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Benjamin Perkins

MA in Celtic Christianity

University of Wales Lampeter

1/12/04

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Introduction

In this essay I will examine the Lorica of Patrick and attempt to highlight its main themes. I hope to draw from these themes a picture of what Christianity was like in Early Medieval Ireland. What were its main concerns and preoccupations? What motivated Christians? How did they view their world? What can the Lorica of Patrick tell us about how Christians prayed and celebrated the liturgy? How important was ‘private’ prayer and how distinct was it from the prayer of the community?

Whilst the earliest text of the Lorica cannot be traced back any earlier than the 8^th century it is thought to have been communicated from a much earlier period and possibly carries within it echoes of a pre-Christian era. Despite this most scholars refuse to countenance the suggestion that it did indeed have anything to do with the actual writings of Patrick himself.

In attempting to answer these questions I will draw upon other sources that relate to the Lorica of Patrick. Other contemporary material such as other loricae, litanies, penitential material, liturgical texts and the biblical passages that obviously inspired, or were inspired by, the writing and use of this famous prayer.

A Prayer for Protection

The origin of the prayers known as Loricae, have been the cause of much speculation among scholars with sparse evidence. Did they arise from within the Irish context or did they travel from Britain with early missionaries? The tradition that says that Gildas wrote the Lorica of Laidcenn would support the view of W.M. Lindsay that they were:

Adapted by early missionaries as a guard against the spells that heathen sorcerers

directed against them.¹

Michael Herren points to archaeological evidence suggesting that spells were frequently used in the pagan environment in which the early Christians must have been operating. Finds of texts consisting of curses engraved on lead, often with an image and perforated corners for the insertion of nails, have been discovered suggesting early “voodoo” type practices occurring in the pre-Christian Celtic world.²

The Lorica of Patrick is a prayer for protection. We can presume that in essence the prayer developed from the practices of the early missionary faith in Ireland. What we have to ask ourselves is what was the prayer called to protect against? What was the danger and how real and immediate was it? Was it solely a protection against the curses of pagans or did it call for protection against other sources of danger and evil?

The fifth stanza directly calls on God’s protection from:

Snares of the demons,

From evil enticements,

From failings of nature,

From one man or many

That seek to destroy me,

Anear or afar. ³

That this part of the prayer reflects the concerns of Christians of most ages suggests a reason for its universal appeal. But can it tell us of that which is specific to the early Irish church? It is important to note here the importance of protection sought from other people. The supplicant is very much aware of actual danger from real people. Was this from mere “voodoo” curses or from a more specific physical threat from those around them?

The author gets more specific in the next stanza as to the type of people they may need to be protected from. It calls for protection from the spells of those designated as ‘women’, ‘blacksmiths’ and ‘druids’. It seems unlikely that these groups of people were plucked out of thin air, so what do these categories tell us about how the early church saw itself in relation to groups ‘other’ than itself?

Why did the supplicant in the prayer fear ‘women’? Does this suggest that the prayer was the sole prerogative of monks? Did women really have the esteemed place in the church that some advocates of ‘Celtic Christianity’ like to think?⁴ If this was predominantly a monastic prayer we might assume that the supplicant is merely warding off the sexual attraction that his celibacy is suspicious of. Whatever the intention of the author it fails to provide an image of a church with a benevolent disposition toward the feminine.

We can imagine the dangers posed by druids if we view the early Christians as being in conflict with them. If we view the early church through the later perspectives of Muirchú’s 8^th century Patrick saga, we would see a church in violent conflict with its spiritual predecessors.⁵ Other evidence though might suggest that there was a more benign relationship between the church and druids. Ann Ross recounts an episode in the life of St. Mochuda whereby a druid challenges the saint to make an apple tree grow. This, she states, demonstrates the survival of active paganism in Ireland in the late 6^th century. Some 1½ centuries after the Patrician mission and several centuries after Tiberius issued a decree against druids in Gaul in the 1^st century.⁶

If this was the case then what was to be feared? An answer may lie in O’Donoghue’s analysis of this stanza.⁷ Society and the church during this period had a ‘belief that the world of elemental nature is a place of spirits’. The prayer is one of a wayfarer journeying through a world that is filled on the whole by benevolent spirits. Evil however is a very prominent force that tries to corrupt man. Evil spirits have therefore staked a claim to three important aspects of human life that are of themselves good, important and necessary for human flourishing. These citadels of human society that are under attack, he identifies as ‘the womb’, ‘the sanctuary’ and the ‘fiery forge of the human artisan’. We can now see the Lorica as a prayer for the protection of the most positive aspects of humanity – its reproductive nature, spiritual nature and creative/productive nature – and that these were indeed seen as such by the early Christians.

