Sancti Patrici dies

Glad Sankt Patriks-dag på er alla! Må ni slippa grön öl och gnomer!

Det fins många myter och legender om denne man, som i grunden var walesare, om hur han kristnade Irland, om hur ahn liknade treenigheten vid en treklöver och om hur han lockade bort alla ormar från Irland, men här på latinbloggen intresserar vi oss bara för en sak:

"Legend has it that St Patrick was born Maewyn Succat, to an Anglo-Roman family in Wales, in 415 AD. When he was 16 years of age he was captured by an Irish pagan warlord, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and he spent six miserable years in Ireland until he escaped to France.

Maewyn went on to become a priest, changing his name to Patricius, or Patrick, which derives from the Latin for father-figure - other derivations include patrician, patron and patronize."
...
"His greatest legacy was a platoon of scholar-monks, who sought to preserve the classical works of Greece and Rome. So, at the same time the Romans were burning down the Great Library at Alexandria, Irish Catholics were faithfully copying much of what was being lost. When Roman Catholics disagreed with a certain text, they burned it, but Irish Catholics copied it word for word, but made editorials in the margins like 'this is pure rubbish, here'."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A273700

Om hans egna skrifter:

"The only certain writings of St. Patrick's are his Confessions and a letter written to a man named Coroticus. His Confessions are written in crude Latin."

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/st-patricks-day/index.html#aboutstpatricksday


"The prime source for Patrick's life is the Confessions, a moving apology for his life and work written during his last years. Some years earlier he had written the Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus. This is an angry appeal to raiders, supposedly Roman-British Christians, to repudiate their ruler Coroticus for his bloody raid on Ireland and to return the women taken captive. Patrick's two surviving works are written in Latin and show his knowledge of the Vulgate(Latin) translation of the Bible.
St. Patrick was probably the author of the Lorica (or Breastplate) of St. Patrick, also called The Cry of the Deer (in Irish, Fáed Fíada), a mystic poem of faith written in Irish and Latin."

http://www.answers.com/topic/saint-patrick-saint-holiday-figure


Här hittar ni hans Confessio i engelsk översättning, vad katolikerna säger, fåniga FAQ:s om dagen, och så Wikipedia.

Ut och töm en öl för denne någorlunda latinkunnige biskop och framförallt för att han drog igång skrivarna på den gröna ön!