Today is St Patrick's Day. Sheila and I attended a talk on the cult of St Patrick delivered at Lancaster Museum by a historian from Lancaster University. We have previously mentioned the local ruined
St Patrick's Chapel. (Scroll down.) It is possible that Patrick came from this part of England. Nothing in the talk confirmed any of the details about Sucat/Patricius as given in Poul and Karen Anderson's
The King Of Ys. However, I quoted these details in a question and the speaker confirmed that they represent an early tradition about Patrick. The two documents definitely written by Patrick are his
Confessio and his letter to Coroticus. Beyond them, anything else is a matter of historical judgement.
"I could wish to leave them to go to Britain. I would willingly do this,
and 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 to see the faces of the saints of my Lord."
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Ha! I too thought of the Sucat/Patricius we see in THE KING OF YS. And it would make sense for Sucat to study/prepare for his hoped for evangelizing of Ireland in the Gallic provinces. The Inner Empire would be more theologically sophisticated than the outlying Britannic provinces.
Ad astra! Sean
Also, Christianization had proceeded much further in the central Gallic areas. Outside the cities, there wasn't much in Britain, which helps to account for the nearly universal de-Christianization that accompanied the Anglo-Saxon invasions/migrations.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, the pagan Germans who invaded the Britannic diocese after AD 410 pretty well exterminated the Christian Romano-Britons, except for the remnants who fled to Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, my point was that outside the cities, there weren't all that many Christians in Britannia. And while the Anglo-Saxon influx was massive -- DNA research has shown that -- it wasn't a population-replacement level, like the Beaker invasion of 2500 BCE. Even in the east coast areas, about 25% of the Romano-British genes survived, and at the border of Wales it was around 50%.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, really, most Christians in late Roman Britain lived in the cities. I sit corrected, about 25 to 50% of Christian and non-Christian Romano-Britons survived the Germanic invasion. Albeit, it probably felt like extermination to them.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, yeah, it probably did. A lot of them fled to "Britanny"...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Or to Wales and Cornwall.
Ad astra! Sean
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