saint and an opportunity to come

4:03

together as a community, whatever your

4:05

religious beliefs or cultural roots. As

4:08

the popular saying goes, on St. Patrick's

4:10

Day, everyone is Irish. While

4:24

New York's parade may be the biggest in

4:26

the world to honor St. Patrick, it is

4:28

just one of many held throughout North America,

4:31

Australia, Ireland, Britain and beyond. But

4:33

few of the millions of revelers who

4:35

celebrated know more than the popular myths

4:37

about Patrick himself, that he chased

4:40

all the snakes from Ireland, or that he

4:42

used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity.

4:45

In truth, Patrick has become less a

4:47

figure of genuine historical importance than a

4:49

cipher for the idea of Irishness,

4:53

a figure to sit alongside the leprechaun and

4:55

the pint of Guinness as a sort of

4:57

shorthand for nationhood. The

5:00

real Patrick lived some sixteen centuries

5:02

ago, but though much of his

5:04

life is shrouded in mystery, much of what

5:06

we do know reads like an adventure

5:08

story. So

5:11

how did the story of this

5:13

man of God involve kidnapping and

5:15

enslavement, druidism and paganism, daring escapes,

5:18

feuds and accusations? How

5:20

did his commitment to spreading the word of God

5:23

lead him to become the embodiment of all

5:25

things Irish? I'm

5:28

John Hopkins, and this is

5:30

a short history of St. Patrick. Patrick

5:39

is born sometime in the late fourth century

5:41

AD as a Roman citizen in Britain. He

5:43

has no birth connection to Ireland at all. Indeed,

5:47

Ireland, at the very edge of Europe, is

5:49

one of the few places the Romans have never

5:51

seriously attempted to invade. Patrick's

5:54

father, Calporius, like his father before

5:56

him, is a clergyman, Rome

5:59

having adopted Christianity. back in 323

6:01

under the Emperor Constantine. Since

6:03

the priesthood do not yet have to take

6:06

vows of chastity, it is no problem that

6:08

Calporius is married with a family. He

6:12

is also a city counselor, a role

6:14

that gives the family yet more prestige

6:16

and entitles him to wear a prized

6:18

purple stripe on his toga to denote

6:20

authority. Better still, the

6:22

position is hereditary. Patrick is destined

6:24

to take over from him, guaranteeing a good

6:27

life for the family line to come. Patrick,

6:31

then, is born into privilege

6:33

and property too. His very

6:35

name, which Romanized is patricius,

6:37

means of the patrician or

6:40

aristocratic class. His

6:42

writings tell us he grows up on the family

6:44

estate near the town of Banaventa Bernier. Though

6:47

the exact location is uncertain, it's

6:49

likely a typical walled town on the English

6:51

West Coast, complete with a

6:53

forum, a bathhouse, and a Christian church.

6:59

Patrick is given an education in Latin

7:01

as befits his class. Unlike

7:03

most of the population, he learns how to read

7:05

and write, something which turns out to

7:07

be a particular benefit to future historians. Because

7:10

rather unusually for this period when the Roman

7:12

Empire is in its dying days and the

7:14

Dark Ages are about to descend, Patrick

7:17

later leaves vivid first-person accounts of

7:19

events in his life. Philip

7:23

Freeman is professor of history at

7:25

Pepperdine University and author of St.

7:27

Patrick of Ireland, a biography. We

7:30

are so lucky when it comes to

7:32

St. Patrick. We have two documents that

7:35

he actually wrote himself. We have

7:37

two letters that have survived the centuries.

7:39

This is very rare from this early

7:42

medieval period of late antiquity. But we

7:44

have, first of all, a letter to

7:46

the soldiers of Caroticus is his first

7:49

letter. But then we have

7:51

a longer letter, which is called his

7:53

confession, his confessio in Latin, which is

7:55

a little bit misleading because it's not

7:57

a confession in the much

8:00

more of a declaration of his life

8:02

and his work and his intents. Of

8:05

course, whenever you have people writing

8:07

about themselves, you have to look

8:09

at it a little closely. We all tend to

8:12

be sometimes a little bit dishonest and we try

8:14

to paint the best picture of ourselves. But

8:17

the letters are actually interesting in

8:19

that aspect too, in that Patrick

8:21

reveals his faults and his problems

8:23

and his shortcomings in a way

8:25

that very few other ancient authors

8:27

will admit to. When you read

8:30

Julius Caesar, when you read Cicero, when

8:32

you read Plato, they don't talk about

8:34

all of their insecurities and doubts and

8:37

fears and problems, but Patrick is not

8:39

afraid to do that. And so I

8:41

tend to take the letters fairly seriously

8:43

and as really good historical sources. As

8:47

he grows older, the strong-willed boy starts to

8:49

assert his independence and challenge the ways of

8:51

his parents. He was

8:54

raised in a Christian household, but by the

8:56

time he was a teenager, he had become

8:58

an atheist. He no longer believed in any

9:00

of the Christian teachings that his family told

9:03

him, but he was brought up in them.

