What is a Confessio?

Yesterday Sister Máire B. de Paor reminded us of the unique privilege we have as Irish people in having Saint Patrick's Confessio in which we can read his own account of his mission. But what is a Confessio? Sister de Paor provides this useful historical sketch:

The Confessio is a literary genre, of which two major extant examples in ancient literature are the Confessions of St Augustine, written about AD 400 when he was a comparatively young man, and the Confessio of St Patrick, written during the fifth century, possibly some short time before his death (C 62:12). In ecclesiastical Latin the term confessio has a threefold significance: confessio peccati, confessio laudis and confessio fidei, i.e. the penitential discipline, the praise of God, and the confession of faith of the martyrs before a tribunal. Confessio in this third context was also termed depositio, or deposition, and the confessors were those who made a deposition or, in other words, subscribed to the faith during the persecution of Christians in the early centuries of the Church. It has been argued cogently by Botte that the word, in the sense of 'subscribing to the faith' was extended in the fourth and fifth centuries to denote those who defended it against heresy, and that Augustine used it in this sense. 

But while a refutation of both the Arianism of the fourth century and the Pelagianism of the fifth are implicit in Patrick's Confessio, it does not appear to be its overt purpose, nor would Patrick have considered himself qualified for such an undertaking....

His Confessio, therefore, defines itself by its own title. It is not an autobiography in the strict sense, because the saint does not tell the story of his life in chronological order and plain narrative, nor is this his sole or main purpose. Neither, as some scholars suggest, is it merely a defence of himself against false accusation, an apologia pro vita sua. While his initial inspiration may well have been the refutation of certain allegations made by his enemies against him and his mission, it evolved into something greater, something more timeless and universal, in the process.

 Máire B. de Paor, PBVM, Patrick the Pilgrim Apostle of Ireland- An Analysis of St Patrick's Confessio and Epistola (Dublin, 1998), 9-10.

 I found this three-fold definition of a Confessio useful. Much of the frustration with Saint Patrick's Confessio seems to lie in the fact that it is not an autobiography in the modern sense. In which year exactly did he commence his ministry? What motivated his enemies criticism of it? to name but two of the many questions which modern readers might wish had been addressed explicitly. But Sister de Paor concludes by reminding us that Saint Patrick's work

 'is, like St Augustine's, a magnificent, threefold Confessio of repentance, praise and faith as a lived reality. This threefold Confessio evolves out of a retrospective contemplative reflection on the events of Patrick's life.'

 even if historians might continue to regret that it leaves so many aspects of Saint Patrick's life and career open to speculation.  

 

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