Part IV : Saint Patrick and the Early Christian Kings
Saint Patrick's life is wrapped in volumes of controversy but, whatever the truth about details, one thing is certain:
only a man of outstanding character and ability could have brought about the changes he effected If his spirituality was the driving force behind his mission be was yet worldly-wise enough to know the importance of such material persons as kings and princes, and experienced enough to be able to confound their wise men at their own tricks. His spiritual fervour, his wisdom and his experience are exemplified in the story of his visit to Tara.
On the eve of Easter in 433 the unselfconscious pagans dwelling on Tara looked over the darkening blue plain of Meath and saw a light upon the Hill of Slane. They on Tara were the celebraters that evening awaiting the king's pleasure to light a mighty fire on the Royal Hill. Who was this bold intruder who faced the Royal city and dared to light a fire ahead of the king?
They turned to Laoghaire' s wise men to question them. They were disquieted and spoke allegorically to the King. They bade him have the fire extinguished straightway or else it would burn brightly ever more; would consume their pagan fires and eventually overthrow the stronghold of Tara itself.
The fire they saw was one lit by Saint Patrick. He had journeyed from the North: with his sense of the fitness of things he was intent on reaching the Royal Citadel on Easter Day to promulgate the gospel of Resurrection and Eternal Life. He and his followers had stopped that evening on the Hill of Slane some few miles from Tara and lighted a fire in honour of the Paschal feast.
King Laoghaire, when he saw the fire and heard the prophetic words of his advisers, had his chariots brought and drove forthwith to Slane and a dramatic meeting between Saint and King ensued. The Saint contended with the King's advisers and confounded them so that they durst not quench the fire.
Next day Saint Patrick and his retinue journeyed to Tara. On the way he composed the beautiful "Hymn of Saint Patrick " which we still sing to-day. Here is a verse from it:
"At Temair to-day may the strength of God pilot me, may the power of God preserve me, may the wisdom of God instruct me, may the eye of God view me, may the ear of God hear me, may the word of God render me eloquent, may the hand of God protect me, may the way of God direct me, may the shield of God defend me, may the Host of God guard me against the snares of demons, the temptations of vices, the inclination of the mind, against every man who meditates evil to me, far, near, alone, or in company.
He had no armour other than his Faith and he was entering the stronghold of all that was arrogant and sophisticated in Pagan Ireland. The battle of wits that ensued marks a turning point in our history. Saint Patrick appeared before King Laoghaire and his court and contended with thee wise men of the day, and, if the legendary accounts of the proceedings we have seem somewhat allegorical, they still serve to show us something of the ancient superstitions and the strength of the new power which overcame them. Here is the story of his trial of strength with one of the King's wise men taken from a Life of Saint Patrick written in the twelfth century:
The magician, loving darkness rather than light, and darkening himself in the delusions of his darkness, stubbornly persevered in his malice, and still contentiously affirmed that his wicked and perverse opinions excelled the doctrines of the Saint. And the King feared that the works of the Magician would be overturned, and he proposed a certain trial to be made between them Let your books be plunged into water, and he whose writings are blotted or effaced, let his preaching be disbelieved; but he in whose writings no blemish shall be found, let his preaching be admitted and confirmed.' And Patrick assented to this decision, but the magician refused, for he affirmed that Patrick worshipped the element of water for a God, inasmuch as he baptized with water in the name of his God. Then the King changed the trial and appointed that either book should be cast into the fire, and that' him whose book should remain unhurt, the doctrine should be received of all. And the Saint accorded to this sentence, but the magician distrusting himself accorded not; for he said that Patrick worshipped in their turn now the fire, now the water, and that therefore he held propitious to him either element. And Patrick replied that he adored no element, but that he worshipped the Creator of all the elements. While therefore the dispute waxed high, and the people varied from one side to the other ... a new trial by fire is sought out. Then with the agreement of all . . . in a new manner a new house is builded, whereof the one half is made of wood, which was green, the other of wood which was dry and eaten of worms ; and the boy Benignus and the Magician, each being bound hand and foot, are placed over against each other; the boy arrayed in the Magician's garment is placed in the dry part of the building, and the Magician clothed in the robe of Saint Patrick, is placed in the green part, and the fire is put thereto. And behold an event marvellous and much unwonted! The fire furiously raging, consumed the Magician even to ashes, with the green part of the building wherein he stood, and the robe of the Saint wherewith he was clad was neither scorched nor soiled; but the blessed youth Benignus, standing in the dry part thereof, the fire touched not, yet reduced to a cinder the garment of the magician that wrapped him round."
King Laoghaire was very much angered at the loss of his magician and attempted to have the Saint slain but was prevented by another miracle. "And the Saint forgave him; yet though he a long time instructed him in the Faith of the Lord Jesus, in no wise could he persuade him unto baptism." King Laoghaire, though obviously disquieted, clung to ancient ways. His father had bade him hate his enemies and he could not accept the new gospel of love. He died a pagan in 458 whilst on his way, with an army, to exact the hated Boru tribute. He was brought back to Tara and buried in the rampart of his rath, standing up, with his shield in his hand and his face towards the south facing his enemies, the Leinstermen.
From 'The Legend of Tara' Elizabeth Hickey / Dundalgan Press, Ltd. 1996
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