Exorcism held an important place in the lives of the early Christians of Ireland. Herren points out that the Loricae form a prolix, with nothing being omitted and much emphasis on detail. This would mirror exorcism formulae of the period although he notes the differences being that in the Loricae the supplicant would be praying for himself and also praying for protection against potential danger rather than an actual one.⁸ Herren also notes the detailed description of the anatomy in the Loricae that again mirrors exorcism rites. He points to a 10th century Mainz manuscript that calls for the expulsion of Satan from a large number of anatomical members including bodily secretions.⁹

We may never know the specifics of the dangers that faced early Christians in Ireland but we can surmise that those dangers were very real and based around an awareness of evil spirits. This had a significant bearing on the way they lived their faith and how they viewed their world.

A Faith of The Physical Self?

In looking at what the Lorica was protecting the supplicant against we can now ask the question of what needed to be protected. Whilst the elemental world is important in the Lorica what strikes us about it, and other writings of the same genre, is its focus on all aspects of the physical body.¹⁰

In the fifth stanza God’s ear is called upon to aid the hearing, his word to aid the speaking and his hand to uphold. The sixth stanza calls for protection against anything that injures both spirit and body. Both appear to be of equal importance. The seventh stanza calls on God’s protection against ‘poison and burning, drowning and wounding’. This suggests that the early church recognised the importance of the healing of the body to the spiritual life. It seeks to place the protection of faith in all parts of the body. This is borne out by other texts in the same or a similar genre.

The Lorica of Laidcenn is far more expressive of its desire to protect the parts of the body:

Protect my tonsils, chest with lungs,

veins, entrails, bile with its eruption;

protect my flesh, loins with marrow,

and spleen with twisting intestines.¹¹

It names over sixty body parts with a concluding call to ‘protect all of me with my five senses along with the ten created orifices’.

Seeking forgiveness for sins committed, the author of the Litany of Confession identifies those sins as coming:

From ears, from hands, from lips, from eyes;

From heart, from sense;

From limbs, from joints, from bowels…¹²

To the writers of these early litanies and Loricae, sin and disease of the body appear to be inextricably linked. I don’t suppose that they saw their joints as ‘sinning’. I feel that the importance being stressed here is that for the whole body to function properly all its parts need to be healed. An identification of sin being one part of the body of the church acting against its whole appears to be taken literally when looking at personal integrity. The early Christians seem to have no difficulty in using Paul’s analogy of the body (Romans 12:12-30) to speak to them of both their own bodily integrity and that of the wider body of the church.

This idea that every part of the body is subject to sin is highlighted in the penitential literature. The Old-Irish Table of Commutations states that to rescue a soul from hell 365 Paters, 365 genuflections and 365 blows of the scourge for every day of the year are needed:

For it is in proportion to the number of joints and sinews in the human body.’¹³

Despite a vastly increased knowledge about the anatomy in our own age, such an inclusion of all parts of the body in our prayer would provoke squeamishness among modern Christians. This may tell us that Christianity in early medieval Ireland demonstrated an awareness and connectedness to all, including internal, aspects of the body. They were possibly more concerned about transforming their bodies rather than transcending them.

