I AM PATRICK (2020) - full transcript
I AM PATRICK peels back centuries of legend and myth to tell the true story of Saint Patrick. Through historical re-enactments, expert interviews and Patrick's own writings, experience the journey from man to saint.
[light orchestral music]
[light orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
To narrate in detail
either the whole story
of my labors or even parts
of it would take a long time.
So, I shall tell
you briefly how God,
the all-holy one, often
freed me from slavery
and from 12 dangers
which threatened my life,
as well as from many
snares and from things
which I am unable
to express in words.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] To find
the real St. Patrick,
you have to peel back
centuries of legend and myth.
[Henry] There's the image
of him driving out
snakes from Ireland.
[Billy] The bishop
with the miter
and the staff and the crozier.
[Elva] He's also associated
very strongly
with the shamrock.
[Thomas] And then
Shamrock gives us green.
[Charles] People
think he's Irish
when in fact he's British.
[Tim] Most of the preconception
that we've got
about St. Patrick
actually is completely wrong.
[narrator] Most of what we
know about the real Patrick
comes from his own
5th century letter,
known as the Confessio
or Confession.
It is one of the earliest
surviving documents
in Irish history.
[Tim quoting
Patrick's Confession in Latin]
"I, Patrick, a sinner,
least faithful of many."
Those are the words that
begin the history of Ireland.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[groaning]
I am Patrick.
I am a sinner,
the most unsophisticated
of people;
the least among
all the Christians;
and, to some, the
most contemptible.
Patrick was writing
his message to people
who had allowed him to come
here to Ireland as a missionary.
There's various controversies
that become associated
with Patrick and he's defending
his good name and character.
[Patrick, voiceover] Even if
I am imperfect in many things
I want my brothers and
relatives to know
the sort of man
I am, so that they
may understand
what it is to which I
have committed my soul.
[man speaking foreign language]
[tutor] Again Patrick.
[Potitus] Shouldn't we
wait and see what happens?
I understand the plight,
but we still must collect.
[Patrick, voiceover] I am
the son of deacon Calpornius,
as he was the son of the
priest Potitus who belonged
to the village of
Bannavem Taburniae.
[speaking foreign language]
[narrator] Bannavem Taburniae
was a village located
somewhere along the
western coast of Britain,
which at the time was
part of the Roman Empire.
[Tim] The Roman Empire
was disintegrating.
The legions were called
back to Rome to defend it
against the barbarians.
As the Roman administration
and structures shrank
in Britain it allowed
for local leaders
to come to the fore.
All the gold coins first.
Yes.
We stack them here.
[narrator] One of those
leaders was Patrick's father,
whom he also describes
as a Decurion.
- You understand?
- Yes.
[Thomas] The
Decurions are basically
the local Roman civil service.
In other words,
they keep the tax books.
But if there was a shortfall,
then it had to come out
of their own resources.
So, we find that in
the late Roman Empire,
a lot of these people
began to join the church
because they had an exemption
or at least a tax rebate,
shall we say.
[speaking foreign language]
[Charles] Patrick says,
"Oh we didn't pay
too much attention
"to our religion," et cetera.
It would suggest that his
people were Christian,
of course, but you
know, money counts.
The blood of Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Would you like some prunes?
[Charles] These
people were well off.
They had a villa
outside the town.
They had male and
female slaves.
Slave!
[Calpornius] Enjoy the bread.
He would have been
taught to read and write,
not only so that he could
take over the clerical aspect
of his parents,
but the tax aspect,
which would have
required literacy.
[speaking foreign language]
Much better.
[narrator] Patrick
had a bright future.
But living on the edge of the
Roman Empire was dangerous.
11!
[laughing]
All right, here we go!
[woman screaming]
[suspenseful orchestral music]
[woman screaming]
[grunting]
[grunting]
[singing in foreign language]
[narrator] Patrick was taken
captive by Irish raiders.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Thomas] The reason
they didn't kill him
was that he was valuable.
Slaves are a
valuable commodity.
[Billy] He probably
thought that he would
never see his home again,
never see his parents,
never see his family.
[Tim] It was a one-way
ticket to the unknown.
[singing in foreign language]
[narrator] Patrick
endured a dangerous voyage
across the sea to the
eastern coast of Ireland.
[Tim] The Roman Britain view
was Ireland was a place
of Barbarians at the
end of the world.
[Elva] Clearly at this point
there is some sort of market
for British slaves in Ireland.
And Patrick himself tells
us that there are many,
many of his countrymen
who are also slaves
in Ireland as well.
[speaking foreign language]
Get going, boy!
Celtic people did not work
with slaves the same way
that the Romans did.
They treated their slaves
pretty badly, like cattle,
and would've worked
you until you died.
[Elva] Particularly
as a non-Irish slave,
he would have been at an
even greater disadvantage
because he wouldn't have been
recognized almost as a person.
Presumably it is a sort of
meant-to-be slavery for life.
[Patrick] We had
pulled back from God;
we did not keep
his commandments;
and we did not listen
to our priests who kept
on warning us regarding
our salvation.
[dramatic orchestral music]
And so the Lord poured
upon us the heat
of his anger and dispersed
us among many peoples right
out to the very
ends of the earth,
where now my utter
insignificance
is seen among these
men of an alien land.
[Father Swan] He begins to
conclude that this has happened
because I deserved it
basically and this happened
to shake me out of my
complacency and to shake me
out of a way of
life I was living,
in which God didn't
matter for me.
[Charles] The idea
that he was now a slave,
it's the world
turned upside down.
[Patrick, voiceover] I
remained in death and unbelief
until I was truly
punished and, in truth,
brought low by daily
deprivations of
hunger and nakedness.
[clattering]
[Charles] There would have
been raiding parties
learning military tactics
and they had to go off
and get the head of a
person from another tribe.
So these were dangerous people,
they were dangerous to
their own people as well.
And it was under those
conditions that he began
to reflect upon
himself, his life,
and his relationship with
God and the other world.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover] There the
Lord opened my understanding
to my unbelief,
so that however late,
I might become conscious
of my failings.
Then remembering
my need, I might turn
with all my heart
to the Lord my God.
For it was He who looked
after me before I knew Him.
Indeed, as a father
consoles his son,
so He protected me.
He's learning that God
is a father he can trust,
and who wants
what's best for him.
Then something began in him
that was destined to continue.
[Patrick, voiceover]
I tended sheep every day,
and I prayed frequently
during the day.
And more and more,
the love of God
and the fear of Him
grew in me, and my faith
was increased and my
spirit was quickened,
so that in a day
I prayed up to 100 times,
and almost as many
in the night.
Indeed, I even
remained in the wood
and on the mountain to pray.
And come hail, rain or snow,
I was up before dawn to pray;
the Spirit was fervent in me.
[Billy] Something
new is happening,
something that hadn't
happened before.
That personal
relationship, the dimension
of a personal
relationship with God.
This sears his soul.
So much so that he describes it
almost as a
conversion experience.
[narrator] Patrick's
zeal for God grew
so much that even though
he was starving, he fasted.
[Thomas] Fasting was the
way you demonstrated you
were really feeling
your prayer.
You were not just saying words.
[Patrick, voiceover]
It was there indeed,
that one night I heard a voice.
[God] Patrick.
Well have you fasted.
Very soon you are to
travel to your homeland.
Behold, your ship is prepared.
[gasping]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
I took flight, leaving the man
I had been bound
to for six years.
The ship was not nearby,
but maybe 200 miles away
where I had never been
and where I knew nobody.
[Charles] When you
left your tribal group,
you were really going
into unknown territory
and you were losing
protection immediately.
[narrator] The real challenge
was traveling through
Ireland as a foreigner.
Although he could now
speak the Irish language,
his accent and appearance
would give him away at once.
The biggest danger is
someone says, you're a slave.
I'll find out
where you come from
and I'll take you back
and I'll claim a reward.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
I traveled in the power of God,
who directed my path towards
the good, and I feared nothing.
[Billy] He wasn't afraid
because he had come to know God
whose plans for Patrick's life
were going to be worked out
and realized,
with Patrick's consent
and with Patrick's
cooperation in the Spirit.
[Tim] In those days,
Ireland was a patchwork quilt
of little kingdoms.
There were no roads,
there were no towns.
[Elva] This would have
been mainly bog land.
How would have Patrick
concealed himself?
[Thomas] You have to
think of him in terms
of the way prisoners
of war have
to get back over
enemy territory.
You've got to be
fast on your feet,
fast with your tongue,
and keep your eyes wide open.
