Patricus: Son of a Roman Deacon
Yule Tide and his teenaged friends, all were carefree, but one would become a saint.
"Yule Tide! Hey, Yule Tide!" Yelled Peter, a seventeen year old boy living in Banna venta Berniae in northwestern Roman Britannia at the end of the fourth century.
Yule Tide, Peter, John, and Patrick were all teenaged friends, and liked to hang out in the market place. They often played a version of hide and seek. One would go ahead, circle around some of the vendors, the others following shortly to find them.
The real names of Peter, John, and Patrick were Petrus, Loannes, and Patricus, but I have used the modern English equivalents. Yule Tide was a little different. He was born on Christmas day. Pope Julius had just recently carried out what he considered a careful investigation of the matter, deciding it was settled beyond doubt the Christ was born on or about the twenty fifth of December, which was close to the very old celebration of Yule Tide. This became associated with Christmas quickly. Also in old Latin, 'Yule' meant 'youthful and funny'. Knowing these things, his mother chose this name for him. His father wanted a more traditional name, but decided she was right after she explained this to him.
Yule Tide was running ahead of the other boys around the booths and vendor tents of the market place. He ducked out of sight behind a tent, the other boys splitting up, going this way and that trying to cut him off.
Peter and John came around a tent, each from a different direction, running right into Yule Tide. Patrick went around several booths but didn't see the others at all. He turned up the main via of the downtown area, but then returned to the backstreets of the merchant area.
Their parents were all devote Christians, but the boys were teen-age boys, not much interested in religion at all. They were from the 'modern' generation the older people would say. "They are heathens, and will not listen to their elders at all."
Peter, John, and Yule Tide started to look for Patrick. He was nowhere to be found. They thought he was hiding from them just out of site. They decided they would go down by the waterfront just to see if they could discover him following them. As they got close to the waterfront, they saw some evil looking sailors, dragging someone along with them.
"Straighten out, boy," said one of the sailors, "Or there will be some real Hades to pay," as he hit their captive.
"Ouch! Hercle!" They heard the captive say. They immediately recognized Patrick's voice. They stayed back some, but followed them all the way to the waterfront. Patrick was put onto a Curragh, a small sail driven watercraft with wickerwork sides and ribs, covered with cowhide, tanned in oak-bark, and tar and butter on all the seams. It was far too small for the open sea away from land, but more than adequate to take a trip across the Irish Sea to Ireland.
The boys recognized them as being Irish, because of their brogue. Many different people came and went to that port at that time. Many had strange accents that the boys didn't know, but the Irish accent they did, certainly the Roman accent, being close to their own accent, as well as some of the other continental accents. They all spoke Latin, and some Celt, but there were many other languages spoken in the market place as well.
The Curragh cast off from its mooring, the crew paddling them out into the small river towards the sea, and setting up its sails as well, since the wind was from the East. The boys sat and watched the boat disappear. They didn't know what to do. There were no police officers in those days. The legion was there, but they needed orders from above before they could do anything.
The boys went home and told their parents. By that time, it was late enough for both parents to be home. The parents stood in shocked silence at first, and then all got together at John's house, since John's parents had the highest rank in the government.
"What are we going to tell Patrick's parents?"
They all had been close friends for many years, and all belonged to the same parish. John's wife went to tell the priest the news, and please come over. The priest came over to talk with them, and then went to Patrick's house, to talk to his parents, Calphurnius and Conchessa. Calphurnius was also a deacon of the church, Patrick's grandfather Potitus had been a priest.
"I have some bad news," the priest said, "Your son has been kidnapped by Irish pirates." The priest learned a long time before the best way to deliver bad news was just to say it, especially if it were to an official of the church.
Patrick was sold to a chieftain named Milchu, a druid high priest, in a territory of the present county of Antrim, in eastern Ireland. He had to watch after flocks of sheep in the valley of the Braid, on the slopes of Slemish; he hated it. He was alone much of the time, thinking about God quite a bit, praying many times every day.
Later he would write: "His fear increased in me more and more and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and the night nearly the same, so that while in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain; nor was there any slothfulness in me, such as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent within me."
After six years, he escaped from the farm, making his way to a seaport two hundred miles away, finding passage back home to his family, being joyfully welcomed back.
He was now in his early twenties. Soon he decided to go to the monastery. He applied to the mission at Auxerre to Bishop Germain. After several years of missionary work in the territory of Morini, the Pope commissioned Bishop Germain to proceed to Britain, to combat the teachings of Pelagius, an ascetic who denied the need for divine aid in performing good works. Germain chose Patrick to go with him back to Britannia. Patrick's thoughts always turned toward Ireland. His experiences during captivity became a kind of preparation for being a missionary to Ireland. He could speak the Celtic tongue, and was familiar with the details of Druidism. He would often dream of the children from Focluth, who cried to him: "O holy youth, come back to Erin walking once more among us." Patrick would soon be sent to Ireland as a missionary.