9:05

And so he read the Bible, he was

9:07

trained, he knew the stories, he knew all

9:09

of the Christian background, but he wanted nothing

9:12

to do with it. This

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a hot-headed and rebellious teenager Patrick

10:34

gets himself into scrapes when he's

10:36

15 He takes a friend aside

10:39

and confides in him that he has done something

10:41

truly shameful Exactly what

10:43

his sin is unfortunately is lost

10:45

to history But it is

10:47

a confession that will come back to haunt him in years

10:49

to come It's

10:52

now though that Patrick's world is turned on its

10:54

head and his life is set

10:56

off on a whole new trajectory You

11:02

It's a moonless late summer night sometime

11:04

in the early 15th century in the

11:06

narrow strait between Ireland and Britain The

11:09

coast of Ireland some distance behind him a man

11:11

is maneuvering his boat across calm waters on his

11:14

way to the British mainland The

11:17

gentle breeze is just strong enough to

11:19

fill the vessels single sail But

11:21

every now and then when the wind dies down

11:23

he uses his wooden oar to steer a course

11:27

Not so many years ago when the Romans were regularly patrolling

11:29

this straight this trip would have been impossible But

11:32

tonight the sailors not worried

11:34

Everybody knows the Romans are a spent force So

11:37

there's no one now to intercept him and a

11:39

handful of other boats in this mini Armada Squinting

11:45

he can just about make out the landing spot with the silhouettes of a

11:47

row of Roman villas rising up above it Soon

11:49

the water becomes too shallow

11:51

to sail the man jumps from the boat to

11:53

the other side The man jumps from the boat

11:56

and drags it up the beach the wet sand

11:58

crunching beneath his feet He

12:01

leaves his boat with a smaller group chosen to

12:03

keep watch, then marches off in the direction of

12:05

one of the villas. They

12:07

walk in silence, save for

12:09

the occasional metallic clang of the weapons

12:11

and chains they carry. Because

12:15

tonight, they are going slave hunting.

12:18

With Rome's authority waning, there are rich

12:20

and easy pickings to be had. The

12:23

most prized are young women, who can double

12:25

as wives and laborers, or boys big enough

12:27

to follow orders and get the work done.

12:30

But there's every chance their house they're targeting

12:32

will include grown men. And

12:34

that's when things can get messy. The

12:43

sailor speedily strides up the beach and along

12:45

a rocky path that leads onto farmland. Squelching

12:48

across a muddy field, he

12:50

hears a distant sound. He

12:54

alerts the crew, who quickly slip down

12:57

out of sight for a moment. Wary. The

13:00

Romans might be gone, but local militia

13:02

still patrol these parts, looking for gangs

13:04

exactly like this one. The

13:07

moment passes, and they continue crossing the

13:10

field to the smart two-story villa surrounded

13:12

by a low wall. The

13:14

sailor vaults it in a single motion. He

13:18

creeps to the smart main house and tries the

13:20

door. It is held in

13:22

place by a plank of wood, but

13:24

it splinters when he leans forcefully against it.

13:28

The men creep inside, across a clean

13:30

stone floor and past the dying embers

13:32

of a fire. While

13:34

some check downstairs, the sailor climbs the wooden

13:37

stairs and into a room from where he

13:39

can hear snoring. Here

13:42

there is a youth, deep in sleep. Sixteen

13:45

years old are the guests and healthy-looking.

13:48

The sailor gestures to the men behind him,

13:50

who quietly follow him inside. They are already

13:52

bearing down on the boy when he awakens.

13:55

Before He can cry out, the sailor claps his hand

13:57

over his mouth while the others grab his arms. Another

14:00

raider comes into report to the boy

14:02

is alone in the house, his parents

14:04

it seems or away on business. A

14:08

gag the boy and. A

14:10

chain is fastened round his neck,

14:12

then manhandle him down the stairs

14:14

and into the courtyard. Before long

14:17

more victims appear. servants rounded up

14:19

from the outside accommodation. They

14:21

are joined together with three foot long

14:23

chains and frogmarched back to the bus.

14:27

For the sailor it is a good

14:29

night's business but for those in chains

14:31

it is the end of their lives.

14:33

As a note, none will have a

14:35

self of for than the boys. Until

14:39

now he has enjoyed a life of

14:41

relative comfort and ease. The for this

14:44

boy whose name is Pat. On.

14:54

The. Voyage from Britain to island takes a

14:56

day or two. But. Soon green

14:58

hills emerge on the horizon. The.

15:00

Boats ahold and to shore, and Patrick

15:02

and the other captives are unceremoniously thrown

15:04

out. On green thirsty.

15:07

Patrick. Struggles to keep pace as he is

15:09

rude much to slave market and the nearby village.

15:13

His. Team Bravura. Quickly. And

15:15

the way. Men: Circle

15:17

around sneeringly inspecting that.

15:20

He. Flinches when they squeeze his biceps to

15:22

gauge strengths are poke their fingers in

15:24

his mouth deceased. A

15:27

discussion between buyers and sellers on us

15:29

haggling of a price. Cannot

15:32

understand the language and doesn't want to think how

15:34

much so have little his life is considered to

15:36

be was. A. Couple of

15:38

minutes later. And the deal is done. He

15:42

has been bought by summer in the north west of

15:44

the country. Probably. Around where County

15:46

Mayo is today. He.