[Charles] By being
fairly stealthful,
he could have worked his way
to a point in
which he knew there
were ships leaving for Britain.
[men chattering]
[Patrick, voiceover]
The ship was about to depart
on the very day I arrived.
I want to set sail with you.
By no means are
you coming with us!
Go on!
Go on!
[Patrick, voiceover]
I began to pray.
And before I finished
my prayer,
I heard one of
the crew shouting.
Come quickly!
Come on, we're
taking you on faith.
[narrator] Patrick was
then asked to pledge himself
to the crew through
a Celtic tradition
that involved sucking
on their chests.
These days we
would shake hands.
In those days that
was a-- a way of bonding
with each other to show that
you would be loyal to them.
He didn't want to do that
because he was Christian.
I can't.
Go on.
Move!
[Patrick, voiceover]
Despite this,
I stayed with them
but I hoped that some
of them would come
to faith in Jesus Christ,
for they were all pagans.
Give me that.
Put that on.
Load it.
[Patrick, voiceover]
And without further ado,
we got underway.
[Captain] Come on, put
your back in it! Yah!
There must be a
tremendous sense of elation.
"Yes!
"This is right!
"I have had a vision,
I've followed God.
It's worked out."
[Thomas] The way
Patrick remembers it,
it's not his efforts
or his good luck,
but it's the grace of God.
[Patrick, voiceover]
We landed after three days
and for the next 28
days we made our way
through the wilderness.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Elva] Either the boat
gets blown off course,
they land beyond
the Roman frontiers,
or alternatively
the port they arrive
in may have been subject
to barbarian raiding
that's been laid-waste
in some way.
[Charles] Maybe they
were going on a raid
and didn't want to be seen.
So, they land in a part of the
country far from habitation.
[Patrick, voiceover]
When their food ran out,
starvation overcame them.
So now Christian,
you explain to us
how we're in this bad state.
Your God is great
and all powerful,
so why are you not able
to pray for us, huh?
We who are on the very
brink of starvation.
Turn in trust...
and with your whole heart
to the Lord,
my God to whom
nothing is impossible,
that today He may send
food to satisfy you
on your journey,
for He has abundance everywhere.
[roaring]
[narrator] They made camp there
for two nights,
and they were well
restored, for many of them
had dropped out and had been
left half dead by the roadside.
And after this they
thanked God mightily,
and I became honorable
in their eyes.
[laughing]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
That very night,
while I was sleeping,
Satan strongly tried me.
Something like an enormous
rock fell on top of me
and I lost all
power over my limbs.
[narrator] In his distress,
Patrick says
he called on Elias.
[Billy] Elias in
Latin means Elijah.
And there are a number
of people who believe
it's a parallel with Christ
on the cross who calls out
"Eli Eli" as he was dying.
Elias!
Elias!
Elias!
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
Behold the sun's
splendor fell on me
and dispelled immediately all
the heaviness from upon me.
And I believe that Christ,
my Lord assisted
me and his Spirit
had already cried
out through me.
As we traveled,
the Lord looked after us
with food, fire and
dry shelter each day.
And on the very night
we reached humanity,
we had no food left.
[Captain] We're looking
for food and lodging.
Can you show us where?
Can you take us?
[narrator] For Patrick,
finding civilization
only led to more problems.
[Patrick, voiceover] I was
once again taken captive.
Take him.
[Patrick, voiceover]
On the very first night
I was with them,
I received a divine revelation.
[God] Patrick, you will
remain with them for two
months.
[Patrick, voiceover]
On the 60th night,
this is exactly what happened.
The Lord freed me
from their hands.
[grand orchestral music]
Patrick?
Oh, Patrick.
My son.
Patrick!
He's alive.
You're alive.
Ohhh!
Oh!
[Calpornius] Thank God.
We thought you were dead.
[Thomas] Of all of the many
slaves that were taken
from the Roman Empire,
we know the name of only one
that was taken and
escaped, Patrick.
They gave me a son's welcome,
and in good faith, begged me,
after all those great
tribulations I had been through,
that I should go nowhere,
nor ever leave them.
Get you some bread!
[Elva] The Patrick who returned
to them was very different
than the Patrick that had left,
and his experiences
had changed him so much
as an individual that he
was no longer interested
in going back to the
life as he had it.
You're home Patrick.
You're home.
[narrator] Soon
after his return,
Patrick had another vision.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover] A man
named Victoricus arrived
from Ireland with
countless letters.
He gave me one of them and I
began to read what was in it.
[Billy] In all probability
it was someone
that Patrick knew from Ireland.
[Patrick, voiceover]
The voice of the Irish?
At that very moment,
[thunder crashing]
I thought I heard
the voice of those
around the Wood of Foclut which
is close to the Western Sea.
[woman] 'O Holy Boy--
[man] We beg you
to come again--
[man 2] And walk among us.
[Patrick, voiceover]
I was brokenhearted
and could not read
anything more.
And at that moment I woke up!
[breathing heavily]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Henry] That transforms Patrick.
That is his call
to be a missionary.
I was not quick in accepting
what He had made clear to me
and the Spirit reminded me.
[speaking foreign language]
[Patrick, voiceover]
And the Lord
was merciful to me thousands
upon thousands of times
because He saw what was
within me and that I was ready
but I did not know
what I should do
about the state of my life.
The blood of Christ Jesus.
[woman] We beg you to come
again and walk among us.
Amen.
Can I speak with you?
[Thomas] No one in Christianity
before the 16th century
thinks you
can just have a ministry because
you just have a ministry.
You have to think of
ministry through the ministry
of the church.
What brings you here?
I wish to be a cleric.
[narrator] Patrick
had to work his way
up the ranks to become
a bishop.
Bishops can ordain priests
so you can create a hierarchy
that will survive
after your death.
You have to have a bishop in
order to establish a Church.
[speaking foreign language]
Amen.
[Billy] The style
of formation training
would have been mentoring
in basic responsibilities
of how to celebrate
the liturgy,
pastoral duties towards people,
preaching, sacramental
celebration.
I'm here to learn
about the Lord.
There are many scrolls.
[narrator]
It's believed that Patrick's
apprenticeship took him
to Gaul, Northern France,
for a time.
[Thomas] It would
have been the equivalent
of going from
Alaska to New York.
If he wanted to meet
lots of other Christians
whom he could talk
to about theology
and about faith
and about belief,
then Gaul would be
the place to go.
[laughing]
Of course it was
always, you know.
[narrator] During
his training,
Patrick developed
a close friendship
with a young clergyman in
whom he felt he could confide.
Felix.
I am a sinner.
I must confess what I have done.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Once when I was anxious
and worried I hinted
to my dearest friend
about something I
had done one day,
indeed in one hour of my youth,
for I had not then
prevailed over my sinfulness
and I was not a believer
in the true God.
[narrator]
Many have tried to guess
what Patrick's boyhood
sin might have been.
Some say it was immorality.
Others, idolatry
or even murder.
But the truth is
that no one knows,
because Patrick
doesn't tell us.
Am I ever to be forgiven?
You are forgiven.
[mentor] Patrick.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[father] Patrick!
You have a visitor.
Felix.
Patrick.
Please, help yourself.
What is it that brings
you all the way out here?
It appears that you are to
be given the rank of bishop.
I am unworthy.
It is the will of the elders.
This is quite a surprise.
I'm not sure I--
I am expected in
Cardiff by nightfall.
I must go.
Of course.
Wait!
[dramatic orchestral music]
[singing in foreign language]
[speaking foreign language]
Amen.
Go in peace, friend.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Many were forbidding
my mission.
Behind my back, they
were telling stories.
To Ireland?
Well, why would
this man put himself
in danger among enemies
who do not know God?
For what reason?
[Billy] People thought
that this mission was crazy,
the Irish people were
beyond redemption,
that even the Roman Empire
had not gone that far,
and that his efforts
to Christianize Ireland
were doomed to failure.
[Bishop] They're savages!
These heathen!
[Elva] Patrick really
believes that if he preaches
to the end of the earth this
will complete God's mission
and will usher in
the Second Coming,
which Patrick presumably
hoped would happen
in his lifetime and maybe even
as a result of his activities.
[narrator] Against all odds,
Patrick was eventually
permitted
to return to Ireland
as a missionary bishop.
While the British
Church most likely
funded the mission continually,
some scholars
believe that Patrick
paid the initial cost himself.
[Elva] He sells his nobility,
which I take to be a
reference to him selling,
essentially his inheritance.
