Dear brothers and sisters,
I wish you all a blessed Feast of St Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland!
You can read about his life here: https://orthodoxwiki.org/Patrick_of_Ireland
We are truly blessed to have such a great saint as our patron and example in our mission to the people in Ireland and Britain. The story of St Patrick reminds us that these islands have historically been Orthodox. What we preach is not something new; rather, we call people to return to their spiritual home, the foundation of which was laid by the apostolic mission of saints like St Patrick.
St Patrick left us a famous prayer called Lorica—a Latin word meaning “Breastplate.”: https://www.orthodoxarkansas.com/the-lorica-breastplate…/
Not only is the poetry of this prayer moving, but it also expresses the Orthodox Faith concisely and beautifully. Fr John Strickland, a historian of the Church, describes the Breastplate as follows:
“From a doctrinal point of view, the Breastplate could not be more Orthodox. It launches itself with praise of the Holy Trinity. It speaks of Christ’s Incarnation, His baptism, His crucifixion, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and His second coming in judgment. The prayer also speaks of a natural world overrun by demons, against whom the Christian desperately needs heavenly assistance. It speaks finally of the evils of heresy, witchcraft, and idolatry. There is no ambiguity in the prayer: the transcendent God of Christianity is utterly different from the animistic spirit of paganism.
And yet this same God descended to the earth and filled it with His presence. He is, according to the prayer, the ‘Creator of creation.’ This title for God appears at the beginning and the end and gives the prayer its meaning. All of creation speaks of the transcendent God, points to Him, and manifests His presence upon the earth” (The Age of Paradise: Christendom from Pentecost to the First Millennium, 2019, p. 173).“
St Patrick expresses the Orthodox view, which does not preach a radical separation between the world and over-transcendent God. Out of His love (John 3:16), God chose to come and dwell among us. Because of this, now, the whole world is filled with His immanence, transformed through the work of the Holy Spirit. And we, in particular, can bear within us the Light of Christ—the uncreated divine energy of God, as St Gregory Palamas teaches—through which we enter into closer communion with our Creator and participate in His Divinity.
May we all receive the Light of Christ through the intercessions of St Patrick of Ireland!
Here is a video recorded at St Patrick’s Chapel in Heysham (Morecambe, Lancashire), a site where a Celtic Orthodox monastery was established around the 8th century. According to holy tradition, St Patrick came ashore here after escaping slavery in Ireland. Though the monastery was destroyed during the Reformation, its ruins remain a place of pilgrimage. My spiritual father, Fr Jonathan Hemmings (Holy Cross Parish in Lancaster), visits frequently, especially on St Patrick’s Day, with some of his parishioners to pray. This video was recorded on St Patrick’s Day in 2016, when I had the privilege of accompanying Fr Jonathan to the chapel. In it, Father is chanting the Breastplate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb4LN7vlZic
Also attached a few photos from the time when His Eminence Metropolitan Silouan visited St Patrick’s Chapel (March 2019)
Yours in Christ,
Fr Dmitry
