Christian History Magazine—Issue 60: How the Irish Were Saved
Overview
Entering a land known for powerful druids, nomadic magicians, and widespread paganism, St. Patrick brought the Gospel of peace to a historically barbaric land. His mystical yet ascetic understanding of Christianity attracted the cult-following inhabitants of Ireland’s rolling hills and led to a devout monastic tradition that still lives on today. This issue of Christian History & Biography lifts the mist and fog of myth and fable that surround ancient Celtic faith and allows this beautiful tradition to become visible once again.
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Top Highlights
“but within his lifetime (or shortly thereafter), Patrick ended the entire Irish slave trade.” (source)
“Patrick was sold to a cruel warrior chief, whose opponents’ heads sat atop sharp poles around his palisade in Northern Ireland. While Patrick minded his master’s pigs in the nearby hills, he lived like an animal himself, enduring long bouts of hunger and thirst. Worst of all, he was isolated from other human beings for months at a time. Early missionaries to Britain had left a legacy of Christianity that young Patrick was exposed to and took with him into captivity. He had been a nominal Christian to this point; he now turned to the Christian God of his fathers for comfort.” (source)
“‘I had a vision in my dreams of a man who seemed to come from Ireland,’ Patrick wrote. ‘His name was Victoricius, and he carried countless letters, one of which he handed over to me. I read aloud where it began: ‘The Voice of the Irish.’ And as I began to read these words, I seemed to hear the voice of the same men who lived beside the forest of Foclut … and they cried out as with one voice, ‘We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.’ I was deeply moved in heart and I could read no further, so I awoke.’” (source)
“The island monastery of Iona, for example, may seem exotically remote to many moderns, but it was fully immersed in the international theological culture of its age. By the early eighth century, the Iona library contained works by Basil and John Cassian, Jerome, Augustine, Philip the Presbyter, Sulpicius Severus, Athanasius, Gregory the Great, and many others.” (source)
- Title: Christian History Magazine—Issue 60: How the Irish Were Saved
- Author: Christian History Institute
- Series: Christian History Magazine
- Publisher: Christianity Today
- Print Publication Date: 1998
- Logos Release Date: 2009
- Era: era:Contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Church history › Middle Ages, 400-1500; Ireland; Patrick
- Resource ID: LLS:CH60
- Resource Type: Magazine
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-10-05T16:40:26Z