{"product_id":"the-confession-of-saint-patrick-isbn-9780385491631","title":"The Confession of Saint Patrick","description":"The autobiography of one of the most popular saints in history, now available in a new translation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeyond being recognized as the patron saint of Ireland (perhaps for having chased some nonexistent snakes off the Emerald Isle), little else is popularly known about Saint Patrick.  And yet, Patrick left behind a unique document, his \u003ci\u003eConfession,\u003c\/i\u003e which tells us much about both his life and his beliefs.  This autobiography, originally written in the fifth century, and short by modern standards, is nonetheless a work that fascinates with its glimpse into the life of an intriguing man, and inspires with its testament of faith.  Here, in this new edition from internationally acclaimed translator John Skinner, the character of Patrick, his era, and his world vividly come to life.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlso included in this volume is the only other document known to have been written by Patrick, a letter he wrote to the soldiers of Coroticus--also Christians--who had raided parts of Ireland and taken away prisoners who were then sold into slavery.  This letter is a wonderful demonstration of Patrick's rhetorical fire.  Quite irate, Patrick harangues his fellow Christians, and the results are every bit as autobiographically revealing as the \u003ci\u003eConfession.\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn O'Donohue, author of \u003ci\u003eAnam Cara,\u003c\/i\u003e provides an insightful foreword that re-creates the unique spirituality of Patrick and of the Irish people, and shows how it applies to our lives today.\u003cb\u003ePrologue\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHistory is an amazing presence--it is the place where vanished time gathers.  While we are in the flow of time, it is difficult to glean its significance, and it is only in looking back that we can recognize the hidden dimensions at work within a particular era or epoch.  St.  Patrick has always been acknowledged as a pivotal figure in early Irish history and spirituality.  Yet despite this importance, his significance has often become rather caricatured in legend and in the retrospective intentionality that nostalgia often confers.  And yet we need not be limited by what legend has given us, since we are fortunate in having documents from Patrick's own hand.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Confession of St.  Patrick\u003c\/i\u003e provides a window into a remarkable life.  Patrick is a figure who inhabits a crucial threshold in the evolution and definition of Irish spirituality.  To serve this threshold demanded a singular commitment that engaged every resource and depth of character he possessed.  His story revolves around an initial irony which qualifies his centrality in the Irish tradition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was Irish pirates who kidnapped him from his British home and sold him into slavery here.  They could never have suspected the spiritual tradition that would be born out of their brutal action.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIndeed, the structure of this initial moment sets the rhythm of Patrick's subsequent life, namely, the praxis of a spirituality of transfiguration.  His physical slavery releases him into a life of inner liberation.  His captors only controlled his tasks and location but they never got near the eternal spring that was awakening in his young mind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePatrick understands his slavery as the door into divine recognition and friendship.  In this awful experience of alienation and exile, he discovers God as his \u003ci\u003eanam-cara.\u003c\/i\u003e  \u003ci\u003eAnam\u003c\/i\u003e is the Irish word for soul and \u003ci\u003ecara\u003c\/i\u003e is the word for friend.  The \u003ci\u003eAnam-cara\u003c\/i\u003e is the Friend of the soul.  This is one of the most beautiful concepts in the Celtic tradition.  An ancient affinity and belonging awakened between two people in the \u003ci\u003eAnam-cara\u003c\/i\u003e relationship.  This relationship cut across all other connections.  In your \u003ci\u003eAnam-cara\u003c\/i\u003e you discovered the Other in whom your heart could be at home.  The depth and shelter of this \u003ci\u003eAnam-cara\u003c\/i\u003e belonging enables Patrick to endure the most awful conditions.  Prayer is conversation with his \u003ci\u003eAnam-cara:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut after I had come to Ireland, \u003cbr\u003eit was then that I was made to shepherd the flocks day after day, so, as I did so, I would pray all the time, right through the day.  More and more the love of God and fear of him grew strong within me. \u003cbr\u003eand as my faith grew, so the Spirit became more and more active, so that in a single day I\u003cbr\u003ewould say as many as a hundred prayers, and at night only slightly less.\u003cbr\u003eAlthough I might be staying in a forest or out on a mountainside, it would be the same;\u003cbr\u003eeven before dawn broke, I would be aroused to pray.\u003cbr\u003eIn snow, in frost, in rain,\u003cbr\u003eI would hardly notice any discomfort,\u003cbr\u003eand I was never slack but always full of energy.\u003cbr\u003eIt is clear to me now, that this was due to the fervor of the Spirit within me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePascal said that in difficult times you should always keep something beautiful in your heart.  Patrick is able to survive these harsh and lonely territories of exile precisely because he keeps the beauty of God alive in his heart.  The inner beauty of the divine intimacy transfigures outer bleakness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis inner intimacy brings his soul alive.  It opens the world of the divine imagination to this youth.  Consequently, he becomes available for his destiny in a new way.  