Since St. Patrick’s Day is this Wednesday, I’d like to recommend on Patrick and Celtic Christianity. It’s from my friend Ted Olsen, managing editor of news & online journalism at Christianity Today, who also blogs monthly here. Ted’s book on Christianity and the Celts is good stuff (as is that whole series of clearly written and gorgeously produced little silver Intervarsity Press Histories).
To whet your appetite, here is Ted’s brief piece from http://www.christianhistory.net on Patrick. Notice the links at the end of the article to the Christian History issue on Celtic Christianity and an online full-text version of Patrick’s Confessio. I’ve also posted on this blog a famous prayer from Patrick, known as the “Breastplate.” Here it is.
‘Tis the season for parades, green beer, shamrocks, and articles talking about why St. Patrick’s day isn’t all about parades, green beer, and shamrocks.
First, a few misconceptions about Patrick:
Patrick isn’t really a Saint with a capital S, having never been officially canonized by Rome. And Patrick couldn’t have driven the snakes out of Ireland because there were never any snakes there to begin with. He wasn’t even the first evangelist to Ireland (Palladius had been sent in 431,about five years before Patrick went). Patrick isn’t even Irish. He’s from what’s now Dumbarton, Scotland (just northwest of Glasgow). Continue reading
Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians
Grateful to the dead 