It's almost like a
form of seed funding,
which will enable him
to get to Ireland.
I imagine that Patrick's
parents had fully expected him
to take on the role, as maybe
the heir of the family.
[Charles] He would have been
opting out of any
responsibility
for running estates, et cetera.
This does not
have to be, Patrick.
It is the will of God.
For the journey.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Many gifts were
offered to me with sorrow
and tears and I offended them
and went against the will
of some of my elders.
Father.
[Patrick, voiceover]
It was not my grace,
but God who conquered in me
and who resisted them all
that I might come to the Irish
nations to preach the gospel.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Father Swan] In terms of the
challenge of it,
it was just awesome.
He didn't know what he
faced, possible death
and persecution, more
slavery, imprisonment.
[narrator] Patrick
was not the first bishop
to be sent to Ireland.
He was preceded by a
man named Palladius
who had been sent by
the pope a year earlier.
[Thomas] Palladius is most
likely ministering
to a slave community
and to traders.
So, there were Christians
in Ireland, and in fact,
Patrick never assumes
that he converts people
from nothing to Christianity.
[narrator] According
to the Annals of Ulster,
Patrick arrived in Ireland
sometime in AD 432.
Exactly where he
went is not known.
But we do know that
according to Irish law,
Patrick was still a fugitive.
[Thomas] Probably he stayed
far away from the places
that he had been enslaved.
You get a constant sense that
Patrick is living on his wits.
[Billy] He seems to be pervaded
by the spirit of mission
that is taking him beyond
and abroad bringing the gospel
where it had not reached
before out to the very edge,
out to the very
periphery of Ireland.
He seems to have this
collective consciousness
of the Irish as a nation,
so that leaves him free
to go wherever those Irish
people are to be found.
He's responding just
purely on faith that God
would take him where
he wanted him to go
and where he would
give witness.
[Tim] Patrick was equipped for
the job because he would
have been able to
communicate to the Irish
and bring Christianity by
talking to them more or less
in their own tongue.
[narrator]
Evangelizing the Irish
would prove to be
a challenging task.
Although Christianity was
present in parts of Ireland,
the country was
predominantly pagan.
[speaking foreign language]
Though I am not from this
land, I spent many years here.
And I have returned
with a message.
What is the message you bring?
If you let me inside,
I will tell you.
[Thomas] It's a big deal
if you become a Christian
because you're changing a
set of gods for one God.
You're buying into a
different calendar.
You're changing the
people you associate with.
It's far more like
thinking of someone
who lives in a completely
Buddhist society
becoming a Christian.
And the prophet Hosea says,
"Those who were not my
people I will call my people,
and her who was not beloved
I will call my beloved.
And in the very place
where it was said to them,
you are not my people,
they will be called
sons of the living God."
Who among you heeds the call?
[Billy] The content of
his message is not doomsday.
It's preaching the love
of God, and how others
can come to know God as
a person-loving father,
just as he did.
[Patrick, voiceover] Truly it
is our task to cast our nets
and catch a great multitude
and crowd for God;
to make sure that there
are clergy everywhere
to baptize and preach
to a people who are in need.
Baptism for early
Christians was the moment
of commitment when you
became a true Christian.
And it was believed in the
early Church that baptism
was the one point in your life
when your sins were washed away.
[narrator] For the Irish,
baptism had a
deeper significance
because of their mythology.
[Charles] Water was
associated with kingship.
These waters all flowed
together, entered the ocean,
and returns as rain and
falls upon the earth
creating the great
cycle of life.
[Elva] Having baptisms, having
these public rituals
in which people
identify as Christians
is really powerful and is
probably one that transfers
over quite easily
and is something
which the pagans
could also understand
and could see its significance.
[Patrick, voiceover]
And I am greatly
in God's debt.
He has given me a great grace,
that through me many
people might be reborn
and later brought
to perfection.
And also, that from among
them everywhere clerics
should be ordained
to serve this people,
who have but recently
come to belief.
And again,
"Go into all the world
and preach the gospel
to every creature.
He who believes and is
baptized will be saved.
He who does not believe
will be condemned."
Now go.
[Billy] Patrick's ministry
was extremely effective.
Each time a new
priest was ordained,
then you had the
center of a community.
He was trying to
create small communities
of Christians because
that is how Christianity
spread through the Roman Empire.
[narrator]
As Patrick's ministry grew,
he trained other clerics
to continue his work
and went on to the
next community.
[Charles] As that went on
year after year after year,
his mission was
extremely successful.
And so it shall be in the
last days, says the Lord,
that I will pour out my
Spirit upon all flesh
and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men
shall see visions,
and your old men
shall dream dreams;
and indeed, in that
time on my manservants
and my maidservants I
will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
The bread of heaven
in Christ Jesus.
[woman] Amen.
[Patrick] How has this
happened in Ireland?
Never before did they know
of God except to serve idols
and unclean things.
Yet recently, what a change.
[Billy] Christianity was
beginning to take hold.
That's the transformation
he marvels at.
And he's saying, "Listen,
don't believe the evidence
of my word only,
look what's happening."
[all chattering]
[Patrick, voiceover]
They have become
a prepared people of the Lord,
and they are now
called sons of God.
And the Irish leaders'
sons and daughters
are seen to become the
monks and virgins of Christ.
[laughing]
[bell ringing]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] But while
Patrick had great success
among the pagans in Ireland,
he quickly lost favor
with the Church
back in Britain.
Patrick is preaching the
Gospel in a way very different
to the way other Christians
are preaching
the Gospel in Ireland.
There were rules
and stipulations
by the church at the time.
Bishops were not to stray out
beyond their own dioceses or
own areas of responsibility.
In Patrick we see
something different.
[narrator] It's also believed
that Patrick ministered
in the Irish language
instead of Latin
and established
many monasteries
for the ordination
of uneducated people.
I mean, who is this
man to do such things?
And who does he think he is?
[narrator] Patrick's
superiors started digging
for anything they could
find to discredit him.
[Patrick] On one occasion,
a blessed Irish woman
of noble birth whom I had
baptized came back to us.
I must see Patrick.
What brings you here, child?
I received a divine
revelation from a messenger
of God who advised me to
become a virgin of Christ.
Thanks be to God.
[Thomas] If a woman decides to
become a virgin, a female monk,
she can only do that with
the permission of her father.
They have brought this
girl up and this girl
is now no benefit to
the family at all.
[Patrick, voiceover] This, of
course, is not to the liking
of their fathers and they
have to suffer persecutions
and false accusations
from their parents.
God has called
me to serve Him.
[speaking foreign language]
Go home.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[speaking foreign language]
[Patrick, voiceover]
Yet despite this,
their number keeps increasing.
[vocalizing]
[narrator] Another
challenge Patrick faced
was protecting his Irish
converts from slave traders.
In his second writing,
the Epistola,
Patrick responds to the attacks
of a British warlord
named Coroticus.
He is a slaver who has
taken some of the people
that Patrick has
converted to Christianity.
And his men killed many
people because people
don't go willingly into slavery.
-[dramatic orchestral music]
-[vocalizing]
[Patrick, voiceover]
They are blood-stained;
blood-stained with the blood
of innocent Christians,
whose numbers I have
given birth to in God
and confirmed in Christ.
[vocalizing]
I sent a letter by a holy
priest, with clerics,
to ask that Coroticus
and his men return to us
some of the baptized
prisoners they had captured.
They scoffed at them.
[Father Swan] The people who
were responsible for
the slaughter
of his newly baptized Christians
were nominally Christian,
which gives him the authority
to excommunicate them,
to declare what
was already true,
basically the people who
are responsible for murder
can no longer be
called Christian.
Patrick, by
writing this letter,
is making a formal
statement, which says,
"Coroticus, unless you
change, you are damned.
And God will back
me on this one!"
[Patrick]
The church mourns
and weeps for its
sons and daughters
who were taken away and
exported to far distant lands,
where grave sin openly
flourishes without shame,
where freeborn people
have been sold off,
Christians reduced to slavery.
[sobbing]
I do not know what to say,
or how I can say any more,
about the children
of God who are dead,
whom the sword has
touched so cruelly.
All I can do is what is written:
"Weep with those who weep";
and again: "If one
member suffers pain,
let all the members
suffer the pain with it."
[Patrick, voiceover]
The evil of evil people
has prevailed over us.
We have been made as if we
were complete outsiders.
For them, it is a disgrace
that we are from Ireland.
[Charles] He said, "They hate us
because we are Irish."
