My name is Patrick , livre ebook

Royal Irish Academy - Padraig McCarthy

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19 pages

English

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Patrick is the first identifiable person in Irish history to have his life story recorded. Published in association with the launch of the St Patrick's Confessio Hypertext Stack, this booklet presents the Saint's own account of his capture, slavery and mission in Ireland in a straightforward and accurate English translation. The book serves as an ancillary volume to the Royal Irish Academy's "Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources" project, whose main publications are detailed at http://journals.eecs.qub.ac.uk/DMLCS.

Sujets

Histoire

Ireland

Christianity

Stephen Ireland

History

Informations

Publié par	Royal Irish Academy
Date de parution	17 mars 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781908996015
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0210€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

1.
My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers. I am looked down upon by many.
My father was Calpornius. He was a deacon; his father was Potitus, a priest, who lived at Bannavem Taburniae. 1 His home was near there, and that is where I was taken prisoner. I was about sixteen at the time.
At that time, I did not know the true God. I was taken into captivity in Ireland, along with thousands of others. We deserved this, because we had gone away from God, and did not keep his commandments. We would not listen to our priests, who advised us about how we could be saved. 2 The Lord brought his strong anger upon us, and scattered us among many nations even to the ends of the earth. It was among foreigners that it was seen how little I was.
2.
It was there that the Lord opened up my awareness of my lack of faith. Even though it came about late, I recognised my failings. So I turned with all my heart to the Lord my God, 3 and he looked down on my lowliness 4 and had mercy on my youthful ignorance. He guarded me before I knew him, and before I came to wisdom and could distinguish between good and evil. He protected me and consoled me as a father does for his son.
3.
That is why I cannot be silent—nor would it be good to do so—about such great blessings and such a gift that the Lord so kindly bestowed in the land of my captivity. This is how we can repay such blessings, when our lives change and we come to know God, to praise and bear witness to his great wonders before every nation under heaven.
4.
This is because there is no other God, nor will there ever be, nor was there ever, except God the Father. He is the one who was not begotten, the one without a beginning, the one from whom all beginnings come, the one who holds all things in being—this is our teaching.
And his son, Jesus Christ, whom we testify has always been, since before the beginning of this age, with the father in a spiritual way. He was begotten in an indescribable way before every beginning. Everything we can see, and everything beyond our sight, was made through him. He became a human being; and, having overcome death, was welcomed to the heavens to the Father. The Father gave him all power over every being, both heavenly and earthly and beneath the earth. Let every tongue confess that Jesus Christ, in whom we believe and whom we await to come back to us in the near future, is Lord and God. 5 He is judge of the living and of the dead; 6 he rewards every person according to their deeds. 7 He has generously poured on us the Holy Spirit, 8 the gift and promise of immortality, who makes believers and those who listen to be children of God and co-heirs with Christ. 9 This is the one we acknowledge and adore—one God in a trinity of the sacred name.
5.
He said through the prophet: ‘Call on me in the day of your distress, and I will set you free, and you will glorify me’. 10 Again he said: ‘It is a matter of honour to reveal and tell forth the works of God’. 11
6.
Although I am imperfect in many ways, I want my brothers and relations to know what I’m really like, so that they can see what it is that inspires my life.
7.
I am not ignoring the evidence of my Lord, who testifies in the psalm: ‘You destroy those who speak lies’. 12 And again he says: ‘A mouth which lies kills the soul’. And the same Lord says in the gospel: ‘The idle words which people speak, they will account for on the day of judgment’. 13
8.
So I should greatly dread, with fear and trembling, this sentence on that day, where nobody can avoid or escape, but all shall give complete account of the least of sins before the tribunal of the Lord Christ.
9.
This is why I have long thought to write, but up to now I have hesitated, because I feared what people would say. This is because I did not learn as others did, who drank in equally well both the law and the sacred writings, and never had to change their way of speaking since childhood, but always grew better and better at it. For me, however, my speech and words have been translated into a foreign language, as it can be easily seen from my writings the standard of the instruction and learning I have had. As it is said: ‘The wise person is known through speech, and also understanding and knowledge and the teaching of truth’. 14
10.
However, even though there’s truth in my excuse, it gets me nowhere. Now, in my old age, I want to do what I was unable to do in my youth. My sins then prevented me from really taking in what I read. But who believes me, even were I to repeat what I said previously? I was taken prisoner as a youth, particularly young in the matter of being able to speak, and before I knew what I should seek and what I should avoid. That is why, today, I blush and am afraid to expose my lack of experience, because I can’t express myself with the brief words I would like in my heart and soul.
11.
If I had been given the same chance as other people, I would not be silent, whatever the reward. If I seem to some to be too forward, with my lack of knowledge and my even slower tongue, still it is written: ‘Stammering tongues will quickly learn to speak peace’. 15 How much more should we want to do this, who are, as it is said, a saving letter of Christ even to the ends of the earth. Although it is not well expressed, still this letter is genuinely and strongly written in your hearts, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. 16 The Spirit is a witness that what is of the countryside is also created by the Most High!
12.
So I am first of all a simple country person, a refugee, and unlearned. I do not know how to provide for the future. But this I know for certain, that before I was brought low, I was like a stone lying deep in the mud. Then he who is powerful came and in his mercy pulled me out, and lifted me up and placed me on the very top of the wall. 17 That is why I must shout aloud in return to the Lord for such great good deeds of his, here and now and forever, which the human mind cannot measure.
13.
So be amazed, all you people great and small who fear God! You well-educated people in authority, listen and examine this carefully. Who was it who called one as foolish as I am 18 from the middle of those who are seen to be wise and experienced in law and powerful in speech and in everything? If I am most looked down upon, yet he inspired me, before others, so that I would faithfully serve the nations with awe and reverence and without blame: the nations to whom the love of Christ brought me. 19 His gift was that I would spend my life, if I were worthy of it, serving them in truth and with humility to the end.
14.
In the knowledge of this faith in the Trinity, and without letting the dangers prevent it, it is right to make known the gift of God and his eternal consolation. It is right to spread abroad the name of God faithfully and without fear, so that even after my death I may leave something of value to the many thousands of my brothers and sisters—the children whom I baptised in the Lord.
15.
I didn’t deserve at all that the Lord would grant such great grace, after hardships and troubles, after captivity, and after so many years among that people. It was something which, when I was young, I never hoped for or even thought of.

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