His dreams invite him to ever richer thresholds of his future.  He is shown in a dream a ship that will take him away from slavery.  The lantern of his dream guides him through two hundred miles of hostile territory to a harbor where strange sailors unexpectedly relent and take him aboard ship.  Fascinating relics of ancient traditions glisten through this phase of the narrative.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis parents and friends are delighted at his return.  He studies and becomes a priest and bishop.  Yet his destiny is not to remain among what is familiar or complacent.  Again the dream calls him to journey toward the next threshold.  It is the dream of a letter from Ireland full of the \"Voice of the Irish\" calling him to \"come back and walk once more among us.\" Patrick allows himself to be guided by the \"vision in his dreams.\" He is \"pierced to the core\" by this request.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is fascinating that the crucial new direction in his life is not determined by the clear calculations of the daytime but rather originate in the voices of dream in the depth of the night.  Often the most original disclosures assemble in the unconscious and are deciphered through imagination and dream.  Patrick is so attuned to this deeper dimension of soul that his sense of who he is is rendered ever more complex by such new inner disclosures.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis sense of soul complexity finds its most fascinating expression in the frame-breaking experience that happens at that tender threshold somewhere between dream, prayer, and vision:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd on another night, \"I do not know, only God knows\" \u003cbr\u003ewhether in me or outside myself, \u003cbr\u003eI heard the most wise words which \u003cbr\u003eas yet I could not comprehend . . . \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the moment of deepest divine encounter, the frames of normal perception are radically extended and intensified.  Yet in contrast to some Oriental mysticism, the sense of the intimacy and belonging of the Self does not fade into anonymity of Nothingness:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd once again, I saw him praying within my soul, \u003cbr\u003eit was as if I was still inside my body, \u003cbr\u003eand then I heard him above, me, that is over my inner man. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePatrick is amazed at this intrusion or more precisely extrusion from his own depths.  This new presence is not himself but yet is radically at one with him:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd as all this was happening, I was stunned and kept \u003cbr\u003emarveling and wondering . . .  \u003cbr\u003ewho he might be, who was praying in this wise within me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut as this prayer was ending, he declared that it was the Spirit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePatrick discovers that the deepest experience of prayer is not the mere verbal intention of an isolated subject directed at a distant deity.  The deepest prayer is beyond subjectivity and objectivity.  It is the echo of the inner membrane where the human soul dovetails into the divine.  This is reminiscent of what Eckhart terms the Birth of God in the soul.  This event liberates Patrick from oppression of outer constraint by absolutely confirming the depth, authenticity, and expressiveness of the inner wellspring He tells us:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ein such ways I have learned, by my own experience.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor any great spirit who must negotiate the great thresholds and indeed become a threshold the nourishment and sustenance of such inner confirmation is vital.  He can travel on any dangerous or hostile outer journey because he knows he is at Home within.  This is what sustains him in the lonely times of betrayal, misunderstanding, and scandal.  Patrick is a strikingly modern figure in being ambivalent externally, however internally he inhabits the unity of innocence and authenticity.  His singular independence is grounded in the sense of his own autonomy.  It is reminiscent of Kierkegaard's statement: \"Purity of heart is to will one thing.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePatrick's intimacy with the divine makes him painfully aware of his faults and unworthiness.  Yet this recognition never becomes self-obsessive.  He acknowledges that the tender mercy of God is deeper and more ultimate than mere human failing.  His faults, therefore, do not become a barrier to either his destiny or growth.  His difficulties with eros make Patrick real and interesting.  They signal the charisma and passion of his personality and presence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePatrick's presence is full of \u003ci\u003euaisleacht.\u003c\/i\u003e  The Irish word for nobility is \u003ci\u003euaisleacht;\u003c\/i\u003e it also carries echoes of honor, dignity, and poise.  Patrick exercised \u003ci\u003euaisleacht\u003c\/i\u003e in relation to the people he shepherded.  He served, defended, and cared for them, yet he refused any gifts or attempts to claim him.  He also exercised \u003ci\u003euaisleacht\u003c\/i\u003e in relation to his own destiny.  He constructed no kingdom of the ego.  He opened himself to the ultimate calling and challenge of Otherness in its social, territorial, and spiritual forms:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor I know full well\u003cbr\u003ethat poverty and adversity suit me better\u003cbr\u003ethan riches and delights.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe range and intensity of his inner and outer exposure is both admirable and fascinating.  Only a great soul could engage such otherness and still remain gentle and free.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA threshold is a place where different territories meet.  