Patrick returned to Ireland in 452 having escaped from slavery in Ireland some years beforehand.  There were Christians in Ireland before his return but with his coming Christianity began to expand to the whole country.

We have two writings from his hand: The Confessions of St Patrick and his Letter to Coroticus.  His Confessions relate something of his spiritual journey and his Letter to Coroticus was a reprimand to Coroticus who was a slave trader for his capturing and enslaving of people whom he in turn sold off in the slave market.

Patrick was a remarkable proclaimer of the Gospel and quite quickly Ireland was converted and became a powerhouse of Christianity throughout Europe in the sixth and seventh centuries particularly.

In little more than a hundred years after Patrick’s return to Ireland, Irish missionaries began to move into what we would call today Northern England, Wales and Scotland.  In the late sixth century missionaries began to move onto the continent of Europe to proclaim the Gospel to pagans there as well as too severely ‘lapsed’ Christians.  The founding saints of so many European areas and cities were Irish missionary saints.  It was at this time that Ireland was known as the ‘island of saints and scholars’.  Many students went from Europe to the Irish monasteries to study.

Patrick respected the ways of the Irish and the Irish Church emerged as quite unusual in the Europe of its time, with its own ways of celebrating the liturgy, of timing the liturgical year and of running monasteries which were the bases of the Irish Church rather than dioceses.  The missionary impulse remained part of the Irish Church and we in Australia have been beneficiaries of that same missionary outreach.

St Patrick’s feast day is celebrated on the 17 March; he is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Melbourne which was also due to the impact of the original Catholics here in Melbourne who were in large part Irish.

By Frank O’Loughlin

The 2021 Patrick Oration will be held on Wednesday, 17 March.  The broadcast begins at 7.30 pm and can be viewed on community channel C31 (channel 44 on digital TV) and via YouTube.