Yet Kathleen Hughes points to the possible influence of the plagues that struck Britain in the latter half of the 7^th century. How much did fear of this influence the literature of the period? Was the Lorica, in part, a response to a much more acute sense of death from disease that the early Christian community in the west had than in our own age?¹⁴

The seventh stanza includes the famous ‘Christ-prayer’ that O’Donogue identifies as having a separate structure to that of the main text.¹⁵ The reason, he argues, lies in the change to a ‘new style’ being that of a prayer for transformation rather than protection. The ‘image of a shield gives way to the image of a cloak’ and that it becomes almost a ‘second skin.’ This does not reflect a desire to be absorbed into divinity but an affirmation of the distinctiveness and union of both the physical and spiritual. As O’Donoghue points out the words create their own spaces and affirm a ‘holy respect for all human relationships’¹⁶

What this tells us about the early church is that it saw prayer as being of primary importance in healing the body. Internal physical wholeness was a vital part of their spiritual lives. It was not solely a prayer for private healing though but looked to the transformation of the body, human relationships and society. ‘All’, the physical world included, had been made through love (stanza eight). If Christ were invited to be present in every aspect of human functioning then the world would be transformed into the better place that appears to be the hope of the early church.

The Natural World

The fourth stanza reads as a hymn to the natural world. The supplicant calls not on God for a shield but on:

Sun’s brightness,

Moon’s whiteness,

Fire’s glory,

Lightning’s swiftness,

Winds wildness,

Ocean’s depth,

Earth’s solidity,

Rock’s immobility. ¹⁷

This is unusual in early Christian literature and could reflect continuity with the nature worshipping of the past. Did the early church see the natural world as having powers of its own which could be invoked? The fourth stanza fits uncomfortably with Christian interpretation of the Lorica and it is often interpreted as merely metaphorical. O’Donoghue insists that it be taken in its own right.¹⁸

One could point to the inspiration of Daniel 3:52-90. O’Donoghue sees the tenure of the Benedicte as viewing the natural world as a more passive ‘theatre of God’s Glory,’¹⁹ although he does recognise the elements as being partners of praise with the supplicant. I would suggest that the elements in the Lorica are seen as more than mere active partners in praise; that they have a distinct identity of their own which one can ‘arise in.’ One almost gets the sense of the elements being a distinct ‘higher power’ in their own right. Even late medieval Christian writings celebrating connectedness with the natural world, such as St. Francis of Assisi’s famous Canticle of the Creatures, do so in terms of partnership rather than dependence on or subservience to.²⁰

Herren tries to modify the distinctiveness of the fourth stanza by comparing it to the Leiden Lorica which some have dubbed a ‘love charm’. The elements here are certainly called upon in their own right to dispense their power and influence over the heart of the object of the writer’s affections.

I adjure you, heaven and earth and sun and moon and

All stars, lightening and clouds and wind and

Rain and fire and heat, to purify the heart of (N.) for my love.²¹

Charles Plummer in his analysis of the ‘Broom of Devotion’ questions whether a similar expression was indeed the faint expression of nature worship or merely the work of a physicist proud to show off his knowledge of nature!²²

Despite Herren’s attempt to classify the fourth stanza of the Lorica of Patrick as ‘manifestations of the divine power’²³ by situating its meaning within the context of the whole work, I still feel that both Loricae give us a flavour of the animism and nature worship which we can only presume came from the pre-Christian religion of Ireland and which the early Christians felt did not conflicted greatly with their new beliefs.

Mac Eoin in his analysis of the elements in the Loricae, firmly believes that they are all inspired by the Bendicte and individually draw on its parts via an original list derived from the Benedicte.²⁴ Even so, he also admits the possibility of the list of elements being derived from old Irish secular tales, where the elements were called upon to act as sureties for the fulfilment of a contract.²⁵

Mary Low, in her study on The Natural World in Early Irish Christianity, states that one doesn’t have to look very far to discover the ambivalence many people at the time felt towards the natural world. She points out that the fifth stanza of the Lorica contains a line calling on God’s protection from the ‘failings of nature.’²⁶ She states that the natural world was not looked upon as evil although it was thought by some to be inhabited by demons and monsters. ‘An awareness of danger and precariousness offsets the expressions of pleasure and appreciation found elsewhere.’²⁷

So even if those using the Lorica of Patrick were calling on the independent powers of ‘ocean’s depth and earth’s solidity…’ were they merely attempting to pacify dangerous powers that were a threat to their well-being?