15:48

Soon on the move, again rattling about in a

15:50

rickety old of strong card and then back on

15:53

his feet for attractive what will be his new

15:55

home. His. legs a with

15:57

the effort but each time his pace

15:59

slows or his shoulders slump, the

16:01

point of a blade pushes him on. He

16:04

dares not make a sound in protest or catch the

16:06

eye of his new owner. He

16:10

senses that he is not only being introduced

16:12

to a new country, but to an entirely

16:14

different way of life. The

16:16

distance between Ireland and Britain may be small,

16:19

but the cultural differences are vast.

16:24

Ireland was a very agricultural society

16:26

as it still is today. There

16:28

were cattle, there were sheep, and

16:30

because of the Gulf Stream, it

16:33

never got particularly cold, at least

16:35

it didn't snow and ice too

16:37

much in Ireland. And so it

16:39

was a rich agricultural place. It

16:41

traded with the Roman Empire. They

16:44

exported probably cattle and especially Irish

16:46

dogs, Irish wolfhounds. And so there

16:48

was trade that had gone on

16:50

for centuries, but it was an

16:52

entirely different world to use

16:55

the word uncivilized and barbaric. That

16:57

probably isn't stretching it too far.

16:59

It was a very, very different

17:01

place than the civilized Roman Empire.

17:05

Irish culture, Irish society was set

17:07

up according to tribes. There were

17:10

at least a hundred independent tribes

17:12

in Ireland. They were always fighting

17:15

with each other. Sometimes

17:17

they would cooperate with each other.

17:19

Sometimes they wouldn't. It

17:21

was a society of warriors where

17:23

the kings and the warriors were

17:25

on the top and there were

17:27

farmers, there were laborers. Patrick

17:31

has grown up with stories about the ferocity of the

17:33

Irish. Back in the 360s, they, along

17:36

with the Picts and Saxons, had launched wave

17:39

after wave of attacks on British soil. There

17:42

were plenty of people in Patrick's own town who

17:44

still shared stories of their battles with the

17:46

invaders. The Irish, they

17:48

would whisper after a drink or two, by

17:51

devils. Not that

17:53

forced labor is anything new to Patrick, whose

17:55

own family enslaved people. It

17:58

is the way of the world. Rumor

18:00

has it that life in chains in Ireland is

18:02

harder than in Roman society. For

18:04

starters, here it is impossible to work

18:07

your way out of servitude. Patrick

18:09

can harbor no hope of ever buying his way back

18:11

to freedom. The

18:17

farm on which he finds himself is far more primitive

18:19

than the one his family owns. None

18:22

of the multi-story stone buildings and sturdy

18:24

perimeter walls here. The

18:27

family that own it live in a round

18:29

house constructed from mud, clay and

18:31

branches with a conical roof of reeds to

18:33

keep out the rain. Around

18:36

their land is a fence of sharpened wooden

18:38

poles. He feels like he's

18:40

stepping backwards in history. Patrick's

18:42

job is to look after the sheep. It's

18:46

a lowly position in an agricultural hierarchy

18:48

where cows and pigs are considered more

18:50

important. The shepherd can have no

18:52

doubt about his place in the social order. Life

18:58

is governed by the seasons. In

19:01

the springtime he helps with the lambing and

19:03

the castrating of rams. In

19:06

the summer he shares the flock. In

19:08

the winter it's time for the slaughter. The

19:10

rhythm of life that the highborn Patrick never

19:13

expected to be a part of. At

19:15

night he shares a rudimentary hut with

19:17

his animals. The smell, especially

19:19

on a hot summer evening, can be overwhelming.

19:22

But heat is not usually the

19:24

problem. It's

19:26

the coldest and wettest part of

19:28

Ireland. And Patrick writes that he

19:30

spent seven years there as a

19:32

slave and his main job was

19:34

herding sheep in the mountains. And

19:36

he was left alone with the

19:38

sheep to guard them from wolves.

19:40

There were still wolves in Ireland.

19:42

And he writes about what an

19:44

absolutely miserable life it was. He

19:47

was freezing cold most of the

19:49

time and wet and it was

19:51

just a miserable situation. terrible

20:00

life. Sometimes he spirals

20:02

into deep depression, mourning for the life

20:04

he once had, for his

20:06

warm bed on the estate, lavish meals

20:08

and comfortable clothes, even the chance

20:11

to work at his lessons. The

20:13

days roll into each other. The

20:15

weeks turn into months and years. Patrick

20:18

realizes that if he doesn't want to spend his life

20:20

wallowing in all that he has lost, he

20:22

must attempt to make the best of the lot he has been

20:24

given. Now he starts to

20:27

use the few social interactions he has to

20:29

pick up some of the local language, a

20:32

bid to reduce his isolation. He

20:34

begins a spiritual re-engagement too, turning

20:37

his back on the cocksure youth who not so long

20:39

ago had been rolling his eyes with his mates in

20:41

church back home. Now he

20:44

prays not just once or twice a

20:46

day, but almost constantly as

20:48

his faith deepens. He

20:50

fasts too, denying his body

20:52

food both as an act of purification

20:54

and as a recompense for previous sins.

