On this St. Patrick’s Day I’m reminded of how close in time it is to the ancient Hebrew holiday of Purim. In 2022, both holidays were on the same day, but this year Purim is one week after. But still, I find it interesting that these holidays coincide with Irish American Month and Woman’s History Month. If you know the story of Purim in the Book of Esther, one of the heroes of the story is Esther, a young Jewish woman who helped save her people from genocide when they were exiled in ancient Persia. This was many millennia before Woman’s History Day, Week, and Month were instituted in the last century[1.1], so Purim is obviously a great historical event for women, but I will talk more about Purim next week. If you’d like to see more similarities with St. Patrick’s Day and Purim, see my 2022 article.
For Irish American Month, St. Patrick’s Day is well known to be in March, having been celebrated at least since the 1600’s when the church made it a feast day[1.2]. The first recorded St. Patrick’s Day parade, though, was far from the center of Christianity in Europe and even decades before the church made it a commemoration of St. Patrick in 1631. The parade was in St. Augustine, Florida, recorded in 1601 during the Spanish conquest of the New World, long before the United States became a country[1.2].
That record of the first St. Patrick’s Day parade appears to be authentic record, but contrary to this, I see in recent years, all of a sudden everywhere people are saying Ireland’s patron saint was named Maewyn Succat at birth. Why have even respected journals and newspapers been saying Patrick was born as Maewyn Succat?
The sudden rise in popularity of Maewyn Succat was strange, and knowing how fast misinformation spreads with overeager writers and commentators in our age, I had to question if Saint Patricius (the name Patrick gave for himself in his autobiographical Confessio (Confession), originally written in Latin) was ever named Maewyn Succat. Nowhere in Patrick’s surviving texts does he say his name was Maewyn Succat, so where did that come from?
None of the most popular articles I saw gave citation for the origin of Maewyn Succat, but I saw other curious people found sources saying Maewyn was a Welsh Gaelic name and Succat means “god of war.” Maewyn being possibly Welsh Gaelic could match Patrick’s origins on the west coast of ancient Britain in the Roman City of Bannavem Tiburniae (also called Banna Venta Berniae), where his home was according to Patrick’s own words in his Confessio. It was likely on the west coast because he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and enslaved in Ireland for about six years.
But Maewyn Succat is still a strange name for a Roman citizen even if Latin was not his first language[1.3]. He did say in his Confessio that he needed to translate his words "into a strange language," which was Latin. He gave his father’s name as Calpurnius, which was Roman Latin, and Palladius was the name recorded by the church of Patrick’s contemporary cleric, who was also called Patricius (Patrick)[1.6], and Patrick gave his own name as Patricius, which means “father, nobleman, or patrician (an original citizen of the families of Rome; of high birth or rank; person of breeding and cultivation)“[1.4, 1.5].
Maewyn is also almost always a girl’s name, so wherever Maewyn came from, I could not find any historical record connecting it to Patrick. Succat or Succath, though, I did find historical writings associating the name to Patrick.
It was stated in the writings of Irish Bishop Tírechán who was alive in the 7th Century[1.7], about 200 years after the time of St. Patrick. Tírechán wrote a kind of biography of Patrick called the Collectanae which stated he got the details of Patrick’s life from his mentor, Bishop Altán, either by word of mouth or Altán’s writings. However, it is not clear where Altán got his information from because Patrick was not alive during Altán’s lifetime. Patrick is said to have died in 493 at the latest and 457 at the earliest, while Altán died in 657[1.8], about 100 years after Patrick.
