[lit-ideas] Re: Patrick in Ireland
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2011 08:31:30 -0700
Veronica,
In order to preach or evangelize as Patrick did, one needed to know Latin.
The Evangelist would need to know the native language in order to preach,
but he would have needed to know Latin in order to study the Scriptures
which were readily only in that language.
On page 87-88 of The Barbarian Conversion from Paganism to Christianity,
Fletcher writes, ?Christian churches imply Christian texts. Patrick was
soaked in the Bible, as may be readily seen from passages in his Confessio .
. . and he would have seen to it that the priests he ordained were too.
Familiarity with the Bible and the Christian liturgy presupposed two things:
learning Latin and acquiring the technology of writing. Ancient Ireland had
a rich oral repertoire of poetry and narrative but early Christian leaders
there seem to have been reluctant to translate Christian texts into the
vernacular and write them down; possibly the Irish vernacular was held to be
tainted by association with paganism. (It should be said that these
inhibitions were overcome at a later stage and that in the course of time
Ireland developed a rich Christian literature in Old Irish.) Whatever the
reason, early Irish converts, unlike Ulfila?s Goths, were not presented with
a vernacular Bible. So Patrick?s clerical disciples had to learn Latin.
Moreover, they had to learn Latin as a foreign language. The Provençal
audiences of Caesarius, the flock of Bishop Martin in Touraine, even the
rustics of Galicia, all spoke Latin of a sort. The Irish did not. Learning
Latin, for them, meant schools and grammar and a lot of hard work. It was
the need to acquire facility in Latin ? in an environment which lacked the
educational system which was such a central feature of later-antique
literary culture in the Roman Empire ? which made the pursuit of learning an
essential feature of Irish Christian communities in the early Middle Ages.
Much was to follow from this. Early results were impressive: the first
Irishman who has left us a substantial body of Latin writings was St
Columbanus. He was born in about 545 and devoted his youth to ?liberal and
grammatical studies?, in the words of his earliest biographer: this would
have been in the 550s and early 560s. The Latin of Columbanus was
confident, supple and elegant, altogether different from the raw uncouth
Latin of Patrick. It is plain that by the middle of the sixth century it
was possible in Ireland to acquire a really good Latin education.?
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Veronica Caley
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011 7:16 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Patrick in Ireland
While looking at the girls in the fog, one of your other blogs caught my
eye. It was the one re Patrick in England and Ireland. You mention that
Patrick had difficulty with Latin. Why would he need Latin when people in
all of England and Ireland spoke languages other than Latin?
Veronica Caley
Milford, MI
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm <mailto:lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Lit-Ideas <mailto:Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 9:29 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Fog on the Mountain, 6-10-11
http://www.lawrencehelm.com/2011/06/fog-on-mountain-6-10-11.html
Lawrence
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