That's extraordinary.
That Patrick had come to
feel himself to be just
as Irish as his followers.
Let it be read
before all the people,
especially in the presence
of Coroticus himself.
God may inspire them to come
back to their right senses,
however late it may be.
[Elizabeth] Unfortunately,
we simply don't know
if Coroticus returned
any of the slaves.
And I think it's probably
unlikely that he did.
But simply that is
something that the sources
just don't show us.
[light orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover] I wish
to leave them to go to Britain.
I would willingly do this,
and I am prepared for this,
as if to visit my home
country and my parents.
Not only that, but I
would like to go to Gaul
to visit the brothers
and see the faces
of the saints of my Lord.
God knows what I would
dearly like to do.
But I am bound in the
Spirit, who assures me
that if I were to do this,
I would be held guilty.
And I fear, also, to lose
the work which I began,
not so much I, but Christ
the Lord, who told me
to come here to be
with these people
for the rest of my life.
Tell us this secret
you know about Patrick.
Patrick isn't the
man people think he is.
He's committed
unpardonable sins.
Tell me everything you know.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] As Patrick's
mission expanded
throughout Ireland,
he wandered between territories
owned by different tribes.
[Billy] A lot of those tribes
were at war or at least
at rivalry with each other.
The whole country of Ireland
was certainly not unified.
[narrator] Crossing
territorial boundaries
was dangerous.
The only people who were able
to travel freely were poets,
tribal leaders and their sons.
Patrick talks about
traveling with the sons
of petty kings, probably
as a kind of bodyguard.
But also, as people he
was educating as he moved
about the countryside.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Every day there is the chance
that I will be killed,
surrounded, or taken
into slavery,
or some other such happening.
[speaking foreign language]
[light harp music]
What brings you back, Roman?
We come in peace.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Sometimes I gave presents
to kings,
over and above the
wages I gave their sons
who traveled with me.
[Elva] They're a bit like gangs.
He has to pay protection money.
[Thomas] And of course,
that is always going to be seen
as problematic,
because it's no more than
greasing the wheels.
Is this all?
[ominous orchestral music]
Take him.
[Patrick, voiceover]
On that day
they avidly sought to kill me.
[grunting]
[grunting]
[yelling]
[grunting]
Enough!
[Patrick, voiceover]
But the time had not yet come.
[exhaling]
Still they looted us,
took everything of value,
and bound me in iron.
On the 14th day,
the Lord set me free
from their power; all our
possessions were returned
to us for God's sake
and for the sake of the close
friendship we had previously.
This is who we
confess and adore,
[all] One God in
Trinity of sacred name.
Amen.
[Tim] He'd make
a congregation.
He'd go to the next
little place where
they didn't
like the look of him,
and the same thing would
happen all over again.
So he's imprisoned many times.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] Patrick
also had to strike deals
with a group of people
he calls judges.
[Elva] Patrick,
very interestingly,
does not say
who the judges are.
I think he's making
deals with local druids,
that he's asking
them for safe passage
through their territories.
He's probably asking
them for permission
to engage in preaching.
[narrator] The druids
were a powerful force
in fifth century Ireland.
These Celtic religious leaders
were part of a pagan priesthood
that supervised sacred rites,
presided over public
and private disputes,
and were said to be prophets.
I suppose they would
have been the people
that Patrick would
have been facing.
They would have been the rivals
to Patrick's new ministry.
You do get the impression
that there must have
been many clashes.
[goat bleating]
[narrator] Legend has it
that such a clash happened
on the Hill of Slane.
Patrick's seventh century
biographer Muirchú
tells how Patrick opposed the
druids, and defied a king.
[Patrick, voiceover] They held
and celebrated their
pagan feast
on the same night on which
holy Patrick celebrated Easter.
They also had a custom, which
was announced to all publicly,
that whoever lit a fire on
that night before it was lit
in the king's house,
would have forfeited his life.
It shone in the
night and it was seen
by almost all of the people
who lived in the plain,
and as they saw it they all
gazed at it and wondered.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Who is the man who has dared
to do such a wicked thing
in my kingdom?
We do not know
who has done this,
King, may you live forever!
Unless this fire which
we see is extinguished
on this same night on
which it has been lit,
then it will never be
extinguished at all
and it will spread
over the whole country
and it will reign
in all eternity.
[Billy] It's a prophecy
that the light of
Christianity triumphs
over every evil,
over every secular authority.
And the fire would
never go out.
I think we should
continue to move northwest
and eventually be able
to split up and cross
into higher country.
My dear friends.
Such a surprise to see you.
[Patrick, voiceover]
They came and put my sins
against my hard
work as a bishop.
The charge they
brought against me
was something from
30 years earlier,
which I had admitted
before I was even a deacon.
I am a sinner.
Patrick isn't the
man people think he is.
[Patrick] I must
confess what I have done.
He's committed
unpardonable sins.
[Patrick] Am I ever
to be forgiven?
Tell me everything you know.
[Billy] This friend of his
disclosed the sin of Patrick
and that this has been
used to discredit him.
[Patrick, voiceover]
This hit me very hard,
so much so that it seemed
I was about to fall,
both here and in eternity.
[grunting]
[screaming]
[dramatic orchestral music]
I am very sorry for
my dearest friend,
to whom I trusted even my soul.
That same night I saw in a
vision some writing before
my dishonored face.
[God] We have seen
with anger the face
of our chosen one with his
name laid bare of respect.
[Patrick, voiceover]
God did not say,
you have seen with anger,
but "we have seen
with anger" as if
in this matter He
were joined to me.
Patrick,
the boat is ready,
and it's time to go.
[dramatic orchestral music]
I am not finished.
Damn him!
He powerfully came to my aid
in this battering so
that I did not slip badly
into the wreckage of
sin and into infamy.
I pray God
that it may not be charged
against them as sin.
Amen.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] As
Patrick got older,
criticism of his mission
and methods had only grown,
which prompted him to
write the Confessio.
[Patrick, voiceover] Maybe when
I baptized all those thousands,
I hoped to get even half
a penny from one of them?
Tell me and I will
return it to you!
Or when the Lord ordained
clergy everywhere through me
as his mediocre instrument,
and I gave my ministry
to them for free,
did I even charge them
the cost of my shoes?
Tell it against me and I will
all the more return it to you!
[Father Swan] He scrupulously
defends himself saying
that his motives and his reasons
for his presence in Ireland,
for his return to Ireland
was nothing except
that the Irish would come
to know Christ and come to
know the Father as he did.
[narrator] It's
believed that Patrick
was ordered to give up his
mission and return to Britain.
[Elva] Patrick
faces this question,
"If I'm not accepted by the
hierarchy of the British
Church,
is my mission something
which is acceptable?"
His ultimate line of
defense is to say,
"I'm carrying on
with my mission.
I'm not going to
go back to Britain
because I have been chosen
to be a bishop by God."
[Billy] Patrick went AWOL.
And we just don't know
how that all panned out.
He said that he wanted
to spend the rest
of his life in Ireland because
that's what God demanded.
Therefore, we've got to guess
that he never did go back.
[Patrick] I pray that
God give me perseverance,
and that he grant me to
bear faithful witness
to Him right up to my
passing from this life,
for the sake of my God.
[narrator] Patrick
died sometime
in the late fifth century.
The exact date, location,
and circumstances
of his death are unknown.
Later traditions claimed
that he died of old age
on March 17th, AD 461
and was buried in
Saul, Northern Ireland.
Nearby at Down Cathedral,
this granite slab marks the
traditional spot of his burial.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Not long after Patrick's death,
the Roman Empire fell,
and Western Europe drifted
into the Dark Ages.
But Patrick's work
was not in vain.
[Billy] As Christianity
established itself,
as it became more
vibrant, it became known
as the Land of Saints and
Scholars, and that led,
in turn, to a whole
proliferation of
Christian missionaries
leaving Ireland and
flooding continental Europe.
Patrick's story began
a chain of events
that is quite remarkable
in the impact that it had.
[Tim] He wore out many
more pairs of sandals
in death than he did in life.
And he's still going,
people are still reading
his Confession
and still being
interested in Christianity
because he wrote
his message down.
[Patrick, voiceover] I pray
for those who believe in
and have reverence for God.
Some of them may come upon
this writing which Patrick,
a sinner, wrote in Ireland.
May none of them ever say
that whatever little I did
or made known to please God
was done through ignorance.
Instead, you can judge
and believe in all truth
that it was a gift of God.