21:00

As Patrick tells it, he is asleep

21:02

one night in his dank hut when

21:04

he hears a voice from somewhere. It

21:06

tells him that he has been doing well in his religious

21:09

observance and that he will be going home soon. Without

21:12

hesitation, he believes that these are

21:14

the words of God Himself. In

21:16

this period, adherents of many different

21:19

religions believe dreams provide the perfect

21:21

environment for divine intercession, the

21:23

following night he goes to bed with eager

21:25

anticipation of another message that he is not

21:27

disappointed. The voice returns, confirming

21:30

that he will shortly be on his way

21:32

home, but there is additional detail this time.

21:35

His ship, the voice tells him, is

21:37

ready. What

21:39

can this mean? What ship? How is

21:41

he meant to find it? If he

21:44

failed to try to escape, he could face execution.

21:46

There are the harshest punishments for anyone

21:49

aiding an escape too, so whatever

21:51

he might do, Patrick knows he will have to go it

21:53

alone. It seems an impossible

21:55

challenge. But

21:57

though the odds are against him, his faith is

21:59

strong. certain that he has

22:01

been given a message from God, Patrick

22:03

is determined to follow its instructions.

22:12

Patrick steals away from his hut in the

22:14

dead of night without a word. The

22:16

fewer who know of his scheme, the lower the

22:18

danger to everyone. With no possessions

22:21

of note, all he carries is enough food and drink

22:23

to last him a day or two. His

22:26

plan is to travel cross-country, bypassing

22:28

the most populous places to avoid

22:30

detection. The nearest useful ports

22:33

are in the south of the country, not far

22:35

off 200 miles away. To

22:37

get there, he must contend with

22:39

mountains, wide rivers, and muddy bogs.

22:43

When his food runs out, he takes to

22:45

foraging and fishing, making do with

22:47

whatever meager rations he can gather. It

22:50

is summer, so at least he doesn't have the colds

22:52

to worry about. But there

22:54

are wild animals and most dangerous of all,

22:57

humans. Now

22:59

a fugitive, he knows there is a

23:01

price on his head. But

23:04

if he has nothing else, he at least has plenty

23:06

of time to reflect. Despite

23:08

the dangers and hardships, his faith doesn't

23:10

waver, and after several weeks of journeying,

23:12

he arrives at a port. So

23:17

he flees across Ireland and he talks

23:19

about fleeing about 200 Roman miles, which

23:22

is the entire length of Ireland.

23:24

So if he's up in Mayo,

23:26

he's fleeing somewhere down near Cork

23:28

or on the southern coast. He's

23:32

more careful than ever. His

23:34

Romano-British accent is an instant giveaway that

23:36

he does not belong here. It

23:39

would not take long to figure out that someone dressed

23:41

like him with that accent is

23:44

likely an enslaved man on the run.

23:55

On the bustling dockside, traders haggle

23:57

over the price of the jugs of wine

23:59

and saltfish that has just landed. A

24:02

child in tunic and leggings chases a

24:04

puppy. But Patrick keeps

24:07

a low profile, trying to

24:09

look inconspicuous next to a wooden hut

24:11

and avoiding all eye contact. He

24:14

is watching a ship readying itself

24:16

for a long voyage. It's

24:20

larger than the one that transported him to Ireland all

24:22

those years ago. Big

24:24

enough to accommodate a crew of 20. It could

24:28

be the ship from his divine message.

24:31

A dozen men are loading supplies on board,

24:33

grumbling to each other about the heavy lifting.

24:37

Might this be his ticket? He

24:40

decides to chance his luck. He

24:42

approaches the captain and asks if he might

24:45

have free passage in return for labor. The

24:47

captain stares at him, nonplussed. He

24:50

takes in his raggedy dress and Patrick fears he

24:53

suspects the truth. But

24:55

the captain just shrugs his shoulders and says that

24:57

he already has a crew. He

25:00

doesn't need the hassle of taking on anyone new, especially

25:03

if they're someone else's property. Patrick

25:06

pleads with him, but the captain turns his

25:08

back and gets him with directing his men. Crestfallen,

25:13

exhausted, Patrick walks away.

25:16

It is an effort not to cry. What

25:19

else can he do? Has he not

25:22

followed his lord's orders? And to what end?

25:24

To be stranded here, an outlaw in a

25:26

strange place, a hostage to fortune.

25:31

He hardly notices the footsteps coming up

25:33

behind him and jumps when

25:35

he feels a hand on his

25:38

shoulder. It is one of the sailors from the

25:40

ship. The captain has changed his

25:42

mind about that extra pair of hands, he

25:44

explains. They're almost ready to leave

25:46

and once they're at sea, no one's

25:49

gonna care who's on board. If

25:51

there are questions asked later, the captain

25:53

will deny all knowledge of escaped slaves.

25:57

Patrick doesn't need asking twice. He rushes

25:59

back to the ship. the vessel with his new

26:01

shipmate and begins heaving supplies on board.