What seem to be early Christian expressions of pagan practices appear to have been fully converted to orthodox theology by the 7^th century. Low points to the expressions of the natural world found in Tirechan:

God of heaven and earth, sea and rivers

God of sun and moon, of all the stars,

God of high mountains and low valleys…….

He breathes in all things

Makes all things live,

Surpasses all things

Supports all things……²⁸

Whether the early Irish church had elements of nature worship in it or not, it is clear that they had a spiritual connection to the natural world. This connection appears to be a vital part of their lives, which is somewhat removed from our modern attitudes of either viewing nature with an idealized benevolence or seeing it solely as a resource to be exploited.

Litanies and the prayer of movement

Herren points us to a characteristic of the Loricae that has not been emphasised in other studies. This is the purely private nature of the prayers, that even if they had been proclaimed in a group what they asked for was individual protection, not something for the wider community. This ‘private nature’ he states, parallels Celtic penitential practice.²⁹

Charles Plummer in his 1925 translation and study of early Irish litanies, points to the prayers as being products of private devotion and unsuited to public services.³⁰

Whilst there appears to be a developing private intent in early Irish prayers there was still a powerful collective expression of that intent. The monastic community at Bangor in the late 7^th century, although often imitating earlier Latin works, made sure to express its own identity through the creation of hymns that were an expression of the whole community.³¹

There is a clear link between litanies and the Loricae. Some of the litanies echo the protection formulae and the physical elements of body and world:

It is a breast-plate to my soul, it is a protection to me,

Body and heart, it is a pleasant ready nurture,

It is a praising of the King of Heaven

Litany of Creation³²

In the Lorica of Patrick O’Donoghue describes the supplicant as a ‘wayfarer, setting forth across a landscape.’³³ The prayer does give the impression of one said prior to embarking on a journey as the fifth stanza seeks protection from those who ‘seek to destroy me both near and afar.’

Herren suggests that the loricae were developed by the ancient use of amulets and that these written sources were expanded upon and embellished by the Loricae even suggesting that they too may have been worn as garments.³⁴ Words as a weapon against the devil come over strongly in old English prayers such as Solomon and Saturn 1. Wright believes that these prayers are strongly influenced by older Irish ones.³⁵

O’Loughlin believes that the litanies contain within them a particular view of God as punitive.³⁶ This idea that the wrath of God needed to be assuaged would indeed promote the ideas and use of charms and amulets. Maybe what we are seeing is a transition from views about God as punitive to ideas of sorrow and forgiveness.

O’Loughlin points to the use of litany as being inextricably bound with procession and movement. Whilst we see movement as something added to the words for dramatic effect, to the people who wrote these texts, the procession was as much a part of the prayer as were the words. It is an attitude that distinguishes us from the early church.³⁷ Our modern preoccupation with analysing words and meaning of texts would probably have been alien to the people who recited the litanies and Loricae. The words embodied a power of their own. The people were on a journey in which God spoke to the whole of creation and that the whole body needed to express faith and not just the mind, heart or soul.

Early Hymnody and the Influences of Scripture

We have already noted the influence of the Benedicte on the Lorica. Warren states that the Benidicte formed an important part of the liturgy in the early Irish church as it occupies a prominent position in the Antiphonary of Bangor.³⁸ The Benedicte was in fact one of the most popular canticles of the primitive church and from the 4^th century on was recited in the Sunday and weekday morning office of monastic communities of both east and west.³⁹

If we look at the hymns of the early church in the Antiphonary of Bangor we can see the familiar themes of the Loricae.⁴⁰ In the hymn Hymnun dicat Turba Fratrum, we can see a simple and direct syntax with the events of Christ’s life compressed into few words. The author was going here for poetic impact, not elaborate theology.⁴¹ This somewhat mirrors the lyrical form of the Loricae. It begs the question, why verse was so important in the transmission of the faith in early medieval Ireland? Curran points to the fact that a tradition of poetic literature existed in Ireland prior to Christianity. There was no tradition of speculative thought or metaphysics and the unifying cultural element was provided by the filid (order of poets).⁴² This tradition seems to have carried on into the early church.