This is my confession
before I die.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[vocalizing]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[light orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
To narrate in detail
either the whole story
of my labors or even parts
of it would take a long time.
So, I shall tell
you briefly how God,
the all-holy one, often
freed me from slavery
and from 12 dangers
which threatened my life,
as well as from many
snares and from things
which I am unable
to express in words.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] To find
the real St. Patrick,
you have to peel back
centuries of legend and myth.
[Henry] There's the image
of him driving out
snakes from Ireland.
[Billy] The bishop
with the miter
and the staff and the crozier.
[Elva] He's also associated
very strongly
with the shamrock.
[Thomas] And then
Shamrock gives us green.
[Charles] People
think he's Irish
when in fact he's British.
[Tim] Most of the preconception
that we've got
about St. Patrick
actually is completely wrong.
[narrator] Most of what we
know about the real Patrick
comes from his own
5th century letter,
known as the Confessio
or Confession.
It is one of the earliest
surviving documents
in Irish history.
[Tim quoting
Patrick's Confession in Latin]
"I, Patrick, a sinner,
least faithful of many."
Those are the words that
begin the history of Ireland.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[groaning]
I am Patrick.
I am a sinner,
the most unsophisticated
of people;
the least among
all the Christians;
and, to some, the
most contemptible.
Patrick was writing
his message to people
who had allowed him to come
here to Ireland as a missionary.
There's various controversies
that become associated
with Patrick and he's defending
his good name and character.
[Patrick, voiceover] Even if
I am imperfect in many things
I want my brothers and
relatives to know
the sort of man
I am, so that they
may understand
what it is to which I
have committed my soul.
[man speaking foreign language]
[tutor] Again Patrick.
[Potitus] Shouldn't we
wait and see what happens?
I understand the plight,
but we still must collect.
[Patrick, voiceover] I am
the son of deacon Calpornius,
as he was the son of the
priest Potitus who belonged
to the village of
Bannavem Taburniae.
[speaking foreign language]
[narrator] Bannavem Taburniae
was a village located
somewhere along the
western coast of Britain,
which at the time was
part of the Roman Empire.
[Tim] The Roman Empire
was disintegrating.
The legions were called
back to Rome to defend it
against the barbarians.
As the Roman administration
and structures shrank
in Britain it allowed
for local leaders
to come to the fore.
All the gold coins first.
Yes.
We stack them here.
[narrator] One of those
leaders was Patrick's father,
whom he also describes
as a Decurion.
- You understand?
- Yes.
[Thomas] The
Decurions are basically
the local Roman civil service.
In other words,
they keep the tax books.
But if there was a shortfall,
then it had to come out
of their own resources.
So, we find that in
the late Roman Empire,
a lot of these people
began to join the church
because they had an exemption
or at least a tax rebate,
shall we say.
[speaking foreign language]
[Charles] Patrick says,
"Oh we didn't pay
too much attention
"to our religion," et cetera.
It would suggest that his
people were Christian,
of course, but you
know, money counts.
The blood of Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Would you like some prunes?
[Charles] These
people were well off.
They had a villa
outside the town.
They had male and
female slaves.
Slave!
[Calpornius] Enjoy the bread.
He would have been
taught to read and write,
not only so that he could
take over the clerical aspect
of his parents,
but the tax aspect,
which would have
required literacy.
[speaking foreign language]
Much better.
[narrator] Patrick
had a bright future.
But living on the edge of the
Roman Empire was dangerous.
11!
[laughing]
All right, here we go!
[woman screaming]
[suspenseful orchestral music]
[woman screaming]
[grunting]
[grunting]
[singing in foreign language]
[narrator] Patrick was taken
captive by Irish raiders.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Thomas] The reason
they didn't kill him
was that he was valuable.
Slaves are a
valuable commodity.
[Billy] He probably
thought that he would
never see his home again,
never see his parents,
never see his family.
[Tim] It was a one-way
ticket to the unknown.
[singing in foreign language]
[narrator] Patrick
endured a dangerous voyage
across the sea to the
eastern coast of Ireland.
[Tim] The Roman Britain view
was Ireland was a place
of Barbarians at the
end of the world.
[Elva] Clearly at this point
there is some sort of market
for British slaves in Ireland.
And Patrick himself tells
us that there are many,
many of his countrymen
who are also slaves
in Ireland as well.
[speaking foreign language]
Get going, boy!
Celtic people did not work
with slaves the same way
that the Romans did.
They treated their slaves
pretty badly, like cattle,
and would've worked
you until you died.
[Elva] Particularly
as a non-Irish slave,
he would have been at an
even greater disadvantage
because he wouldn't have been
recognized almost as a person.
Presumably it is a sort of
meant-to-be slavery for life.
[Patrick] We had
pulled back from God;
we did not keep
his commandments;
and we did not listen
to our priests who kept
on warning us regarding
our salvation.
[dramatic orchestral music]
And so the Lord poured
upon us the heat
of his anger and dispersed
us among many peoples right
out to the very
ends of the earth,
where now my utter
insignificance
is seen among these
men of an alien land.
[Father Swan] He begins to
conclude that this has happened
because I deserved it
basically and this happened
to shake me out of my
complacency and to shake me
out of a way of
life I was living,
in which God didn't
matter for me.
[Charles] The idea
that he was now a slave,
it's the world
turned upside down.
[Patrick, voiceover] I
remained in death and unbelief
until I was truly
punished and, in truth,
brought low by daily
deprivations of
hunger and nakedness.
[clattering]
[Charles] There would have
been raiding parties
learning military tactics
and they had to go off
and get the head of a
person from another tribe.
So these were dangerous people,
they were dangerous to
their own people as well.
And it was under those
conditions that he began
to reflect upon
himself, his life,
and his relationship with
God and the other world.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover] There the
Lord opened my understanding
to my unbelief,
so that however late,
I might become conscious
of my failings.
Then remembering
my need, I might turn
with all my heart
to the Lord my God.
For it was He who looked
after me before I knew Him.
Indeed, as a father
consoles his son,
so He protected me.
He's learning that God
is a father he can trust,
and who wants
what's best for him.
Then something began in him
that was destined to continue.
[Patrick, voiceover]
I tended sheep every day,
and I prayed frequently
during the day.
And more and more,
the love of God
and the fear of Him
grew in me, and my faith
was increased and my
spirit was quickened,
so that in a day
I prayed up to 100 times,
and almost as many
in the night.
Indeed, I even
remained in the wood
and on the mountain to pray.
And come hail, rain or snow,
I was up before dawn to pray;
the Spirit was fervent in me.
[Billy] Something
new is happening,
something that hadn't
happened before.
That personal
relationship, the dimension
of a personal
relationship with God.
This sears his soul.
So much so that he describes it
almost as a
conversion experience.
[narrator] Patrick's
zeal for God grew
so much that even though
he was starving, he fasted.
[Thomas] Fasting was the
way you demonstrated you
were really feeling
your prayer.
You were not just saying words.
[Patrick, voiceover]
It was there indeed,
that one night I heard a voice.
[God] Patrick.
Well have you fasted.
Very soon you are to
travel to your homeland.
Behold, your ship is prepared.
[gasping]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
I took flight, leaving the man
I had been bound
to for six years.
The ship was not nearby,
but maybe 200 miles away
where I had never been
and where I knew nobody.
[Charles] When you
left your tribal group,
you were really going
into unknown territory
and you were losing
protection immediately.
[narrator] The real challenge
was traveling through
Ireland as a foreigner.
Although he could now
speak the Irish language,
his accent and appearance
would give him away at once.
The biggest danger is
someone says, you're a slave.
I'll find out
where you come from
and I'll take you back
and I'll claim a reward.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
I traveled in the power of God,
who directed my path towards
the good, and I feared nothing.
[Billy] He wasn't afraid
because he had come to know God
whose plans for Patrick's life
were going to be worked out
and realized,
with Patrick's consent
and with Patrick's
cooperation in the Spirit.
[Tim] In those days,
Ireland was a patchwork quilt
of little kingdoms.
There were no roads,
there were no towns.
[Elva] This would have
been mainly bog land.
How would have Patrick
concealed himself?
[Thomas] You have to
think of him in terms
of the way prisoners
of war have
to get back over
enemy territory.
You've got to be
fast on your feet,
fast with your tongue,
and keep your eyes wide open.
[Charles] By being
fairly stealthful,
he could have worked his way
to a point in
which he knew there
were ships leaving for Britain.
[men chattering]
[Patrick, voiceover]
The ship was about to depart
on the very day I arrived.