26:04

There is the sound of barking from within the

26:06

vessel, the cargo of wolfhounds being

26:08

taken to sell in Britain. It

26:11

is not long before the dockside is clear and

26:13

the ship ready to set sail, but

26:16

before he is allowed on, Patrick is given

26:18

an order. He is

26:20

told to suck each of the crew's

26:22

breasts. For sailors of this

26:24

time it is not such a strange request, a

26:27

sort of initiation ceremony designed to bond

26:29

them to each other before they face

26:31

whatever lies ahead. To Patrick though,

26:34

it is a pagan custom that conflicts with

26:36

his own Christian faith. His

26:39

refusal is met with some grumbles of annoyance from

26:41

the crew, but time is pushing on,

26:43

so he is forgiven this time. While

26:46

the sun is still high in the sky,

26:48

the ship's ropes are untied and

26:50

the vessel casts off. Patrick

26:55

is homeward bound. They

27:03

sail for three days and then

27:05

set out on another cross-country trek. For

27:08

what seems like weeks, they hike across

27:10

expanses of open countryside, over hills, across

27:12

rivers, and through marshland. The crew soon

27:14

uses up all their supplies and begin

27:17

to gripe with hunger. Patrick

27:19

comes in for some particular baiting from the

27:21

captain. If your god

27:24

is so great, he says, what is

27:26

he going to do for us? Patrick,

27:28

as ever, turns to prayer. And

27:31

a day or two later they are seemingly answered. The

27:34

group stumble upon a herd of pigs and

27:37

embark on a two-day feast. There

27:41

is wild honey too, although

27:43

when Patrick learns that it has already been

27:45

offered up to his companions pagan gods for

27:47

blessing, he refuses to eat it. With

27:51

their energies renewed, the rest of the

27:53

journey goes smoothly and Patrick finds his way

27:55

back to his family. Like

27:58

the prodigal son, he is welcome. back

28:00

with open arms and more feasting. But

28:03

he is no longer the callow youth they once

28:05

knew. His mother barely

28:07

recognizes the tall, strong, pious man that

28:09

her son has become, exhausted

28:12

both physically by his forced labor

28:14

and mentally from the trauma he has suffered.

28:17

He says that his parents were overjoyed

28:19

to see him. They had assumed that

28:22

he had been dead because nobody ever

28:24

returned from Ireland. Patrick is the only

28:26

person we know to have ever escaped

28:28

slavery from Ireland and returned to Britain.

28:30

So he is there. He settles

28:33

back in to his life at

28:35

the villa. But it's not comfortable

28:37

for him anymore in many ways

28:39

because he's seen a different world.

28:42

Thrilled to have his heir back in

28:44

the fold, Patrick's father attempts to groom

28:46

his son for the responsibilities that will eventually

28:48

come his way. But years of

28:50

vital education have been lost. It

28:53

is difficult to know whether that gap can be

28:55

closed. There

29:00

is a further complication too. Patrick's

29:03

father may be a deacon, but

29:05

Patrick's own religious calling is on

29:07

another level entirely. One

29:09

night, shortly after his return, he

29:12

reports another vision while lying in bed. A

29:15

man named Victoricus comes from Ireland

29:17

laden with letters and plucks one

29:19

from the pile, breaks its seal,

29:21

unraveling it, and handing it to

29:23

Patrick. It is headed, Voice

29:26

of the Irish. Patrick

29:28

says he suddenly hears a choir of voices

29:30

addressing him as if from the letter. They

29:33

call out, Holy Boy, the

29:36

nickname he had received as a slave. The

29:38

chorus bids him to return to Ireland

29:40

and walk among them, just as Jesus

29:42

had taught to love your enemies in

29:45

the Sermon on the Mount. Patrick

29:47

says, No way am I going to

29:49

go back to Ireland. These people kidnapped

29:52

me. They treated me horribly. That's the

29:54

last place that I want to go.

29:56

But he keeps having these dreams, and

29:58

God keeps telling him, The Irish

30:00

need you. We really

30:02

don't know a lot about the

30:05

period between when Patrick leaves Ireland,

30:07

when he escapes Ireland, and when

30:09

he returns. And

30:11

so eventually Patrick says, okay, I

30:13

will do it. But he

30:15

can't just pack up and head back

30:18

to Ireland. He needs to be trained.

30:20

And so he had to spend at

30:22

least several years training for

30:24

the ministry, learning, getting

30:26

ordained, first as a deacon, and then

30:28

eventually as a priest. And he could

30:30

have done this in Britain. There

30:33

were bishops in London and in York

30:35

and several other places. Or he could

30:37

have gone to the continent and done

30:39

it in Gaul or even Italy. But

30:42

probably he trained to be a priest

30:44

in Britain. And then finally,

30:46

after a number of years, and we

30:48

don't know how long, he sets sail

30:50

and goes back to Ireland. In

30:54

431, a flotilla of small boats moored

30:56

up on a stretch of rocky coast

30:58

beneath Dublin Bay in the shadow of

31:01

the Wicklow Mountains. The

31:03

sailors decamped to a nearby cove led

31:05

by a man named Palladius, an envoy of

31:07

the Pope. Palladius

31:10

has just been appointed the first bishop

31:12

of Ireland and is charged with converting

31:14

the country's pagan masses. But

31:16

it is far too big a job for one man

31:18

alone, so he's come with assistance to

31:20

help spread the word. While

31:23

we do not know for sure, it is

31:25

a fair guess that Patrick travels with him. Maybe

31:28

in his mid-30s by now, Patrick is still full

31:31

of zeal and has several years training in the

31:33

church under his belt. But even

31:35

with his prior knowledge of the country and its people,

31:38

there's a lot of work to be done. In

31:43

Ireland, before Patrick got there, before the

31:45

Roman missionaries got there, it

31:47

was very much a part of the

31:50

general Celtic religion, which had stretched all

31:52

the way across Europe. They were polytheistic,

31:54

they had many different gods, and the

31:57

religion was overseen by a class of

31:59

people. priests called the Druids,

32:01

which could be either male or

32:03

female. But the Druids were the

32:05

ones who did the sacrifices. They

32:08

acted as intermediaries. They acted as

32:10

judges. And so it was a

32:12

religious society, very religious in many

32:14

ways, but it was much more

32:16

like the old pagan Greeks and

32:19

Romans than like Christianity. Palladius'