On the continent the Latin tradition had been expressed primarily through prose since the rise of Gnosticism and its emotive connotations. The Irish church, cut off as it was from the rest of the church, required a different approach.⁴³ This transmission of the faith through verse, the Lorica being a prime example, could well point to a reason for the existence and development of an individualistic streak in the early Irish church that did indeed lead to such developments as private penance.

The most obvious biblical influence on the Lorica of Patrick, that we’ve already mentioned, is the Benidicte. The tenure of Daniel 3:52-90 is celebratory, as distinct from the petition/entreaty of the Lorica. Yet the three young men are calling on God’s protection from the fiery furnace. They are also in dispute with King Nebuchadnezzar over the worship of a statue. It is quite probable that the early Christians saw the Benedicte in these terms rather than as the ‘admiration’ for the natural world that tends to colour the thinking of many modern Christians.

The ‘Breastplate’ or ‘shield of faith’ is mentioned twice in the letters of Paul (Ephesians 6:10-17, 1 Thessalonians 5:8.). Its most famous occurrence is at the end of the letter to the Ephesians when Paul exhorts the community to take up ‘God’s armour’ to fight a spiritual war. Paul states that it is not ‘against human enemies that we have to struggle’ but against the ‘spirits of evil in the heavens’.⁴⁴ The ‘masters of the darkness of this world’ refer to a world filled by spirits often of a hostile nature. The Ephesians may probably have been operating in a similar missionary field as the early Irish Christians who may have identified with this particular passage of scripture. Paul calls on the Ephesians to pray ‘in the spirit on every possible occasion.’ The Lorica is a call for God’s continuous presence and assistance, especially in stanzas 5 and 8. Continuous prayer may have been seen as one way in which the early Irish Church could liberate itself from a culture that viewed the world as one ruled by spirits.⁴⁵

The Vision of Heaven and the Christ among us

Mac Eoin believes that the Lorica of Patrick is not a folk prayer but a literary production because of its logical arrangement and elevated tone.⁴⁶ If this is so it may not tell us much about the common practices of ordinary people of the time and could strengthen the argument that it was solely for monastic use. Yet in being a literary creation it may inform us more of the ideas of Christianity in the early Irish medieval period as it appears to have survived through use, amid other writings of the same genre. It was not written to ‘gather dust on the shelves’ but to be used. We can assume, then, that it was written in a deliberate way to communicate the ideas of the author and of the period.

Although the elements theme is often the one that generates the most interest it is not the most striking, if one takes the prayer as a whole. It begins and ends with an affirmation of the Trinity that couches the whole prayer in its desire to uphold orthodox belief. The two most striking parts are the third stanza, which describes the company of heaven and the ‘Christ-prayer’ of the seventh stanza.

The second stanza describes the main themes of the life of Christ (coming, baptising, dying, rising, ascending and judging) and acts as a sort of prelude to the ‘vision of heaven’ that is heralded in the third stanza.

The supplicant calls upon the protection of the heavenly host, of ‘the glorious company of holy and risen ones’ with ‘angels obeying and archangels attending’. The supplicant calls on ‘the prayers of the Fathers in visions prophetic’ obviously alluding to the extra biblical witness of the mystics and visionaries of the time who could connect them to some form of experience of heaven.

Wright highlights the use of apocryphal material in early Irish Christian writings of the 8^th to 10^th Centuries. Eschatology and cosmology, subjects that the bible treats sketchily, are elaborated upon in these texts. A popular genre in secular literature of this period is the journey to the ‘other world’. Religious texts give a corresponding emphasis – ‘including tours of heaven and hell and revelations of the fates of good and bad souls after death.’⁴⁷

A poem in Old Irish called ‘A Prayer to the Archangels for Everyday of the Week’ calls on Uriel, Sariel, Panchel, et al, to give protection, in similar ways to the Lorica, against natural dangers and from evil spirits.⁴⁸ Herren believes it probable that the author of the Leiden Lorica derived his list of angels from the book of Enoch,⁴⁹ whilst Wright believes that frequent use of names and numbers (age of Adam, number of Holy Innocents, Archangels etc.) are all drawn from apocryphal material⁵⁰. The Vision of Adamnan graphically describes the souls journey, accompanied by angels, through the seven heavens. It is a visual feast that although graphically described, the author contests it can only be intuitively ‘guessed at’ by mortals.⁵¹

What one might surmise from the third stanza is that the church in early medieval Ireland was not afraid to use not only extra-biblical material but also the religious experience and intuition of its elders. Visions of Heaven, Hell and Judgement would be a prominent and powerful force in the practice of the faith. Descriptions of events and places would be far more important than ideas, concepts and metaphysical speculation.

