Again, our meeting was scheduled for a Tuesday evening. It was a very breezy night, which made it difficult to set up an altar. Chairs were set up in a small circle. The discussion was facilitated using the the following notes.
Political Mythology – A political myth is an ideological narrative that is believed by social groups. Political myths simply deal with political topics and always use a group of people as the hero or protagonist
• There are big overarching myths like Manifest Destiny or Rugged Individualism as well as national myths.
• National myths are defined as an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past which often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values.
• A national myth that many of us in the United States learned when we were children is the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. The story has been repeated so often for so long it has become a part of our national fabric. This tale of a young George chopping into his father’s cherry tree with the hatchet he received as a gift is a story of morality and the value of honesty. As the story goes, George’s father confronted George about the damage to his tree and George responds with something to the effect of, “I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped the cherry tree.”
• St. Patrick is a figure whose legend is a national myth for Ireland. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and people of Irish descent everywhere. In fact, his religious feast day has become a reason to party for a great many people around the world. On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone identifies as a little bit Irish.
• The story is that St. Patrick stood on a hilltop, waved his staff to herd all the snakes into the sea, banning them from Ireland. As a result, there hasn’t been a snake seen in Ireland since 461 AD.
• This legend of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland is a tale that did not become part of his hagiography until the 11th Century, while Patrick himself lived in the 2nd half of the 5th century and the earliest stories of miracles by St. Patrick began in the 7th Century. A hagiography is not just the biography of a person who has been sainted. Hagiographies paint the lives of these individuals in an idealized way, adulating them to raise them into a person with higher ideals than the ordinary person. A hagiography is often written to perpetuate a political agenda.
So, what is the truth about Patrick and the snakes?
• In reality there have been no snakes in Ireland since the last ice age when they were frozen and all perished. When the ice retreated, and Ireland broke off broke off the European mainland, there was no way for snakes to migrate onto the island.
• Over the years, there have been different theories as to why this myth was added to his hagiography in the first place.
• In the legend, Patrick is the Christian hero who is victorious over the snakes. One theory, which dates back to about 1911, is that the “snakes” were actually the Druid priests who led the Celts in their spiritual lives.
• In recent times, this story of St. Patrick and the snakes has become a meme within neo-pagan circles. Among pagans, the tale has been flipped, with Patrick becoming the antagonist and the snakes representing the ancient Druids of pre-Christian Ireland. In this case, the Druids become the victims of a relentless genocide at the hands of this one man and the pagans of today are the heroes come to right this wrong.
• Patrick was not, in fact, Irish. He was a Romanized English boy. Patricus, who was kidnapped and enslaved by pagan Irish raiders. He was in slavery working as a herdsman for 6 years before he had a dream that encouraged him to escape. He reunited with his family for a short time. Eventually he traveled back to Ireland to convert the pagans who had enslaved him. From the perspective of the Catholic writers, Patrick dealt fairly with those he reached out to.
• Patrick did convert a great many Irish folks. However, there were pagans following the old traditions well into the 14th Century.
Why snakes, if they don’t represent the Druids?
• Perhaps only to add to the wonders of Patrick’s hagiography using a well-known motif. Many figures in the past had this “miracle” as part of their legends, which would have been known to the Christian chroniclers of Patrick’s life.
• Divine or historic figures helping rid places of snake infestations is recorded by several ancient Greek and Latin authors, ascribing this miracle to a few different ancient mythological individuals.
o 1st century Greek geographer and historian Strabo recreated a fragment of Hesiod’s (8th or 7th Century BCE)—writings in which Eurylochus, known from Homer’s Odyssey, expels a monstrous snake from Salamis.
o In the Fables of Hyginus Medea, wife of Jason, is said to have helped free the people of Absoris from a bunch of snakes by trapping them in a tomb.
o Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote about Hercules driving out the snakes (and other wild creatures) from Crete.
Patrick and Snakes as Political Mythology
• Alexei Kondratiev wrote in The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual that St. Patrick’s day became a very important during a time of English oppression, becoming a “manifestation of both religious and ethnic identity.”
• British involvement in Ireland began with the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 (or 89?). This was the beginning of over 700 years of English involvement in Ireland.
• Remember, the snake story seems to have developed sometime in the 11th Century, which would make it during the years after 1200 CE, which was somewhere between 10 and 30 years after the invasion. By this time the Irish had adopted Patrick as their patron saint.
• Is it possible the snakes were not DRUIDS, but the ENGLISH?
Other things about St. Patrick:
• St. Patrick used the Shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to teach about God (the father), Jesus (the son), and the holy spirit and Christianity spread like wildfire across Ireland.
• It is said that by the time of his death, St. Patrick had founded about 300 churches in Ireland and converted more than 120,000 people to Christianity.
• The shamrock has become synonymous with St. Patrick's Day celebrations around the world.
• The 12th-century work Agallamh na Seanórach (Tales of the Elders of Ireland) claims that St. Patrick met two legends of Irish folklore while crossing the country.
• The work says that St. Patrick met Caílte mac Rónáin (nephew of Fionn mac Cumhaill) and Oisín, who went to Tír na nÓg (land of the young).
• St. Patrick reportedly made an attempt to convert the two figures to Christianity while they ferociously defended their pagan traditions.
• St. Patrick was reportedly able to raise the dead. The origin of this miracle stems from St. Patrick himself. He wrote that he performed resurrections, but the legend was accentuated in the 12th century when Jocelyn of Furness claimed that Patrick rose 33 people from the dead, some of whom had been dead for many years.
Final Points of Discussion
• What benefit is there to (a) Making Patrick the patron saint of Ireland and (b) having him chase out the “snakes”?
• Is a snake just a snake and a dragon just a dragon? Or must there be metaphor?
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