I want to set sail with you.
By no means are
you coming with us!
Go on!
Go on!
[Patrick, voiceover]
I began to pray.
And before I finished
my prayer,
I heard one of
the crew shouting.
Come quickly!
Come on, we're
taking you on faith.
[narrator] Patrick was
then asked to pledge himself
to the crew through
a Celtic tradition
that involved sucking
on their chests.
These days we
would shake hands.
In those days that
was a-- a way of bonding
with each other to show that
you would be loyal to them.
He didn't want to do that
because he was Christian.
I can't.
Go on.
Move!
[Patrick, voiceover]
Despite this,
I stayed with them
but I hoped that some
of them would come
to faith in Jesus Christ,
for they were all pagans.
Give me that.
Put that on.
Load it.
[Patrick, voiceover]
And without further ado,
we got underway.
[Captain] Come on, put
your back in it! Yah!
There must be a
tremendous sense of elation.
"Yes!
"This is right!
"I have had a vision,
I've followed God.
It's worked out."
[Thomas] The way
Patrick remembers it,
it's not his efforts
or his good luck,
but it's the grace of God.
[Patrick, voiceover]
We landed after three days
and for the next 28
days we made our way
through the wilderness.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Elva] Either the boat
gets blown off course,
they land beyond
the Roman frontiers,
or alternatively
the port they arrive
in may have been subject
to barbarian raiding
that's been laid-waste
in some way.
[Charles] Maybe they
were going on a raid
and didn't want to be seen.
So, they land in a part of the
country far from habitation.
[Patrick, voiceover]
When their food ran out,
starvation overcame them.
So now Christian,
you explain to us
how we're in this bad state.
Your God is great
and all powerful,
so why are you not able
to pray for us, huh?
We who are on the very
brink of starvation.
Turn in trust...
and with your whole heart
to the Lord,
my God to whom
nothing is impossible,
that today He may send
food to satisfy you
on your journey,
for He has abundance everywhere.
[roaring]
[narrator] They made camp there
for two nights,
and they were well
restored, for many of them
had dropped out and had been
left half dead by the roadside.
And after this they
thanked God mightily,
and I became honorable
in their eyes.
[laughing]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
That very night,
while I was sleeping,
Satan strongly tried me.
Something like an enormous
rock fell on top of me
and I lost all
power over my limbs.
[narrator] In his distress,
Patrick says
he called on Elias.
[Billy] Elias in
Latin means Elijah.
And there are a number
of people who believe
it's a parallel with Christ
on the cross who calls out
"Eli Eli" as he was dying.
Elias!
Elias!
Elias!
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover]
Behold the sun's
splendor fell on me
and dispelled immediately all
the heaviness from upon me.
And I believe that Christ,
my Lord assisted
me and his Spirit
had already cried
out through me.
As we traveled,
the Lord looked after us
with food, fire and
dry shelter each day.
And on the very night
we reached humanity,
we had no food left.
[Captain] We're looking
for food and lodging.
Can you show us where?
Can you take us?
[narrator] For Patrick,
finding civilization
only led to more problems.
[Patrick, voiceover] I was
once again taken captive.
Take him.
[Patrick, voiceover]
On the very first night
I was with them,
I received a divine revelation.
[God] Patrick, you will
remain with them for two
months.
[Patrick, voiceover]
On the 60th night,
this is exactly what happened.
The Lord freed me
from their hands.
[grand orchestral music]
Patrick?
Oh, Patrick.
My son.
Patrick!
He's alive.
You're alive.
Ohhh!
Oh!
[Calpornius] Thank God.
We thought you were dead.
[Thomas] Of all of the many
slaves that were taken
from the Roman Empire,
we know the name of only one
that was taken and
escaped, Patrick.
They gave me a son's welcome,
and in good faith, begged me,
after all those great
tribulations I had been through,
that I should go nowhere,
nor ever leave them.
Get you some bread!
[Elva] The Patrick who returned
to them was very different
than the Patrick that had left,
and his experiences
had changed him so much
as an individual that he
was no longer interested
in going back to the
life as he had it.
You're home Patrick.
You're home.
[narrator] Soon
after his return,
Patrick had another vision.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover] A man
named Victoricus arrived
from Ireland with
countless letters.
He gave me one of them and I
began to read what was in it.
[Billy] In all probability
it was someone
that Patrick knew from Ireland.
[Patrick, voiceover]
The voice of the Irish?
At that very moment,
[thunder crashing]
I thought I heard
the voice of those
around the Wood of Foclut which
is close to the Western Sea.
[woman] 'O Holy Boy--
[man] We beg you
to come again--
[man 2] And walk among us.
[Patrick, voiceover]
I was brokenhearted
and could not read
anything more.
And at that moment I woke up!
[breathing heavily]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Henry] That transforms Patrick.
That is his call
to be a missionary.
I was not quick in accepting
what He had made clear to me
and the Spirit reminded me.
[speaking foreign language]
[Patrick, voiceover]
And the Lord
was merciful to me thousands
upon thousands of times
because He saw what was
within me and that I was ready
but I did not know
what I should do
about the state of my life.
The blood of Christ Jesus.
[woman] We beg you to come
again and walk among us.
Amen.
Can I speak with you?
[Thomas] No one in Christianity
before the 16th century
thinks you
can just have a ministry because
you just have a ministry.
You have to think of
ministry through the ministry
of the church.
What brings you here?
I wish to be a cleric.
[narrator] Patrick
had to work his way
up the ranks to become
a bishop.
Bishops can ordain priests
so you can create a hierarchy
that will survive
after your death.
You have to have a bishop in
order to establish a Church.
[speaking foreign language]
Amen.
[Billy] The style
of formation training
would have been mentoring
in basic responsibilities
of how to celebrate
the liturgy,
pastoral duties towards people,
preaching, sacramental
celebration.
I'm here to learn
about the Lord.
There are many scrolls.
[narrator]
It's believed that Patrick's
apprenticeship took him
to Gaul, Northern France,
for a time.
[Thomas] It would
have been the equivalent
of going from
Alaska to New York.
If he wanted to meet
lots of other Christians
whom he could talk
to about theology
and about faith
and about belief,
then Gaul would be
the place to go.
[laughing]
Of course it was
always, you know.
[narrator] During
his training,
Patrick developed
a close friendship
with a young clergyman in
whom he felt he could confide.
Felix.
I am a sinner.
I must confess what I have done.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Once when I was anxious
and worried I hinted
to my dearest friend
about something I
had done one day,
indeed in one hour of my youth,
for I had not then
prevailed over my sinfulness
and I was not a believer
in the true God.
[narrator]
Many have tried to guess
what Patrick's boyhood
sin might have been.
Some say it was immorality.
Others, idolatry
or even murder.
But the truth is
that no one knows,
because Patrick
doesn't tell us.
Am I ever to be forgiven?
You are forgiven.
[mentor] Patrick.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[father] Patrick!
You have a visitor.
Felix.
Patrick.
Please, help yourself.
What is it that brings
you all the way out here?
It appears that you are to
be given the rank of bishop.
I am unworthy.
It is the will of the elders.
This is quite a surprise.
I'm not sure I--
I am expected in
Cardiff by nightfall.
I must go.
Of course.
Wait!
[dramatic orchestral music]
[singing in foreign language]
[speaking foreign language]
Amen.
Go in peace, friend.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Many were forbidding
my mission.
Behind my back, they
were telling stories.
To Ireland?
Well, why would
this man put himself
in danger among enemies
who do not know God?
For what reason?
[Billy] People thought
that this mission was crazy,
the Irish people were
beyond redemption,
that even the Roman Empire
had not gone that far,
and that his efforts
to Christianize Ireland
were doomed to failure.
[Bishop] They're savages!
These heathen!
[Elva] Patrick really
believes that if he preaches
to the end of the earth this
will complete God's mission
and will usher in
the Second Coming,
which Patrick presumably
hoped would happen
in his lifetime and maybe even
as a result of his activities.
[narrator] Against all odds,
Patrick was eventually
permitted
to return to Ireland
as a missionary bishop.
While the British
Church most likely
funded the mission continually,
some scholars
believe that Patrick
paid the initial cost himself.
[Elva] He sells his nobility,
which I take to be a
reference to him selling,
essentially his inheritance.
It's almost like a
form of seed funding,
which will enable him
to get to Ireland.
I imagine that Patrick's
parents had fully expected him
to take on the role, as maybe
the heir of the family.