Yule Tide, Peter, John, and Patrick were all teenaged friends, and liked to hang out in the market place. They often played a version of hide and seek. One would go ahead, circle around some of the vendors, the others following shortly to find them.
The real names of Peter, John, and Patrick were Petrus, Loannes, and Patricus, but I have used the modern English equivalents. Yule Tide was a little different. He was born on Christmas day. Pope Julius had just recently carried out what he considered a careful investigation of the matter, deciding it was settled beyond doubt the Christ was born on or about the twenty fifth of December, which was close to the very old celebration of Yule Tide. This became associated with Christmas quickly. Also in old Latin, 'Yule' meant 'youthful and funny'. Knowing these things, his mother chose this name for him. His father wanted a more traditional name, but decided she was right after she explained this to him.
Yule Tide was running ahead of the other boys around the booths and vendor tents of the market place. He ducked out of sight behind a tent, the other boys splitting up, going this way and that trying to cut him off.
Peter and John came around a tent, each from a different direction, running right into Yule Tide. Patrick went around several booths but didn't see the others at all. He turned up the main via of the downtown area, but then returned to the backstreets of the merchant area.
Their parents were all devote Christians, but the boys were teen-age boys, not much interested in religion at all. They were from the 'modern' generation the older people would say. "They are heathens, and will not listen to their elders at all."
Peter, John, and Yule Tide started to look for Patrick. He was nowhere to be found. They thought he was hiding from them just out of site. They decided they would go down by the waterfront just to see if they could discover him following them. As they got close to the waterfront, they saw some evil looking sailors, dragging someone along with them.
"Straighten out, boy," said one of the sailors, "Or there will be some real Hades to pay," as he hit their captive.
"Ouch! Hercle!" They heard the captive say. They immediately recognized Patrick's voice. They stayed back some, but followed them all the way to the waterfront. Patrick was put onto a Curragh, a small sail driven watercraft with wickerwork sides and ribs, covered with cowhide, tanned in oak-bark, and tar and butter on all the seams. It was far too small for the open sea away from land, but more than adequate to take a trip across the Irish Sea to Ireland.
The boys recognized them as being Irish, because of their brogue. Many different people came and went to that port at that time. Many had strange accents that the boys didn't know, but the Irish accent they did, certainly the Roman accent, being close to their own accent, as well as some of the other continental accents. They all spoke Latin, and some Celt, but there were many other languages spoken in the market place as well.
The Curragh cast off from its mooring, the crew paddling them out into the small river towards the sea, and setting up its sails as well, since the wind was from the East. The boys sat and watched the boat disappear. They didn't know what to do. There were no police officers in those days. The legion was there, but they needed orders from above before they could do anything.
The boys went home and told their parents. By that time, it was late enough for both parents to be home. The parents stood in shocked silence at first, and then all got together at John's house, since John's parents had the highest rank in the government.
"What are we going to tell Patrick's parents?"
They all had been close friends for many years, and all belonged to the same parish. John's wife went to tell the priest the news, and please come over. The priest came over to talk with them, and then went to Patrick's house, to talk to his parents, Calphurnius and Conchessa. Calphurnius was also a deacon of the church, Patrick's grandfather Potitus had been a priest.
"I have some bad news," the priest said, "Your son has been kidnapped by Irish pirates." The priest learned a long time before the best way to deliver bad news was just to say it, especially if it were to an official of the church.
Patrick was sold to a chieftain named Milchu, a druid high priest, in a territory of the present county of Antrim, in eastern Ireland. He had to watch after flocks of sheep in the valley of the Braid, on the slopes of Slemish; he hated it. He was alone much of the time, thinking about God quite a bit, praying many times every day.
Later he would write: "His fear increased in me more and more and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and the night nearly the same, so that while in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain; nor was there any slothfulness in me, such as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent within me."
After six years, he escaped from the farm, making his way to a seaport two hundred miles away, finding passage back home to his family, being joyfully welcomed back.
He was now in his early twenties. Soon he decided to go to the monastery. He applied to the mission at Auxerre to Bishop Germain. After several years of missionary work in the territory of Morini, the Pope commissioned Bishop Germain to proceed to Britain, to combat the teachings of Pelagius, an ascetic who denied the need for divine aid in performing good works. Germain chose Patrick to go with him back to Britannia. Patrick's thoughts always turned toward Ireland. His experiences during captivity became a kind of preparation for being a missionary to Ireland. He could speak the Celtic tongue, and was familiar with the details of Druidism. He would often dream of the children from Focluth, who cried to him: "O holy youth, come back to Erin walking once more among us." Patrick would soon be sent to Ireland as a missionary.
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