Happy St Patrick's Day!
All over the world, communities have been celebrating the day by wearing emerald green clothes, painting their faces with a shamrock, waving the Irish tri-coleur and downing pints of Guinness (or Murphy's if they can find it). In New York City, Boston and Chicago there were parades and fun was had by all. Between all the screen printed green T shirts and baseball caps, the figure of St Patrick seems distant. So who was this man that gives rise to the cause for a good old party?
Turning to the venerable Wikipedia we find:
"Patrick was born at Banna Venta Berniae, Calpornius, his father was a deacon, his grandfather Potitus a priest." (1)
Precisely when he was born is the subject of some discussion but it seems to be in the range of 350-360CE which places him firmly in the twilight of Roman Britain. By that time Britannia was not one but four provinces resonating under the grand names Britannia Prima, Britannia Secunda, Maxima Caesariensis and Flavia Caesariensis. It is thought the boundaries of these provinces followed those of the military and church administrations (Cleary, p 47).
Where is Banna Venta Berniae? In 2005 the North West Evening News published the headline 'Hundreds in Pilgrimage to Archaeological Site' explaining that Steve Dickinson, a tutor at Lancaster University in Northern England, claimed he had found nothing less than the birthplace of Saint Patrick:
"Mr Dickinson believes he has found Banna Venta Berniae because the name translates as 'the peninsula with a market place by the mountains' — a good description for Furness and the Lake District" (2).
[I have to confess to a little disappointment because before reading that I had held to the belief that Patricius had lived along the Welsh coast. As a Welshman myself I was looking forward to writing the headline to this blog 'Patrick was Welsh'. But ... Alas!]
That places young Patricius firmly in Britannia Prima with its administrative headquarters in Eboracum (York). This region had, since the early days of the Roman invasion, starting in 43CE, been a largely militarised zone, with Hadrian's Wall and chains of forts running southwards across the rugged landscape. There were as few as 12,000 armed troops under a dux and two comites in contrast to an estimated 50,000 or more in mid second century CE (Cleary, p61). These were organised into 37 regiments on the northern frontier, some on the Wall, some in the hinterland (Faulkner, p149). But this was not the same army of the time of the conquest. These were not heavily armed legionaries but lightly armed skirmisher troops. The interior buildings of the forts also seem to have been reduced in size and the old barrack blocks of the early centuries had been converted into what archaeologists describe as 'chalets' (Clearly, p59).
Most towns by that time were surrounded by stone defensive walls and manned by city militia. There is some evidence throughout the British provinces for a deterioration in urban living conditions. For example, in Viroconium (Wroxeter) the city hall (basilica), which in its heyday would have been the town's civic debating chamber and courthouse, seems to have become a site for metal working (Cleary, p71). However, this was not the case at Carmarthen, Caerwent and Silchester. There is evidence that public bath buildings were maintained and in use at Caistor-by-Norwich, Canterbury, Chichester, Dorchester, Exeter, Leicester and London. So it would be wrong to see towns as completely falling apart (Cleary, p72) during Patricius' childhood years.
Unlike the earlier two centuries, it does appear that the wealthy Romano-British burghers were plowing their money into private dwellings rather than on public building projects. The great villas of the fourth century discovered at Bignor, Chedworth, Littlecote, North Leigh and Woodchester were in full production, farming cash crops and animals and trading their surplus. Their magnificent mosaic floors (which can still be seen and are well worth the visit) attest to their owners' fabulous wealth.
Politically, the scene was more turbulent. The division of the Roman Empire by Diocletian in 286CE into four segments, and Britannia along with it slightly later, gave rise to an age of usurpers - men who thought they had a good chance of getting the top job and took extreme risks in the attempt to prove it. In the 360s, Emperor Contantius II was challenged for three years by British usurper Magnentius. In the 380s, Emperor Valentinian II was challenged for five years by Magnus Maximus, a Spanish soldier.
Beyond the Wall in the north, the local Picti, Caledonii, and Attacotti seem to have seen a chance to band together and take on the Romans. First in 360CE and seven years later the frontier was crossed and the tribesmen swept south towards Londinium. General Theodosius was dispatched and sucessfully engaged the marauders, taking his revenge in 368CE with a military campaign that saw Roman troops march into lowland Scotland (Johnson, p122).
The world beyond the shores of the Britanniae was unsettled too. On the east English coast, Saxonici harassed shipping lanes and coastal settlements. The Count of the Saxon Shore (comes litoris Saxonici) commanded troops and the fleet operating in nine or more forts (Faulkner, p149). In the west, one of the peoples inhabiting Ireland were the Scotii. There are no records of attacks from the Scotii until the 360sCE (Johnson, p115). Yet there seems to be some evidence that the Roman military recognised the threat from Hibernia by constructing, or reinforcing pre-existing installations along the Welsh and western English coastlines, and possibly of the existence of a Count (comes Britanniae) to oversee this important frontier. He controlled a field army of "nine crack units, six of them cavalry ... dispatched to deal with a specific military crisis" (Faulkner, p149).
Unfortunately for Patricius, the army under the Count of the British Provinces was not nearby for
"When he was about sixteen, he was captured and carried off as a slave to Ireland" (1)
It was not the life this young middle class Roman, the son of a decurion, had been used to:
"Patrick worked as a herdsman, remaining a captive for six years" (1).
Then an opportunity to escape presented itself:
"Fleeing his master, he travelled to a port, two hundred miles away he says, where he found a ship and, after various adventures, returned home to his family, now in his early twenties" (1).
As any good Roman should. Patricius wrote an autobiography, Confessio, and various letters, Epistola, in which he wrote that his faith grew in captivity and that he had prayed daily. He was schooled by Victricius at Rouen and eventually consecrated as a bishop (Johnson, p 34). He chose Ireland as his bishopric and having returned there, began his mission to convert the pagan Celts to Christianity.
Something can be seen of Patrick's mission. For example, he writes that he "baptised thousands of people". As bishop, he ordained priests to lead the newly emerging Christian communities. He converted wealthy women, some of whom became nuns in the face of family opposition. He also dealt with the sons of kings, converting them too.
"Patrick's position as a foreigner in Ireland was not an easy one. His refusal to accept gifts from kings placed him outside the normal ties of kinship, fosterage and affinity. Legally he was without protection, and he says that he was on one occasion beaten, robbed of all he had, and put in chains, perhaps awaiting execution" (1).
In Ireland too it was that he died. There is no agreement on the actual date, which is variously quoted as 461CE or 493CE, nor how old he was:
"The Annals of Ulster report in 493:
Patrick, arch-apostle, or archbishop and apostle of the Irish, rested on the 16th of the Kalends of April in the 120th year of his age, in the 60th year after he had come to Ireland to baptize the Irish" (1)
I'm not sure St Patrick née Patricius, son of Calpornius, decurion of Banna Venta Berniae, would have been too pleased about how he is remembered these 1,514 years later. A Roman approving of stout? C'mon ...
References
A.S. Esmonde Cleary, The Ending of Roman Britain, London 1989
Neil Faulkner, The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain, Stroud 2000
Stephen Johnson, Later Roman Britain, London 1980