32:22

involvement in the mission, however,

32:24

is unspectacular. It

32:26

is not long before he drops out of

32:28

the historical record and Patrick takes over as

32:30

the church's main representative in Ireland. His

32:34

mission is twofold, to

32:36

protect the relatively small pool of existing

32:38

Christians and to add to

32:40

it by converting non-believers. Much

32:43

of his work is focused in the north

32:45

of the country, especially around Ammar. Patrick

32:47

was not the first Christian in Ireland.

32:50

He was not even the first Christian

32:52

missionary in Ireland, but he

32:54

was the first one we know about

32:57

to go to the northern part of

32:59

the island. There previously were Christians working

33:01

as missionaries in the southern part, and

33:03

we know that a number of the

33:06

people who had been kidnapped from Britain

33:08

over the years were Christians, especially the

33:10

women. Elsewhere

33:13

in Europe, the church is ripping

33:15

itself apart with esoteric doctrinal debates,

33:18

such as the extent to which Jesus should be

33:20

regarded as human or divine. Patrick,

33:22

though, adopts a much simpler message.

33:25

He concentrates on the idea of a

33:27

single, created God and preaches

33:30

a credo of love and grace.

33:33

It is a step change from the magical

33:35

mythology of the many Celtic gods. But

33:39

not all his fellow bishops back in Britain are

33:41

fully supportive of his efforts. We

33:43

get the feeling from his letters that not

33:46

everybody was particularly thrilled about it. Many

33:48

of them wanted nothing to do with

33:50

the Irish, but enough of them approved

33:53

of Patrick's mission so that he went

33:55

back to Ireland with the full support

33:57

of the church. His

34:01

ministry relies on the hospitality of others.

34:04

Moving around with no more than a handful of followers

34:06

to spread the gospel, Patrick stays in

34:08

strangers' homes where he also conducts

34:10

services. But changing hearts

34:12

and minds is a slow process, strewn

34:15

with obstacles. He

34:18

did not sweep across the island and

34:20

convert everybody to Christianity, not at all.

34:22

He had to work very slowly because

34:24

Ireland was divided into independent tribes and

34:26

so he had to do it tribe

34:28

by tribe. He could not cross tribal

34:30

boundaries without having some sort of Irish

34:32

noblemen with him. And so what he

34:35

would have done is gone to the

34:37

king of a particular tribe and offered

34:39

gifts to the king and said, may

34:41

I preach here? And the king would

34:43

have said yes or no. But

34:45

enough of them said yes that he

34:47

was able to establish a ministry. He

34:50

was able to establish churches and he

34:52

was able to have some converts. And

34:54

he talks about having hundreds but that

34:56

probably took quite a few years to

34:58

do it. He increases

35:01

his flock among the enslaved, many of

35:03

whom are Romans and Christians anyway. But

35:06

he has some success among the indigenous community too,

35:08

not least among the higher ranks. Eventually,

35:11

it comes to count the sons and daughters

35:13

of Irish kings among his followers. Women

35:18

of all ranks prove a natural constituency

35:21

for him. By urging

35:23

as many of them as possible to maintain

35:25

their virginity and become brides of God. His

35:28

message can sound austere to a modern ear.

