New book broadens our understanding of St Patrick

Archbishop Martin with Fr Raymond Husband. Image Columban Mission

Source: Columban Mission

Ireland has "caricatured" national saint "a little too much down the centuries" - Archbishop Eamon Martin

A new book titled 'The Spiritual Journey of St Patrick' is a compelling argument for a re-evaluation and recognition of St Patrick's profound spiritual legacy.

The book, published posthumously, is the work of the late Fr Aidan Larkin, a Columban missionary and former SDLP councillor and assembly member, who also worked as a legal adviser in Brussels to the Council of Ministers.

It was launched this week in Dalgan Park, Navan, Co Meath, home of the Columban Missionaries in Ireland by the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the successor to St Patrick, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh.

In his book, Fr Larkin argues that St Patrick's works are of such calibre that he should be counted among that select group of theologians who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of the Church - the Church Fathers.

Every year millions of people celebrate St Patrick. He is Ireland's most famous ambassador. Yet, what do we really know about him, about his spirituality, his mission, his vocation? Can we really only say that he was no friend to snakes?

In his address at the launch, Archbishop Martin regretted that people had "caricatured" St Patrick "a little bit too much down through the centuries".

Dr Martin said the book showed that St Patrick is a saint for the whole Church and that 'The Spiritual Journey of St Patrick', which is published by Messenger Publications, provides a much broader vision of St Patrick than that which the Archbishop grew up with.

Archbishop Martin also described Patrick as "a saint for our times" in view of the his experience of trafficking. As someone who was trafficked into slave labour in Ireland, he said Patrick "empathises with a whole host of people nowadays who are forcibly moved from their country or indeed who are forced from their circumstances and have to leave home as refugees or migrants."

"A lot of the really good work that is going on in Ireland today to prevent trafficking is being done by our religious congregations who are highlighting this awful evil. Pope Francis described it as a scourge on the face of the earth. To think that Christians and people of faith may actually be turning a blind eye to trafficking which is happening in our own streets and in our own cities - that is something that I think St Patrick, if he was here today, would want to waken us up to."

At the launch the regional director of the Columbans in Ireland, Fr Raymond Husband, quoted Fr Aidan Larkin's words in the Introduction to the book in which he stated: "My purpose in writing this book is not to resolve every problem Patrick's writing poses. Instead, my aim is pastoral. I wish to evangelise. I wish to put myself at the service of God and of Patrick, who in Heaven prays continuously for his people here on earth."

The book reproduces St Patrick's 'Letter to Coroticus' and his 'Confession' in their entirety and Fr Aidan, who was writing the book when he died in 2019, brings out a wealth of patristic resonances in these writings.

Fr Aidan Larkin in Dalgan Park taken by Columban Mission Images. No repro fee.

'The Spiritual Journey of St Patrick' by Fr Aidan Larkin SSC (2023) can be purchased from Messenger Publications here: www.messenger.ie/product/the-spiritual-journey-of-st-patrick/