St Patrick’s Day 17 March 2013
Joseph of Arimathea
Gertrude of Nivelles
How many of you can tell me which three saints we celebrate today?
What about the patron saint of Gravediggers. It’s his day today too. Who is it? Well that is Joseph of Arimathea. Probably the owner of the most famous grave in the world Joseph was a Jewish councillor who, as a secret follower of Jesus asked the Romans for his body from the Cross. He then buried Jesus in a grave that had been newly hewn from the rock outside Jerusalem. It was probably Joseph’s presence at the Crucifixion which lined him, in mediaeval times, with the Holy Grail — the chalice supposed to contain Christ’s bloodshed on the Cross. HE is said to have brought the Holy Grail to England where he centred his preaching round Glastonbury, performing healing miracles on people from the nearby towns and is thought to be buried there, but unlike Richard III his grave has never been found.
But today is also the saint’s day of Gertrude of Nivelles. This young woman was brought up religiously in and after her mother built a double monastery at Nivelles in which Gertrude was set up as Abbess. The monastery was noted for its hospitality to pilgrims, and for her generous benefaction to Irish monks. When she was 30 Gertrude resigned, shades of Pope Benedict, and her niece took over the monastery. She is represented in art with mice and there is a possibility that they have been transferred from pagan myths. Over the years she was invoked to intercede against pests of rats and mice and in 1822 offerings made at her shrine in Cologne were made in the form of gold and silver mice. Gertrude was also invoked by travelers as well as pilgrims who used to drink a stirrup-cup in her honour before setting out…and as an extension of this patronage she was also invoked as a patroness of the recently dead who were popularly supposed to experience a three day journey to the next world, spending the first night under the care of Gertrude.
Fine weather on her feast day, today, is regarded as the signal for beginning garden work. So I expect the gardeners in our midst will be out there later today with their spades and forks.
So we come to Patrick. Much controversy has surrounded the chronology of Patrick’s life and the extent of his achievements. The exaggerated view as the only apostle of Ireland who converted the whole country single-handed has given way to a widespread conviction that nearly all that can be known of Patrick comes from his authentic writings, and the letter to Coroticus protesting against British slave-traders.
Patrick was British by birth, the son of a town councillor who was a deacon and whose grand-father was a priest. His birth place was somewhere in the west between the mouth of the Severn and the Clyde. While a youth he was captured by Irish pirates and reduced to slavery for six years. After that time he was told in a dream that he would go to his own country and he either escaped or was freed. He made a 200 mile journey to a port and eventually persuaded some sailors to take him with them. After various adventures he eventually returned to his home, a much changed man. He received some form of training for the priesthood.
Patrick made his way to Ireland about 435 and worked principally in the North setting up his see at Armagh near to where the most powerful king of Ireland lived. From here he made missionary journeys. Patrick who had sincere simplicity and deep pastoral care, was concerned with abolishing paganism, idolatry and sun worship. He took with him into his old age a consciousness of being unlearned exile, a former slave and fugitive who learnt to trust completely in God.
Then there is the Patrick of legend. The man who expelled snakes, explained the Trinity by reference to the shamrock or accomplished single-handed immense missionary tasks of conversion. And so we come to the link with Glastonbury which claimed that the relics of Patrick the Older, which had long been there were those of the historical St Patrick.
Nowadays St Patrick’s Day is a time for parades and parties. There is even an Irish flag hanging from a house on Falcon Lodge and in Birmingham’s Pallisades this week one window was full of cards, knick knacks and posters wishing people a Happy St Patrick’s Day.
Saints in days gone by were people to admire, emulate and honour. We can chuckle at the legends, at Glastonbury’s claim to be the burial site of two of the saints we remember today but we can go from here remembering what those people did. Joseph offered his own tomb. Gertrude offered hospitality to pilgrims and Patrick trusted completely in God. Do we trust completely in God? Do we offer hospitality to strangers? And would we give the £6,000 or so it costs for a complete Funeral plan, to someone who had died the death of a criminal?
AMEN
Rev’d Edwina Wallace.