Saint Patrick in His "Confession"

 

 Today we examine the views of Irish writer Alice Curtayne (1901–81) on the Confession of Saint Patrick. In 1931 the Anthonian Press published her Saint Patrick: Apostle of Ireland, a short illustrated biography in the style of her Saint Brigid:The Mary of Ireland which the same company issued two years later. But in 1951, a year after its founding at Maynooth, she contributed an article entitled Saint Patrick in His "Confession" to the Irish religious periodical The Furrow. She begins by acknowledging the authenticity of the work, adding that 'its chief interest is the striking portrait it presents of its author'. Yet it isn't long before she too expresses a sense of frustration with the way the Confession was framed: 

 He had indeed written a golden page in the history of the Christian Church. We know now that his was permanent achievement if ever a man's life-work could be so described, But does he give an account of himself in the terms of a success story?  By no means. His brief record, which can be read attentively in less than half an hour, is a humble, laborious and at time incoherent, effort to tell with absolute honesty the work of God in himself. It is of particularly curious interest to read the "Confession" during March, when the churches of Ireland and in the far-flung empire of Ireland overseas are resounding with hymns to his praise, and see what he wrote about himself fifteen hundred years ago. His opening is like a douche of cold water:

I Patrick, the sinner, am the most illiterate and the least of all the faithful and contemptible in the eyes of very many. 

He then tells the facts of his life with the extremist brevity.....  

Alice Curtayne, is not, of course alone in her frustration with the lack of biographical detail in Saint Patrick's writing. As she goes through the main details of his career acknowledging that 'Patrick's "Confession " incidentally reveals a man of great physical courage', her irritation re-surfaces:

 But the whole message of the "Confession" is the wonderful work of God through such a despicable instrument as himself, "a fool" (he says), "the abhorred of this world". He returns again and again, with a repetition that is almost wearisome, to the subject of his ignorance:

I had long since thought of writing; but I hesitated until now... today I blush and am exceedingly afraid to lay bare my lack of education; because I am unable to make my meaning plain in a few words to the learned...Perchance it seems to not a few that I am thrusting myself forward in this matter with my want of knowledge and my slow tongue...

 Alice Curtayne suggests that the slowness of tongue could only have applied to his Latin as Saint Patrick acquired Irish during his captivity which gave him a considerable advantage in his missionary work:

He could peach to the people in their own language. His phenomenal success with them does not argue any lack of either intelligibility or fluency.  

 But despite her frustration with Saint Patrick as a writer, the article ends on a positive note:

 In another part of the "Confession", he summarizes his work in Ireland as "to define doctrine and make known the gift of God and everlasting consolation". It is particularly fitting that his feast-day should occur in the fullness of spring-time, the season of hope. Even the brief extracts given above show how radiant with hope is the testimony that Saint Patrick has left us. 

 Curtayne, A. (1951). Saint Patrick in His “Confession.” The Furrow, 2(3), 150–160. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27655737

 

Content Copyright © Trias Thaumaturga 2012-2026. All rights reserved.