[Charles] He would have been
opting out of any
responsibility
for running estates, et cetera.
This does not
have to be, Patrick.
It is the will of God.
For the journey.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Many gifts were
offered to me with sorrow
and tears and I offended them
and went against the will
of some of my elders.
Father.
[Patrick, voiceover]
It was not my grace,
but God who conquered in me
and who resisted them all
that I might come to the Irish
nations to preach the gospel.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[Father Swan] In terms of the
challenge of it,
it was just awesome.
He didn't know what he
faced, possible death
and persecution, more
slavery, imprisonment.
[narrator] Patrick
was not the first bishop
to be sent to Ireland.
He was preceded by a
man named Palladius
who had been sent by
the pope a year earlier.
[Thomas] Palladius is most
likely ministering
to a slave community
and to traders.
So, there were Christians
in Ireland, and in fact,
Patrick never assumes
that he converts people
from nothing to Christianity.
[narrator] According
to the Annals of Ulster,
Patrick arrived in Ireland
sometime in AD 432.
Exactly where he
went is not known.
But we do know that
according to Irish law,
Patrick was still a fugitive.
[Thomas] Probably he stayed
far away from the places
that he had been enslaved.
You get a constant sense that
Patrick is living on his wits.
[Billy] He seems to be pervaded
by the spirit of mission
that is taking him beyond
and abroad bringing the gospel
where it had not reached
before out to the very edge,
out to the very
periphery of Ireland.
He seems to have this
collective consciousness
of the Irish as a nation,
so that leaves him free
to go wherever those Irish
people are to be found.
He's responding just
purely on faith that God
would take him where
he wanted him to go
and where he would
give witness.
[Tim] Patrick was equipped for
the job because he would
have been able to
communicate to the Irish
and bring Christianity by
talking to them more or less
in their own tongue.
[narrator]
Evangelizing the Irish
would prove to be
a challenging task.
Although Christianity was
present in parts of Ireland,
the country was
predominantly pagan.
[speaking foreign language]
Though I am not from this
land, I spent many years here.
And I have returned
with a message.
What is the message you bring?
If you let me inside,
I will tell you.
[Thomas] It's a big deal
if you become a Christian
because you're changing a
set of gods for one God.
You're buying into a
different calendar.
You're changing the
people you associate with.
It's far more like
thinking of someone
who lives in a completely
Buddhist society
becoming a Christian.
And the prophet Hosea says,
"Those who were not my
people I will call my people,
and her who was not beloved
I will call my beloved.
And in the very place
where it was said to them,
you are not my people,
they will be called
sons of the living God."
Who among you heeds the call?
[Billy] The content of
his message is not doomsday.
It's preaching the love
of God, and how others
can come to know God as
a person-loving father,
just as he did.
[Patrick, voiceover] Truly it
is our task to cast our nets
and catch a great multitude
and crowd for God;
to make sure that there
are clergy everywhere
to baptize and preach
to a people who are in need.
Baptism for early
Christians was the moment
of commitment when you
became a true Christian.
And it was believed in the
early Church that baptism
was the one point in your life
when your sins were washed away.
[narrator] For the Irish,
baptism had a
deeper significance
because of their mythology.
[Charles] Water was
associated with kingship.
These waters all flowed
together, entered the ocean,
and returns as rain and
falls upon the earth
creating the great
cycle of life.
[Elva] Having baptisms, having
these public rituals
in which people
identify as Christians
is really powerful and is
probably one that transfers
over quite easily
and is something
which the pagans
could also understand
and could see its significance.
[Patrick, voiceover]
And I am greatly
in God's debt.
He has given me a great grace,
that through me many
people might be reborn
and later brought
to perfection.
And also, that from among
them everywhere clerics
should be ordained
to serve this people,
who have but recently
come to belief.
And again,
"Go into all the world
and preach the gospel
to every creature.
He who believes and is
baptized will be saved.
He who does not believe
will be condemned."
Now go.
[Billy] Patrick's ministry
was extremely effective.
Each time a new
priest was ordained,
then you had the
center of a community.
He was trying to
create small communities
of Christians because
that is how Christianity
spread through the Roman Empire.
[narrator]
As Patrick's ministry grew,
he trained other clerics
to continue his work
and went on to the
next community.
[Charles] As that went on
year after year after year,
his mission was
extremely successful.
And so it shall be in the
last days, says the Lord,
that I will pour out my
Spirit upon all flesh
and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men
shall see visions,
and your old men
shall dream dreams;
and indeed, in that
time on my manservants
and my maidservants I
will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
The bread of heaven
in Christ Jesus.
[woman] Amen.
[Patrick] How has this
happened in Ireland?
Never before did they know
of God except to serve idols
and unclean things.
Yet recently, what a change.
[Billy] Christianity was
beginning to take hold.
That's the transformation
he marvels at.
And he's saying, "Listen,
don't believe the evidence
of my word only,
look what's happening."
[all chattering]
[Patrick, voiceover]
They have become
a prepared people of the Lord,
and they are now
called sons of God.
And the Irish leaders'
sons and daughters
are seen to become the
monks and virgins of Christ.
[laughing]
[bell ringing]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] But while
Patrick had great success
among the pagans in Ireland,
he quickly lost favor
with the Church
back in Britain.
Patrick is preaching the
Gospel in a way very different
to the way other Christians
are preaching
the Gospel in Ireland.
There were rules
and stipulations
by the church at the time.
Bishops were not to stray out
beyond their own dioceses or
own areas of responsibility.
In Patrick we see
something different.
[narrator] It's also believed
that Patrick ministered
in the Irish language
instead of Latin
and established
many monasteries
for the ordination
of uneducated people.
I mean, who is this
man to do such things?
And who does he think he is?
[narrator] Patrick's
superiors started digging
for anything they could
find to discredit him.
[Patrick] On one occasion,
a blessed Irish woman
of noble birth whom I had
baptized came back to us.
I must see Patrick.
What brings you here, child?
I received a divine
revelation from a messenger
of God who advised me to
become a virgin of Christ.
Thanks be to God.
[Thomas] If a woman decides to
become a virgin, a female monk,
she can only do that with
the permission of her father.
They have brought this
girl up and this girl
is now no benefit to
the family at all.
[Patrick, voiceover] This, of
course, is not to the liking
of their fathers and they
have to suffer persecutions
and false accusations
from their parents.
God has called
me to serve Him.
[speaking foreign language]
Go home.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[speaking foreign language]
[Patrick, voiceover]
Yet despite this,
their number keeps increasing.
[vocalizing]
[narrator] Another
challenge Patrick faced
was protecting his Irish
converts from slave traders.
In his second writing,
the Epistola,
Patrick responds to the attacks
of a British warlord
named Coroticus.
He is a slaver who has
taken some of the people
that Patrick has
converted to Christianity.
And his men killed many
people because people
don't go willingly into slavery.
-[dramatic orchestral music]
-[vocalizing]
[Patrick, voiceover]
They are blood-stained;
blood-stained with the blood
of innocent Christians,
whose numbers I have
given birth to in God
and confirmed in Christ.
[vocalizing]
I sent a letter by a holy
priest, with clerics,
to ask that Coroticus
and his men return to us
some of the baptized
prisoners they had captured.
They scoffed at them.
[Father Swan] The people who
were responsible for
the slaughter
of his newly baptized Christians
were nominally Christian,
which gives him the authority
to excommunicate them,
to declare what
was already true,
basically the people who
are responsible for murder
can no longer be
called Christian.
Patrick, by
writing this letter,
is making a formal
statement, which says,
"Coroticus, unless you
change, you are damned.
And God will back
me on this one!"
[Patrick]
The church mourns
and weeps for its
sons and daughters
who were taken away and
exported to far distant lands,
where grave sin openly
flourishes without shame,
where freeborn people
have been sold off,
Christians reduced to slavery.
[sobbing]
I do not know what to say,
or how I can say any more,
about the children
of God who are dead,
whom the sword has
touched so cruelly.
All I can do is what is written:
"Weep with those who weep";
and again: "If one
member suffers pain,
let all the members
suffer the pain with it."
[Patrick, voiceover]
The evil of evil people
has prevailed over us.
We have been made as if we
were complete outsiders.
For them, it is a disgrace
that we are from Ireland.
[Charles] He said, "They hate us
because we are Irish."
That's extraordinary.
That Patrick had come to
feel himself to be just
as Irish as his followers.
Let it be read
before all the people,
especially in the presence
of Coroticus himself.
God may inspire them to come
back to their right senses,
however late it may be.
