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Roman civilization never had much impact in Ireland. The empire had conquered the southern half of Britain, then stopped.
The Irish were only barbarians as far as the Romans were concerned—simple natives to trade with or to fight off, depending on their mood.
By about the year 400, it was getting more difficult for the Romans to defend their far-off province of Britain. Taking advantage of the lax defenses, a band of Irish raiders made a sudden attack on northern Britain and carried off several people as slaves.
One of those slaves was a sixteen-year-old boy who would later be known as Patrick. The son of upper-class Romans, he had been raised as a Christian, but not a very sincere one. Now he found himself sold as a slave to a Druid priest in Ireland, where he spent his days tending sheep.
Shepherding is hard work, but it gave the youth long periods of time alone to think. “Every day I had to tend sheep,” Patrick remembered later, “and I prayed many times a day. Love and fear of God gradually grew on me, and my faith got stronger and stronger. My spirit was so moved that I might say as many as a hundred prayers a day.”6
Eventually he escaped from his Druid master and made his way back to his family in Britain. But then Patrick started to have dreams. He heard the voice of the Irish people calling him back. In spite of his years of slavery, he wanted only to bring the good news back to Ireland. And so he left his family once more, this time to be trained as a missionary by some of the greatest figures of the Church.
In 433, Patrick landed once again in Ireland. He knew he had a tough job ahead of him. One great saint, Palladius, had already given up on the Irish. But Patrick did not give up. In spite of constant danger to his own life, he made one convert after another. Soon there were Irish kings among his converts, and almost immediately men and women were attracted by Patrick’s example to the monastic life. Monasteries sprouted up all over Ireland.
Today, St. Patrick is the patron of Ireland, remembered as the heroic missionary who brought Christianity to the island. But he brought more than Christianity—he brought civilization.
In most of the western Roman Empire, ordinary people could understand some form of Latin. But it was a foreign language to the Irish. Monks in the rest of Europe could be illiterate and ignorant and still, at least, understand the gospels in Latin. But Irish monks first had to learn to read and write a foreign language before they could read or hear the important texts of their faith.
Soon the Irish monks were the best-educated men in Europe. As the Dark Ages fell across the continent, Ireland kept the light of learning alive. Irish monks became the teachers of Europe, preserving the fragile flame of Roman civilization and spreading their knowledge all over the new barbarian kingdoms. When at last the darkness began to lift, Irish monks went to monasteries throughout Europe to teach the monks the wisdom that everyone but the Irish had almost forgotten.
As he always does, Mike has opened a new door. Never realized that the Irish monks had to reeducate the continent. It gives me joy to be partially Irish.