The most enduring and endearing aspect of the Lorica to the modern church is the ‘Christ prayer’ of the seventh stanza. It has been immortalised in hymns, plaques and even bookmarks. Despite possible criticisms that this part of the prayer is picked out by Christians today because it is the least controversial aspect and most ‘user-friendly’, it still occupies a prominent position in the prayer by being, as it were, a conclusion to the main body of the text. As we have mentioned before, Christ is at the very heart of human relationships and there are no boundaries to the presence of God. This must have been in stark contrast to what we know of pagan religions where the deity, or deities, were called upon to perform different tasks and to appear and disappear at various times. A most probable example of this would be the sun-worshipping that St. Patrick roundly condemns in his confession.⁵² Christ is ever present, in my ‘lying, my sitting, my rising.’ This appears as a radical departure for practitioners of a new religion that put the deity at the heart of everyday functioning.

We can only speculate as to what the early church understood by the term ‘Christ’. How much did the person of Jesus come into daily awareness? And how much of the stories regarding the person of Jesus were known? Did they have an awareness of the sort of cosmic Christ mysticism as elaborated to the modern church by Teilhard de Chardin? What seems to be clear in this prayer is that the incarnation of God had repaired the rift between heaven/earth, body/soul and that now nothing was outside the reach of Christ.

That they had a linear awareness of time may be easier to conclude about the ideas of Christians in this period because of the second stanza in which ‘Christ’s power is in his coming for judgement and ending’. This may have contrasted with a more cyclical view common to pagan culture.

Conclusion

The picture we can glean of Christianity in early medieval Ireland is of a faith full of confidence in its own identity yet one in the throws of major development. We can see the fading remnants of pre-Christian ideas yet also witness the emergence of individual prayer and penance. What we may be witnessing here is a growing awareness of individual responsibility within the context of community. It may be the prayer of the monk yet it is the prayer also of the traveller – the Lorica gives us a real sense of journeying.

We can also feel a sense of liberation that the Christian experienced on being freed from a world determined by spirits and a multitude of deities. Yet Christians have a sense of danger that is both physical and spiritual: fear of attack from strangers, poisoning, burning and drowning and an intense fear of evil pervading the heart of human society. The Lorica is part of God’s armour worn by his spiritual warriors to combat this threat. It may have been worn as an amulet providing both a physical manifestation of the prayer and a desire for that prayer to be continuous. It is a world of danger yet also a world of possibilities.

It is a world in which God speaks to and can be present to all aspects of creation. We see the unique situation of God’s protection being sought for all different parts of the body and that Christ’s presence can transform every aspect of human functioning.

It gives us a picture of a people inspired by prophetic vision. Not limited by a strict canonical view of scripture, they were able to elaborate on journeys to heaven and hell that were at once awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time. It gives the impression of a Christianity less concerned with ideas and more focussed on experience.

The tenure of the Lorica, being that of protecting the pilgrim on a journey, is clear and leaves one with an impression of the hope it must have provided for the early Christians of Ireland in breaking free from the fatalism of their pagan past.

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Benjamin Perkins

What does St. Patrick’s Breastplate tell us of Christianity in Early Medieval Ireland?

University of Wales Lampeter

MA in Celtic Christianity

MACC0320-4(b)

1/12/04

1 Herren.1987. p.26. Herren quotes Lindsay as and introduction to his piece on execrations.

2 Herren.1987. p.27.

3 O’Donoghue, 1995. p.48. O’Donoghue’s translation of the Lorica of St. Patrick.

4 ‘There is no rejection of women or of the feminine, and although it would be unrealistic to suppose a total equilibrium of masculine and feminine, the tendency of Celtic culture inclined in that direction. Women were more ‘liberated’ than in many other cultures.’ Anthony Duncan ‘Celtic Christianity’ 1992 p.16

5 As witnessed by Patrick’s weather changing contest with Lucet Máel and the burning house contest that was won by Patrick’s follower, with the druid perishing in the flames. Davies 1999.p.103-4.

