by Shawn J. Wilhite
Patrick of Ireland is most well-known to us as the patron saint of Ireland—patronized in the 7th century by the Irish Catholic Church. March 17 is clearly memorialized as “St. Patrick’s Day”—which is attributed to the day of his death.[1] Often the shamrock is reminiscent of “Irishness.” He’s rumored to have risen and healed many of dead men (cf. Life and Acts of St. Patrick, Jocelin). Especially within Irish folklore, Patrick is well known to have banished all the snakes from Ireland into the sea.
Yet, these are all legends of Patrick and are not reflective of his literature or the historical Patrick. Due to these legends, it is no wonder that Patrick maintains more global awareness than other Patristic figures. As E. A. Thompson notes, “No one could have guessed that one day his name [Patrick] would be more widely known through the world than that names of Jerome and Augustine and even Constantine the Great himself.”[2]
Patrick of Ireland was born just prior to the 5th century around A.D. 390.[3] He is a British man that eventually finds his way to Ireland on more than one occasion. His death is generally dated around A.D. 460. These dates make Patrick a contemporary to Jerome (d. 420), to Augustine (d. 430), to Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444), to John Chrysostom (d. 407), the council of Chalcedon in 451, as well as portions of the fall of the Great Roman Empire in 476 (beginning c. 376).
Patrick’s Trinitarian Theology and Confessionalism
The first theological section of Patrick’s Confessio is a Trinitarian confession. He begins his work by commenting on his conversion and brief background about his life. According to D. R. Bradley, the Latin in the first half of the creed contains a particular balance and cadence that reflects a polished style in antiquity.[4] As such, it clearly is not part of Patrick’s original composition[5] and is probably something external to him—catechism, another source, or effects of Nicene theology.
Patrick’s Trinitarian confession reads as follows:
There is no other God, nor ever was in times past, nor will be hereafter, than God the Father unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is all beginning, who holds sway over all things (omnia tenentem), as we declare;
and his Son Jesus Christ, whom we affirm most assuredly to have always been with the Father before the origin of the world, spiritually and ineffably begotten by the Father before all beginning, and by him all things visible and invisible were made; he was made man, and when death had overcome, he was received into heaven beside the Father; ‘and he was given him all power over every name in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess to him that Jesus Christ is Lord and God’ (Phil 2:9–11), in whom we believe to whose imminent coming we look forward, ‘the judge of the living and of the dead’ (Acts 10:42), ‘who will render to every man according to his deeds’ (Rom 2:6);
and ‘he has poured forth upon us abundantly the Holy Spirit’ (Tit 3:5), ‘the gift’ and ‘pledge’ of immortality (Acts 2:38; Eph 1:14), who makes those who believe and obey ‘sons of God and co-heirs with Christ’:
it is him that we confess (confitemur) and adore, one God in the Trinity of the holy name.[6]
The theology of this confession is quite rich and explicitly Trinitarian and laced with scriptural quotations.[7] There are four larger movements of the confession: Father, Son, Spirit, and a final confession of one God in the Trinity. To begin, Patrick confesses the timeless and unbegotten nature of the Father. He is without beginning and rules over all things.
Of the Son, Patrick offers comments that reflect Nicene theology. He begins with the eternality and eternal begottenness of the Son. Once Patrick comments on the incarnation, death, and then ascension of the Son, he provides three Scriptures to describe the exalted Son. All authority is given to the Son to judge the world. And, contra the later developed Filioque controversy, Patrick affirms that the Spirit proceeds from the Son.
When commenting on the Spirit, Patrick offers a catena of Scripture passages. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son and is the basis by which persons enter into a filial relationship with the Godhead: become “sons of God” and “co-heirs with Christ.”
In this creed, Patrick’s catena is partial clauses and allusions of Scripture. As such, he only appeals to New Testament passages. No scriptural allusions are made regarding the Father. Yet, Philippians 2 is used to appeal to the incarnation, ascension, and rule of Christ—Acts 10 as Judge. The procession of the Spirit from the Son is based upon Titus 3:5. Finally, that believers become sons and co-heirs is both the “gift” and “pledge” as described in Acts 2:38 and Ephesians 1:14.
