Patrick's sins against that special saint

Sholeh Patrick in her “Research” column on March 14th attempts to test our knowledge of St. Patrick, yet fails to depict the truth fully herself. The following is a test of her knowledge:

Patrick was a Saint: she states this is false, however, this is absolutely true. The first formal canonization in the Church was of St. Ulrich of Augsburg by Pope John XV in 993 AD, more than 500 years after St. Patrick’s death. It must not be supposed that a person was not a saint because he was not canonized.

Some of our greatest saints were never formally canonized. It would be silly to suppose that St. Joseph (whose feast is on the 19th of March), the earthly spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster father of Our Lord, along with the prophets in the Old Testament and evangelists of the New, were not Saints because formal canonization was not yet it in practice. Patrick was His given name: it is generally understood that many of the saints were not referred to by their given name (i.e. St. Paul was Saul of Tarsus, St. Peter was Simon Bar-jona, and so on).

St. Patrick’s full name was Patricius Magonus Sucatus, not Maewyn Succat as Mrs. Patrick states. He drove the snakes out of Ireland: again, Sholeh states this is false. Most intelligent persons understand that this was used as a metaphoric statement for His confronting paganism head-on as she states here. St. Patrick was responsible for the driving out of pagan druid customs (metaphoric snakes) and there is no evidence to suggest that He was cruel to anyone, other than on himself, through harsh penances and mortifications.

His exact birthplace is unknown (He was Irish): While it is probably true that he was not born on the Irish mainland, it was not far off, but not in Scotland. Church history reveals that he was born at Caerwenr on the Severn, which is in modern-day Wales, around 389 and died around 461 A.D. We may confirm this with what he says of himself that he was of Romano-British origin. At any rate, the exact place of birth is of no great significance.

He was a teenaged slave: true. He converted the Irish to Christianity (Catholicism): true, however after his escape from slavery, he traveled to Gaul (modern day France), to study, prepare, and receive priestly orders and Church authority, to accomplish such a monumental task.

In 432, St. Germanus consecrated St. Patrick Archbishop to replace Palladius in carrying out the evangelization of Ireland, which could not have been accomplished without Holy Orders given him by the Catholic Church.

He used a shamrock to describe the Trinity: she states this as false, however, tradition tells us that St. Patrick did indeed use the three-leaf clover (shamrock) to describe the three persons in one God. This first appeared in writing in 1726 but is probably much older. Icons of St. Patrick often depict him holding the shamrock in one hand and the cross in the other, further substantiating this claim.

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Esequiel Vasquez is a Post Falls resident.