35:31

But to some well-born women destined to

35:33

be married off into strategic unions,

35:36

dedicating oneself to Christ and taking oneself

35:38

out of the marriage market is

35:40

an appealing option. Similarly

35:43

to the enslaved whose bodies were considered the

35:45

property of their masters, the

35:47

idea of sexual abstinence is a welcome

35:49

one. Devotion to Christ becomes

35:51

a means of winning back some bodily

35:53

autonomy, at least

35:55

psychologically. The

36:00

ones who suffer most are the slaves. They

36:04

face rape and constant threats, but suffer

36:06

this abuse bravely. God

36:08

gives these women the grace to follow courageously

36:10

in His path, even though they

36:12

are forbidden to do so. With

36:15

the top of His head shaved in the Roman

36:17

fashion and carrying His bishop's staff, He

36:19

moves from community to community, bearing

36:22

gifts of woolen cloaks or jars of

36:24

wine and holding worship services in people's

36:26

homes. He conducts

36:28

baptisms for the converts too. The

36:31

new believers strip naked, a customary Christian

36:33

tradition of the time, to represent new

36:36

life as if newborn. They

36:39

turn, first west to renounce the devil,

36:42

then east to receive the creed and

36:44

affirm the faith. Then

36:46

Patrick pours water, warmed in a small

36:48

cauldron over them, and anoints their

36:50

foreheads with oil. Eventually,

36:53

He has enough followers to start

36:55

building simple but permanent wooden churches

36:57

too, for this putting down

36:59

of roots doesn't go down well

37:01

with everybody. He

37:04

actually gets in a little bit of

37:06

trouble because the sons and daughters of

37:08

the nobility that convert to Christianity, their

37:11

parents don't like this. And especially the

37:13

women who He converts, those who decide

37:15

that they want to become nuns, they

37:18

want to become celibate nuns. This messes

37:20

up everything. They had been pledged in

37:22

marriage years before. And so

37:25

Patrick gets a lot of grief

37:27

from people in Ireland who are

37:29

members of the nobility, the people

37:31

in charge for his work. So

37:33

he talks about being beaten regularly,

37:35

he talks about being kidnapped, he

37:37

had a really, really hard time. By

37:42

the second half of the fifth century, Patrick

37:45

has established a significant congregation spread through

37:47

the north of Ireland in particular. Now

37:50

a band of raiders arrive from Britain

37:52

under the ruler of a local Christian

37:55

leader called Carroticus. He

37:57

is one of a new breed of local strongmen who

37:59

have emerged in Britain to fill the power vacuum

38:01

left by the collapse of the Roman Empire, a

38:04

process that culminates with the fall of the

38:07

last Western Roman Emperor in 476. It

38:10

is a spring day and Patrick has just

38:13

finished a baptism service for a clan comprising

38:15

several extended families. Everyone

38:17

is in good spirits and Patrick is looking forward

38:19

to a few well-earned days of quiet after Easter.

38:23

Shortly after his new converts leave, a

38:25

messenger arrives at the door of the church where he's

38:27

been staying. The messenger is red-faced

38:30

as he breathlessly delivers his news. The

38:33

converts, he says, have been attacked on

38:35

their way home. It

38:39

is carnage. Most of the men

38:41

are dead. The women and children,

38:43

still in their baptismal robes and with a

38:46

sweet scent of anointing oil clinging to them,

38:48

have been kidnapped and taken back to

38:50

Britain. Patrick is furious. How

38:53

can this happen? He knows from

38:55

bitter experience the terror of those poor people. He

38:57

has spent years of hard work to spread the

38:59

word and now it threatens to be all undone

39:02

by one of his own countrymen and

39:05

is supposed to christian the man. Patrick

39:09

opens up a line of communication with

39:11

Carroticus, desperate to negotiate a return

39:13

of the prisoners and their property. Carroticus,

39:17

however, laughs the suggestion off. Incensed,

39:20

Patrick writes an open letter to him.

39:23

He tells Carroticus and his followers that their

39:25

crimes have made them citizens

39:27

of hell. Patrick

39:33

writes a letter to Carroticus and to

39:35

his soldiers and he says, how can

39:37

you do this? You are like wolves.

39:40

These are your brothers and sisters. Send

39:43

them back. You have to stop this. But

39:45

they just laugh at him. They want nothing

39:48

to do with Patrick because they consider the

39:50

Irish subhuman. The

39:53

episode deeply wounds Patrick who

39:55

fears that the wicked with their evil deeds have

39:57

won. Worse still, he finds

39:59

himself in a receiving condemnation from his

40:01

own Christians,

40:19

he really is overstepping his

40:21

bounds. They get very upset, very

40:23

angry with him. Those

40:26

who had never really supported his mission to Ireland

40:28

see their chance for revenge. They

40:30

send a list of charges against him and summon him

40:32

back to Britain. One

40:35

of his supposed crimes is the use of

40:37

gifts from his congregation to bribe local chieftains

40:40

to let him preach in their communities. Patrick

40:42

considers it a means of doing God's greater

40:45

work, but his opponents claim it

40:47

is a misuse of church property. Even

40:50

more seriously, they say they

40:52

have evidence of a terrible sin that he committed

40:54

when he was 15 before he was

40:56

kidnapped. It seems a friend

40:58

in whom he confided must have betrayed his

41:01

secret. This

41:03

is a terrible sin, but the

41:05

problem is they don't identify what

41:07

it is. So it must have

41:09

been something scandalous, murder, idolatry, something

41:11

we don't know about. Patrick

41:14

feels utterly let down by the people he

41:16

had once considered friends and collapses

41:18

into a spiral of depression. But

41:21

he will not be broken. He writes

41:23

back to the bishops refusing to return home. My

41:26

work is here in Ireland, he tells them, and

41:28

I will not leave until I'm dead. Presumably

41:31

the effort and expense required to chase

41:34

him down and bring him back eventually

41:36

deters his detractors. Though

41:38

disengaged from the church he loves, he's

41:40

free to carry on his life's mission. Patrick's

41:44

later years are as uncertain as any period

41:46

of his life. Just as we

41:48

do not know exactly when he was born, nor

41:51

do we know when he died. There

41:53

are different dates. Some people say in the 460s, maybe

41:56

even in the 490s, but we don't know. There

42:00

are plenty of stories that come along later

42:02

that want to tell us Patrick died and

42:04

was buried in down Patrick or over here.

42:07

And if you go visit Ireland today, you can

42:09

find three or four different graves of Patrick, people

42:12

who want to claim him. But we really

42:14

don't know what happened to Patrick or when

42:17

exactly he died. Nor

42:20

should we imagine that the island he leaves behind

42:22

is now a Christian country. When

42:25

Patrick dies, Ireland is still very much

42:27

pagan. The majority of the people are

42:29

not Christians at all. And it's going

42:32

to take two or three hundred years

42:34

before Christianity is really going to take

42:36

over. The stories that

42:38

came along later that said that Patrick came

42:40

in and he converted tens of thousands of

42:43

people in mass gatherings, that it didn't happen

42:45

that way. It was

42:47

a very slow process with Patrick

42:49

and with many other people working.