6 Ross 1995. p.423

7 O’Donoghue. 1995. p.55.

8 Herren,1987.p.24.

9 Herren.1987.p.25

10 ‘The idea that God gives physical protection has plenty of justification: it is the determination to specify the parts of the body which is unusual.’ Hughes. 1987. p. 52.

11 Herren.1987.p.87.

12 Plummer. 1992. p.15

13 ‘The Irish Penitentials’ Bieler.1975.p.278.

14 Hughes. 1987. p. 60.

15 O’Donoghue. 1995. p.61.

16 O’Donoghue. 1995. p.62.

17 O’Donoghue.1995.p.47.

18 ‘The words of this stanza tend to break through such distancing enterprises and bring with them a kind of animism that seems pagan rather than Christian.’ O’Donoghue.1995.p.54

19 O’Donoghue.1995.p.54.

20 ‘A note in the Assisi manuscript 338, folio 33, reads: “Here begins the praises of the creatures which Blessed Francis made to the Praise and Honour of God….” ’ The Writings of St. Francis Brady,I.1983.p.20. This reflects a clearer echo of Daniel 3 than the fourth stanza of the lorica.

21 Herren.1987.p.93.

22 Plummer.1992.intro.xxiv.

23 Herren.1987.p.25.

24 Mac Eoin.1962.p.215-216.

25 Mac Eoin.1962.p.217.

26 Low.2002.p.182.

27 ‘The natural world is frightening because it is bigger and stronger than human beings and ultimately beyond their control.’ Low.2002.p.183.

28 Low. 2002. p.182.

29 Herren.1987.p.25

30 He points to eight of the thirteen pieces as petitions couched in the first person singular. Plummer.1992.intro.xv. This, however, does not necessarily exclude collective worship.

31 Curran. 1984. p. 85.

32 Plummer.1992.p.105.

33 O’Donoghue.1995.p.55.

34 Herren.1987.p.31.

35 In Solomon and Saturn 1 the personified words of the paternoster attack the devil in succession. Wright.1993.p.234.

36 ‘..the assumption was that God is seeking vengence. Penitence was not sorrow for the offence of one’s sins but a plea for mercy that the deserved penalty would not be carried out.’ O’Loughlin.2000.p.153

37 O’Loughlin.2000.p.152.

38 Warren.1987.p.111.

39 Curran. 1984. p.185.

40 ‘…there is a strong emphasis on the divinity of Christ, the word incarnate, the light sent by the father into the world, the king enthroned at the right hand of God and the judge who is to come.’ Curran.1984.p.84.

41 Curran. 1984. p.32.

42 Curran. 1984. p.89.

43 ‘The typical Roman approach of order and sobriety did not leave much place for the spontaneous, the enthusiastic, the lyrical element in the worship of the church’. Curran. 1984. p.89.

44 New Jerusalem Bible.1985.p.1938.

45 ‘those who have lived in pagan cultures where this is believed have felt the depressing psychological effects such an environment can have. It gives people a sense of futility in their efforts to face a controlled word whose governing powers are completely beyond them.’ Grassi,J. 1981.p.349 Jerome Biblical Commentary.

46 Mac Eoin.1962.p.214.

47 Wright.1993.p.23.

48 Davies.1999.p.264-265.

49 Herren.1987.p.30.

50 Wright.1993.p.21-22.

51 ‘No one living could describe or give accurate account of those companies……There is a huge arch over the head of the All Highest on his royal throne, like an ornamented helmet or a king’s crown. Any human eye that looked upon it would immediately dissolve.’ Trans. Davies.1999.p.331-332.

52 ‘But the sun which we see……it shall never reign, nor shall its splendour last.’ Trans. O’Loughlin.1999.p.88. St. Patrick, the man and his works.