It is also worth noting how this Trinitarian confession functions for Patrick.[8] By looking at how Patrick frames this confession, we see that Patrick is a “confessor.” In the preceding section, Patrick states: “we should exalt and confess (confiteri) his [God’s] wondrous deeds before every nation under heaven.”[9] Following the Trinitarian Confession, then, is a quotation of both Psalm 50:15 and Tobit 12.7. The Tobit passage reads as follows: “It is honorable to make known and confess (confiteri) the works of God.”[10] As Michael Haykin observes, “The creedal statement is thus bookended by the ‘heart’s desire’ of Patrick to be a confessor of God’s great works—and these works involve not simply his own conversion, but supremely God’s work of salvation in Christ.”[11]
Furthermore, this confession of the Trinity is the sole motivation for his entire missional concerns:
Since I believe in the Trinity, I must make known the gift of God and his eternal peace without fear of danger. I must faithfully spread the name of God everywhere, so that after I die I will leave an inheritance for my brothers and children, thousands of people, the ones I baptized in the Lord.”[12]
To believe the Trinity compels Patrick to spread the name of God and his eternal salvation. His faithfulness to his mission to the Irish people is thoroughly grounded in the theological confession of the Trinity.
Summary
While many will continue to consider the legendary accounts of Patrick, there are two points of summary that I hope many will continue to remember about him: (1) even as a “sinner and most rustic” person, he sought to confess a Nicene Trinitarian vision; and (2) a vision of the Trinity compelled his missiological desire to return to Ireland.
The motive for Patrick to return to Ireland is based on a Trinitarian confession as well as a deep desire to proclaim the Gospel to the Irish pagans:
Since I believe in the Trinity, I must make known the gift of God and his eternal peace without fear of danger.[13]
I did this [mission to the Irish] so that I might come to the Irish pagans to preach the gospel and suffer insults from unbelievers, so that I might hear reproach because of my wanderings and suffer many persecutions, including being placed in chains, while I sacrifice my free birth for the good of others.[14]
Patrick’s Trinitarian foundation compelled his love for the Irish. He knows pending persecutions are coming; yet this does not deter his overall mission. He seeks the good of the other, knowing persecution is coming.
If I am worthy, I am even ready to give up my life freely and without hesitation for the sake of his name. It is in Ireland I wish to live out my life to the end, if the Lord will grant my prayer.[15]
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Editor’s Note: Check out Shawn Wilhite and Michael Haykin’s “The Early Church Fathers” series of books here.
[1] Thomas O’Loughlin, Discovering Saint Patrick (New York: Paulist Press, 2005), 131–32.
[2] E. A. Thompson, Who Was Saint Patrick? (Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 1985), 15.
[3] Michael A.G. Haykin, Aaron Matherly, and Shawn J. Wilhite, Patrick of Ireland: His Life and Impact, Early Church Fathers (Scotland, UK: Christian Focus, 2014), 13.
[4] D. R. Bradley, “The Doctrinal Formula of Patrick,” Journal of Theological Studies 33 (1982): 125.
[5] Haykin, Matherly, and Wilhite, Patrick of Ireland, 43n3.
[6] Confessio 4, trans. Michael A.G. Haykin.
[7] See Hanson, “Rule of Faith of Victorinus and of Patrick,” in Latin Script and Letters, edited by O’Meara and Naumann, 25–36 for a comparison with Victorinus’s creed. It is possible that Patrick’s creedal confessionalism finds its source in Victorinus.
[8] See Oulton, Creedal Statements of St Patrick for more.
[9] Confessio 3.
[10] Confessio 5.
[11] Haykin, Matherly, and Wilhite, Patrick of Ireland, 45–46. Also see, Confessio 6.
[12] Confessio 14.
[13] Confessio 14.
[14] Confessio 37.
[15] Confessio 37.