Furthermore, Tírechán’s Collectanae, is only found in the Book of Armagh which is a compilation of many writings that is dated to the 9th Century[1.9]. The Collectanae itself is dated from 668 to 684[1.11], and in the Collectanae, we find the following text translated from Latin[1.12]:
"I have found four names for Patrick written in a book in the hands of Ultán, bishop of Connor: the saint (was named) Magonus, that is: famous, Succetus, that is: god of war; Patricius, that is: father of the citizens; Cothirthiacus, because he served four houses of druids”
Here Tírechán said Patrick had four names, but there is no mention of the name Maewyn. Some people think Magonus is the Latin form of Maewyn, but I found no evidence for that. The name Succetus, though, is thought to be Succat, which does have historical links in the 1896 book, St. Patrick and the early Church of Ireland[1.13]. It quotes Keating’s History of Ireland, which notes a hymn states about Patrick, “’Succat his name at the beginning.' Succat in old British means 'the god of war,' or 'strong in war.'”
The hymn was likely based off a very old hymn about Patrick that is dated sometime before 520 AD, written by Fiacc, a bishop of Leinster, who said he met Patrick personally and that his family was converted by Patrick[1.10]. This is plausible because Fiacc lived at the same time as Patrick. Fiacc’s hymn reads, “Succat was his name, it is said.”
How much of these historical records can we trust?
First...
of all, I noted that Tírechán who wrote the
Collectanae about Patrick was a St. Patrick cult zealot
[1.7] and likely part of an Irish church movement at the time to make Patrick a hero figure for Ireland. They greatly embellished Patrick’s life and works. And with the questionable source of Ultán from whom Tírechán said Patrick traveled throughout Gaul (now northern France and Germany), Italy, and the Tyrrhene Sea on the west coast of Italy, even spending 30 years on an island there, it must be highly scrutinized when Patrick never mentioned these things in his writings.
However, Patrick did say in his Confessio that he longed to visit the brethren in Gaul and go back to his home in Britain, but also said, “God knows that I dearly desire this, but I am tied by the Spirit who protests to me that He would bear witness against me if I were to do this. He would hold me responsible in the future if I did this and I am afraid of undoing the work that I have started [in Ireland]. It is not I but Christ the Lord who ordered me to come to these people and stay with them for the rest of my life.”
Knowing how pious and God-fearing Patrick was, I would have to say he NEVER left Ireland when he went back to minister there. This puts the church’s earliest documents about Patrick into the category of terribly embellished history, if not complete fiction, something which the Irish would say is full of horse’s hoof (a spoof or exaggerated story). Later biographies and poetic works about Patrick also fall into that category, so I would throw them all out as fiction.
The only credible piece for Patrick’s alternate name is from Fiacc’s poem which stated Patrick was called Succat (some references use Succath[1.13]), even though I think it strange for a multigenerational Christian family to name their child “god of war,” (Patrick said in his Confessio that his father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest). But then, Patrick's contemporary priest was named Palladius, which means “of or belonging to Pallas, another name for the goddess Athena.” It seems that in the 5th Century people didn’t think much about what their names meant, or at least the brethren, even high church officials, did not know what their names meant or did not care that they represented idolatry to God.
In the end, I would have to say that St. Patrick might have been called Succat before he became Patricius in Ireland (Pádraig in Irish Gaelic), but he was never called Maewyn, and also not likely called Magonus meaning famous, nor Cothirthiacus because he was enslaved to druids. Patrick presented himself as humble and very pious in the Confessio, so I doubt he would ever call himself “Famous” or link his name to pagan druids.
In fact, I'm sure Patrick would not have wanted a St. Patrick’s Day at all or be commemorated for his work with God, since the church never canonized him as a saint. That means the church was never able to authenticate miracles made in his name, meaning they found no witnesses. For a long time I felt Patrick was never canonized because it was his wish to never take away from God’s glory with his own name or be idolized or worshipped, so he asked God to never let his name be used to make miracles. The worshipping of saints makes people sin in idolatry, but unfortunately, that never stopped the church from idolizing the saints. In any case, I will keep referring to Patrick as Pádraig or Patrick, and only mention Succat as a footnote.
...
May you all do the same and not run wildly with misinformation as is so common today, even among the most learned and highly regarded. Wisdom and discernment be on you all in the name of Mashiach Yeshua. Amen.
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