[Elizabeth] Unfortunately,
we simply don't know
if Coroticus returned
any of the slaves.
And I think it's probably
unlikely that he did.
But simply that is
something that the sources
just don't show us.
[light orchestral music]
[Patrick, voiceover] I wish
to leave them to go to Britain.
I would willingly do this,
and I am prepared for this,
as if to visit my home
country and my parents.
Not only that, but I
would like to go to Gaul
to visit the brothers
and see the faces
of the saints of my Lord.
God knows what I would
dearly like to do.
But I am bound in the
Spirit, who assures me
that if I were to do this,
I would be held guilty.
And I fear, also, to lose
the work which I began,
not so much I, but Christ
the Lord, who told me
to come here to be
with these people
for the rest of my life.
Tell us this secret
you know about Patrick.
Patrick isn't the
man people think he is.
He's committed
unpardonable sins.
Tell me everything you know.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] As Patrick's
mission expanded
throughout Ireland,
he wandered between territories
owned by different tribes.
[Billy] A lot of those tribes
were at war or at least
at rivalry with each other.
The whole country of Ireland
was certainly not unified.
[narrator] Crossing
territorial boundaries
was dangerous.
The only people who were able
to travel freely were poets,
tribal leaders and their sons.
Patrick talks about
traveling with the sons
of petty kings, probably
as a kind of bodyguard.
But also, as people he
was educating as he moved
about the countryside.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Every day there is the chance
that I will be killed,
surrounded, or taken
into slavery,
or some other such happening.
[speaking foreign language]
[light harp music]
What brings you back, Roman?
We come in peace.
[Patrick, voiceover]
Sometimes I gave presents
to kings,
over and above the
wages I gave their sons
who traveled with me.
[Elva] They're a bit like gangs.
He has to pay protection money.
[Thomas] And of course,
that is always going to be seen
as problematic,
because it's no more than
greasing the wheels.
Is this all?
[ominous orchestral music]
Take him.
[Patrick, voiceover]
On that day
they avidly sought to kill me.
[grunting]
[grunting]
[yelling]
[grunting]
Enough!
[Patrick, voiceover]
But the time had not yet come.
[exhaling]
Still they looted us,
took everything of value,
and bound me in iron.
On the 14th day,
the Lord set me free
from their power; all our
possessions were returned
to us for God's sake
and for the sake of the close
friendship we had previously.
This is who we
confess and adore,
[all] One God in
Trinity of sacred name.
Amen.
[Tim] He'd make
a congregation.
He'd go to the next
little place where
they didn't
like the look of him,
and the same thing would
happen all over again.
So he's imprisoned many times.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] Patrick
also had to strike deals
with a group of people
he calls judges.
[Elva] Patrick,
very interestingly,
does not say
who the judges are.
I think he's making
deals with local druids,
that he's asking
them for safe passage
through their territories.
He's probably asking
them for permission
to engage in preaching.
[narrator] The druids
were a powerful force
in fifth century Ireland.
These Celtic religious leaders
were part of a pagan priesthood
that supervised sacred rites,
presided over public
and private disputes,
and were said to be prophets.
I suppose they would
have been the people
that Patrick would
have been facing.
They would have been the rivals
to Patrick's new ministry.
You do get the impression
that there must have
been many clashes.
[goat bleating]
[narrator] Legend has it
that such a clash happened
on the Hill of Slane.
Patrick's seventh century
biographer Muirchú
tells how Patrick opposed the
druids, and defied a king.
[Patrick, voiceover] They held
and celebrated their
pagan feast
on the same night on which
holy Patrick celebrated Easter.
They also had a custom, which
was announced to all publicly,
that whoever lit a fire on
that night before it was lit
in the king's house,
would have forfeited his life.
It shone in the
night and it was seen
by almost all of the people
who lived in the plain,
and as they saw it they all
gazed at it and wondered.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Who is the man who has dared
to do such a wicked thing
in my kingdom?
We do not know
who has done this,
King, may you live forever!
Unless this fire which
we see is extinguished
on this same night on
which it has been lit,
then it will never be
extinguished at all
and it will spread
over the whole country
and it will reign
in all eternity.
[Billy] It's a prophecy
that the light of
Christianity triumphs
over every evil,
over every secular authority.
And the fire would
never go out.
I think we should
continue to move northwest
and eventually be able
to split up and cross
into higher country.
My dear friends.
Such a surprise to see you.
[Patrick, voiceover]
They came and put my sins
against my hard
work as a bishop.
The charge they
brought against me
was something from
30 years earlier,
which I had admitted
before I was even a deacon.
I am a sinner.
Patrick isn't the
man people think he is.
[Patrick] I must
confess what I have done.
He's committed
unpardonable sins.
[Patrick] Am I ever
to be forgiven?
Tell me everything you know.
[Billy] This friend of his
disclosed the sin of Patrick
and that this has been
used to discredit him.
[Patrick, voiceover]
This hit me very hard,
so much so that it seemed
I was about to fall,
both here and in eternity.
[grunting]
[screaming]
[dramatic orchestral music]
I am very sorry for
my dearest friend,
to whom I trusted even my soul.
That same night I saw in a
vision some writing before
my dishonored face.
[God] We have seen
with anger the face
of our chosen one with his
name laid bare of respect.
[Patrick, voiceover]
God did not say,
you have seen with anger,
but "we have seen
with anger" as if
in this matter He
were joined to me.
Patrick,
the boat is ready,
and it's time to go.
[dramatic orchestral music]
I am not finished.
Damn him!
He powerfully came to my aid
in this battering so
that I did not slip badly
into the wreckage of
sin and into infamy.
I pray God
that it may not be charged
against them as sin.
Amen.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[narrator] As
Patrick got older,
criticism of his mission
and methods had only grown,
which prompted him to
write the Confessio.
[Patrick, voiceover] Maybe when
I baptized all those thousands,
I hoped to get even half
a penny from one of them?
Tell me and I will
return it to you!
Or when the Lord ordained
clergy everywhere through me
as his mediocre instrument,
and I gave my ministry
to them for free,
did I even charge them
the cost of my shoes?
Tell it against me and I will
all the more return it to you!
[Father Swan] He scrupulously
defends himself saying
that his motives and his reasons
for his presence in Ireland,
for his return to Ireland
was nothing except
that the Irish would come
to know Christ and come to
know the Father as he did.
[narrator] It's
believed that Patrick
was ordered to give up his
mission and return to Britain.
[Elva] Patrick
faces this question,
"If I'm not accepted by the
hierarchy of the British
Church,
is my mission something
which is acceptable?"
His ultimate line of
defense is to say,
"I'm carrying on
with my mission.
I'm not going to
go back to Britain
because I have been chosen
to be a bishop by God."
[Billy] Patrick went AWOL.
And we just don't know
how that all panned out.
He said that he wanted
to spend the rest
of his life in Ireland because
that's what God demanded.
Therefore, we've got to guess
that he never did go back.
[Patrick] I pray that
God give me perseverance,
and that he grant me to
bear faithful witness
to Him right up to my
passing from this life,
for the sake of my God.
[narrator] Patrick
died sometime
in the late fifth century.
The exact date, location,
and circumstances
of his death are unknown.
Later traditions claimed
that he died of old age
on March 17th, AD 461
and was buried in
Saul, Northern Ireland.
Nearby at Down Cathedral,
this granite slab marks the
traditional spot of his burial.
[dramatic orchestral music]
Not long after Patrick's death,
the Roman Empire fell,
and Western Europe drifted
into the Dark Ages.
But Patrick's work
was not in vain.
[Billy] As Christianity
established itself,
as it became more
vibrant, it became known
as the Land of Saints and
Scholars, and that led,
in turn, to a whole
proliferation of
Christian missionaries
leaving Ireland and
flooding continental Europe.
Patrick's story began
a chain of events
that is quite remarkable
in the impact that it had.
[Tim] He wore out many
more pairs of sandals
in death than he did in life.
And he's still going,
people are still reading
his Confession
and still being
interested in Christianity
because he wrote
his message down.
[Patrick, voiceover] I pray
for those who believe in
and have reverence for God.
Some of them may come upon
this writing which Patrick,
a sinner, wrote in Ireland.
May none of them ever say
that whatever little I did
or made known to please God
was done through ignorance.
Instead, you can judge
and believe in all truth
that it was a gift of God.
This is my confession
before I die.
[dramatic orchestral music]
[dramatic orchestral music]
[vocalizing]
[dramatic orchestral music]