The real Saint Patrick

Today is the Feast of Saint Patrick, Bishop and Missionary to Ireland, 390-461. Parades for the Irish will fill the streets in many cities, tonight many an elbow will be hoisted in his honor, and once upon a time the California State Capitol was lit green (anyone know if they still do that?).

A few churches today will be singing "Saint Patrick's Breastplate," binding themselves unto thee (never mind that he didn't write it), and the legends of Patrick with snakes and shamrocks will be told and embellished once again.

It is all good fun and a great break from the dreariness of Lent. But today I'd like you to also pause and consider the real Patrick and what little we know of him. Patrick is more of an Abraham figure. Born in England, kidnapped to Ireland as a boy, he was a shepherd. He somehow made it back to England as a teenager, and had a conversion experience and took holy orders, becoming a bishop.

Patrick went back to Ireland, where he converted people and their kings to Christianity. He adapted the popular religious customs of the day to Christianity, for example the now-popular Celtic crosses were an adaptation of elaborate Druid markers dotting the countryside.

Though Patrick is the saint of Ireland, he was truly a sojourner in a strange land. He traveled far from home to spread the Gospel, he was doubtless homesick at times, but he went anyway (and I know the feeling well).

Patrick left a few letters and from them it is known that the Irish viewed him as a foreigner (how ironic is that?), and he riled the Irish aristocracy by refusing to accept their gifts. He probably lived more like Saint Francis than as a regal bishop. Much of what we celebrate today in our Celtic Christian tradition we owe to Patrick, and his life and example are truly worth celebrating even without the extra blarney.

More on dancing bishops: Celtic spirituality

The video from New Hampshire I posted earlier this week showing dancing bishops is a reminder, in a way, of our Celtic roots. Betsy's comment on that post mentioned visiting the amazing abbey at Iona, Scotland, and seeing the bishop dance. Truth be told, bishops dancing is very Celtic. In the earliest centuries of Christianity in Britain, the dominant spirituality was Celtic, and it was fluid, dynamic, with leadership more defused among men and women, and a spirituality that found God in the "thin places" of mountains and rivers. And full of  dance and story telling.

Yesterday was the feast day of Hilda of Whitby (614-680), an abbess who was the dominant figure of Celtic Christianity of her time. Her monastery included nuns and monks. And bishops who danced. 

If you look closely, you can still see evidence of the bishops who danced. The Cathedral at Peterborough, was founded in the Celtic age, and though badly ransacked and damaged in the 17th century English civil war, there is still much worth seeing. If you look closely, you will find small a stone relief embedded in a wall in the great cathedral. The relief is from the time of Hilda -- the 7th century. It shows two bishops, with miters atop heads, holding hands (or close to it). And they are dancing. I took this photo of the relief on a trip to Peterborough with Lori in 2003. Enjoy, and you will be dancing with the stars.