Patrick is a great threshold.  In him the pre-Christian and Christian dimensions of the Irish sensibility find an acute and balanced tension.  Frequently in the \u003ci\u003eConfessions\u003c\/i\u003e we sense this meeting.  Near the end he aligns the pre-Christian Celtic sense of the divinity of the sun with Christ: \"the true sun . . . who will never die.\" In the \u003ci\u003eLorica\u003c\/i\u003e attributed to Patrick, even though it comes three centuries later, we find a lovely balance of the pre-Christian and the Christian.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eLorica\u003c\/i\u003e derives its particular nuance from the absolute recognition of the omnipresence of God.  The new day is understood as a gift of the divine.  The very energy of awakening and arising is made possible by the love and care of God.  Whatever the day holds is welcome because the ultimate origin and destination of the day is divinity.  It explicitly recognizes the day in the light of the Trinitarian embrace.  A day is no mere segment of anonymous and contingent time.  A day is full of latent divinity:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI arise today \u003cbr\u003ein a mighty strength \u003cbr\u003ecalling upon the Trinity, \u003cbr\u003ebelieving in the Three Persons \u003cbr\u003esaying they are One \u003cbr\u003ethanking my creator.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis lyrical and direct evocation of the Trinity is then followed by a recognition of the Christological depth of our experience.  Next the forces of the invisible world that secretly contribute to our destiny and experience are named and invoked.  Then he names the elements and acknowledges how their latent divinity calls the individual forth out of the night into the energy and celebration of life:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI arise today \u003cbr\u003ethrough strength in the sky: \u003cbr\u003elight of the sun \u003cbr\u003emoon's reflection \u003cbr\u003edazzle of fire \u003cbr\u003espeed of lightning \u003cbr\u003ewild wind \u003cbr\u003edeep sea \u003cbr\u003efirm earth \u003cbr\u003ehard rock\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe secret faithfulness of landscape is recognized here.  It provides the where without which no life or object could exist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePatrick draws constant attention to his rustic and unlearned sensibility.  The depth and probe of his writings belie this.  Yet it is true that the exploration and refinement of theological connections and nuance is neither his objective nor gift.  Yet in his writings the pre-Christian and the Christian are always adjacent.  Close enough to allow us to explore their embrace and recognize here a latent\/nascent theology of Creation.  A Celtic theology of Creation understands such continuity and interflow as vital, rich, and liberating.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e--John O'Donohue\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eConamara, Ireland\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus: Part I\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eI am Patrick, yes a sinner and indeed untaught; yet I am established here in Ireland where I profess myself bishop.\u003cbr\u003eI am certain in my heart that \"all that I am,\" I have received from God.\u003cbr\u003eSo I live among barbarous tribes.\u003cbr\u003ea stranger and exile for the love of God.\u003cbr\u003eHe himself testifies that this is so.\u003cbr\u003eI never would have wanted these harsh words to spill from my mouth; I am not in the habit of speaking so sharply.\u003cbr\u003eYet now I am driven by the zeal of God, Christ's truth has aroused me.\u003cbr\u003eI speak out too for love of my neighbors who are my only sons;\u003cbr\u003efor them I gave up my home country, my parents and even pushing my own life to the brink of death.\u003cbr\u003eIf I have any worth, it is to live my life for God so as to teach these peoples;\u003cbr\u003eeven though some of them still look down on me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eI Cor.  15:10 Phil.  2:30\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI myself have composed and written these words with my own hand, so that\u003cbr\u003ethey can be given and handed over, then sent swiftly to the soldiers of\u003cbr\u003eCoroticus.\u003cbr\u003eI am not addressing my own people, nor my fellow citizens of the holy\u003cbr\u003eRomans, but those who are now become citizens of demons by reason of\u003cbr\u003etheir evil works.\u003cbr\u003eThey have chosen, by their hostile deeds, to live in death;\u003cbr\u003ecomrades of the Scotti and Picts and of all who behave like apostates,\u003cbr\u003ebloody men who have steeped themselves in the blood of innocent Christians.\u003cbr\u003eThe very same people I have begotten for God; their\u003cbr\u003enumber beyond count, I myself confirmed them in Christ.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe very next day after my new converts, dressed all in white, were anointed with chrism,\u003cbr\u003eeven as it was still gleaming upon their foreheads, they were cruelly cut down and killed by the swords of these same devilish men.\u003cbr\u003eAt once I sent a good priest with a letter.\u003cbr\u003eI could trust him, for I had taught him from his boyhood.\u003cbr\u003eHe went, accompanied by other priests,\u003cbr\u003eto see if we might claw something back from all the looting, most important,\u003cbr\u003ethe baptized captives whom they had seized.\u003cbr\u003eYet all they did was to laugh in our faces at the mere mention of their prisoners.\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Image","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303936512229,"sku":"NP9780385491631","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780385491631.jpg?v=1767738814","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-confession-of-saint-patrick-isbn-9780385491631","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}