The life of St. Patrick and his place in history — John Shaqi
The life of St. Patrick and his place in historyBury, J. B. (John Bagnell)
History
The life of St. Patrick and his place in history
Bury, J. B. (John Bagnell)
Christian saints -- Ireland -- Biography; Ireland -- Church history -- To 1172; Patrick, Saint, 373?-463?
The woes and distresses of these years must have been witnessed and
felt by Calpurnius and his household, and they must have experienced
profoundly the joy of relief when their country was once more defended
by an adequate army. It was probably just before or just after this new
period of security had begun that a son was born to Calpurnius and his
wife Concessa.[24] It may have been the habit of the native provincials
to give their children two names, a Latin name, which stamped them as
Romans, as well as a British name, which would naturally be used in
home life. Calpurnius called his son Patricius.[25] But if Patricius
talked as a child with his father and mother the Brythonic tongue of
his forefathers, he bore the name of Sucat. He was thus double-named,
like the Apostle Paul, who bore a Roman as well as a Jewish name from
his youth up.[26] But another Roman name, Magonus, is also ascribed
to Patrick; and possibly his full style—as it would appear in the
town registry when he should come of age to exercise the rights of a
citizen—was Patricius Magonus Sucatus. Such a name would be strictly
analogous to that of a Roman historian of Gothic family who lived in a
later generation, Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus.[27]
As the son of a deacon, Patrick was educated in the Christian faith,
and was taught the Christian scriptures. And we may be sure that he was
brought up to feel a deep reverence for the Empire in which he was born
a freeman and citizen, and to regard Rome as the mighty bulwark of the
world—
qua nihil in terris complectitur altius aether.
This feeling comes out in his writings; it may have been strengthened
by the experiences of his life, but the idea must have been with him
from his very cradle. Peaceful folk in Britain in those days could
have imagined no more terrible disaster than to be sundered from the
Empire; Rome was the symbol of peace and civilisation, and to Rome they
passionately clung. The worst thing they had to dread from year to year
was that the Roman army should be summoned to meet some sudden need in
another province.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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