All the gods of the nations are demons. - Psalm 96:5
There’s a Canadian TV show called Letterkenny.
I cannot recommend it to you. It’s profane, inappropriate, and vulgar - but mostly hilarious and clever, especially if you watch or play hockey.
Because they’re Canadian, and Irish to boot, they filmed a St. Patrick’s Day special. The cold opening for that special includes this observation about today:
All's I'm saying is that it's a little bit hypocritical for us to be mad at degens from up country for not respecting our St. Patrick's Day party when we, ourselves, are not respecting St. Patrick.
I'm just saying if somebody's got their day,
- give them their day.
- You aren't even religious.
Yeah, but I hears they likes to get pretty banged up in Irelands today, too.
-I hear they like to get pretty banged up in Ireland most days.
St. Patrick's Day should be about, well, sh*t St. Patrick did.
- Like what?
Well, he drove the snakes out of Ireland, for one.
-They never had no snakes in no Irelands.
No snakes is a metaphor for druid priests. It's a metaphor, you see. The druid priests inhabited Ireland before the Christians did and they believed in, like, animal and human sacrifices and sh*t.
- Sounds like something Joe Rogan might do.
Snakes, or serpents, are an important part of our cultural memory of St. Patrick - the thread of universal truth that remains in the zeitgeist.
But as our Canadian interlocutor pointed out, Ireland has no snakes.
So where does the idea of St. Patrick driving the serpents of Ireland come from?
Most modern people, even modern Christians, give little thought to the angels, archangels, and the ranks of angles (cherubim, seraphim, powers, principalities, etc) that make up traditional Christian cosmology.
Because of Renaissance art, and works like Milton’s Paradise Lost, we think mostly of angels (Gabriel or Michael) as young men.
But the Scriptures paint a different story. For example, in Ezekiel, thrones are identified as many-eyed wheels.1
Seraphim are depicted as six-winged in Isaiah. Ancient Jewish tradition depicts Seraphim as winged serpents.2
Indeed, one should not understand the serpent of Genesis 3 as a cobra or a rattlesnake, or a watermocassin, but a fallen angel - a demon.
St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, lived before a Protestant or Roman church existed. He lived before orange and green drove the Irish to kill each other. He was part of the catholic (re: universal, world-wide) church, battling the darkness of pagandom at the far western fringes of the known world (the Roman Empire).
The idea that St. Patrick stood upon a hill in Armagh and cast the serpents out of Ireland is a murky, collective memory of Christendom; a memory of what once was, that has remained in the subconscious of the failing, post-Christian West. It is an idea, whose universality, speaks to threads of truth that the Creator wove throughout the foundations of creation.
St. Patrick’s ministry, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, drove the demon-gods of the pagans - potentially winged serpents from the Torah and Genesis - from before the newly converted people of Ireland.
Today we celebrate this victory of Christ and His catholic church over the darkness of the evil one.
Truly a great day for celebration, to remember the works of God; but not, perhaps, for green Coors Light and kelly-green sugar cookies.
The Lorica of St. Patrick (also known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate), a prayer attributed to the saint3, is a great example of the dark and violent world that faced Christians in the first millennium of the Church. St. Patrick entreats God for protection from witches, poisons, and violence - a world we like to think is past, but we may face again.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In the predictions of prophets,
In the preaching of apostles,
In the faith of confessors,
In the innocence of holy virgins,
In the deeds of righteous men.
I arise today, through
The strength of heaven,
The light of the sun,
The radiance of the moon,
The splendor of fire,
The speed of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of the sea,
The stability of the earth,
The firmness of rock.
I arise today, through
God's strength to pilot me,
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptation of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
afar and near.
I summon today
All these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel and merciless power
that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul;
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Christ before me, Christ in me. That is a prayer for all time.
Ezekiel 1:18, 10:12-13.
Isaiah 6:1-6
The prayer is ascribed to St. Patrick in the same manner that pseudepigrapha in the Torah and Old Testament are ascribed to certain authors, who likely didn’t pen the work, but whose teachings informed it.