42:52

So it took Ireland several centuries

42:55

until it became fully Christian. For

43:00

many years after he dies, he's reduced to

43:02

a minor historical footnote, just one of

43:05

many missionaries who helped convert Ireland. But

43:08

about two hundred years later, in the

43:10

sixth and seventh centuries, there is a

43:12

power struggle within the Irish church with

43:14

rivals jostling to lead it. One

43:17

of the regional churches is that of Armagh, which

43:20

was probably founded by Patrick and has long been

43:22

associated with him. Armagh

43:27

makes Patrick its poster boy. His

43:30

life begins to be mythologized with Patrick

43:32

cast as hero and miracle worker. A

43:35

process that takes on a life of its

43:38

own as the decades and centuries pass. The

43:41

latter-day myths about Patrick don't

43:44

have a historical basis in Patrick

43:46

himself, but they do go fairly

43:48

far back in the legend of Patrick.

43:50

For example, when the story that he

43:52

drove the snakes out of Ireland isn't

43:54

true, there never were any snakes in

43:56

Ireland. If you go to the National

43:58

Museum of Natural History, history in Dublin.

44:00

You won't find any snakes there at all.

44:03

There never have been. But the idea

44:05

that he drove the snakes out is

44:08

just a symbolic way of saying he

44:10

drove the evil out of Ireland. Ever

44:12

since the book of Genesis, snakes have

44:14

been associated with evil. And the idea

44:16

that he used the shamrock, the three-leaf

44:18

clover to explain the Christian trinity, well,

44:20

that's nothing that we have in the

44:23

historical documents early on about Patrick

44:25

either. But that's actually more plausible.

44:27

It's a sort of thing that

44:29

Patrick might have done that any

44:31

good missionary might have done. And

44:33

so that's possible. But they're

44:35

both modern inventions. Regardless,

44:42

the movement to have him recognized as

44:45

a saint gains momentum. And by

44:47

the end of the seventh century, he is widely

44:49

accepted as the nation's patron saint. His

44:54

feast today falls on the 17th of March, which

44:56

some say is the date that he died. But

45:00

the reinvention of St. Patrick as a

45:02

cultural totem, the personification of Irish culture

45:04

in all its ancient and modern aspects

45:07

is far more recent. It's

45:09

rooted in the homesickness of Irish

45:12

expats thousands of miles from home

45:15

about a millennium later. It

45:17

was a minor religious holiday. It

45:19

was not a particularly big deal.

45:22

St. Patrick's Day, as we know it

45:24

now, was actually not invented in Ireland

45:26

at all. It was invented in Boston

45:29

and Chicago and New York and Sydney,

45:31

Australia. And it was invented

45:33

by Irish immigrants. So when the Irish

45:35

immigrants came over to America, for example,

45:37

in the 1800s, they

45:39

were not treated well. They were at

45:42

the bottom of the social class. So

45:44

they really wanted something to rally around,

45:46

somebody to rally around. And so they

45:48

began to hold the St. Patrick's Day

45:50

festivals. And it took

45:53

many years until they started dying

45:55

the Chicago River green and doing

45:57

such things. But eventually St. Patrick's

45:59

St. Patrick's Day became a big

46:01

deal in America and then spread to

46:03

Canada and to other places as well.

46:06

And eventually, even back to Ireland, I

46:08

remember going to Ireland in the early

46:10

1980s around St.

46:13

Patrick's Day and it wasn't that big

46:15

of a celebration, but you go over

46:17

to Dublin nowadays on St. Patrick's Day

46:19

and you can't get a room and

46:21

the pubs are just overflowing. Patricius'

46:24

journey from Romano, British slave, to

46:27

missionary, to patron saint, to international

46:29

figurehead of the Irish is complete.

46:32

His name today is less associated

46:34

with biblical teaching and more so

46:36

with national pride, carousing and festivities.

46:39

Quite what Patrick himself would make of that, a

46:42

man who suffered great deprivation and who preached

46:45

total devotion to God, is anyone's

46:47

guess. Next

46:56

time on Short History Off, we'll bring you

46:59

a short history of Frida Kahlo. I

47:05

personally don't like her being portrayed as

47:07

a victim because if you

47:09

see, I think Kahlo's image or you

47:12

know, endures because

47:14

she was able to break

47:16

a lot of taboos about women's

47:18

experiences, about, you know,

47:21

challenges to overcome illness,

47:24

you know, physical injury, both

47:26

exposing them and working through

47:28

this trauma in creative ways.

47:31

So I feel that this

47:34

resilience and her fighting attitude

47:36

and determination to enjoy life

47:38

despite of the difficulties she

47:41

encountered makes

47:44

her a powerful symbol as

47:46

she continues to speak to many different groups

47:48

and her iconic image

47:51

that, you know, that iconic

47:53

image that we know today

47:55

communicates strength and possibility for

47:57

change. time

48:00

on Short History Off.