St. Patrick’s Lorica and the Power of Faith

Today is the feast of St. Patrick. While it can be fun to watch parades, dance, sing, and drink alcohol, the underlying meaning of the feast is the great power of religious faith to change not just our souls, but even the material world around us.

St. Patrick was a fourth century British lad who was kidnapped and enslaved in Ireland. Working as a shepherd, he had a great deal of time for prayer and self-examination. Finally, he saw a vision that instructed him to escape back home. He became a priest and bishop and was sent back to Ireland to convert the pagans there to Christianity.

The former slave boy evangelized so successfully that, within a little more than thirty years, the island became Christian. Patrick traveled the country with his chariot driver St. Odran. Ireland became the Isle of Saints, the great preserver of Christian culture during the so-called “Dark Ages,” thanks to Patrick. It was their Catholic faith that kept the Irish strong through centuries of British oppression, too.

There is one story from Patrick’s life that particularly illustrates the power of faith. Jesus said in the Bible (Matt. 17:20), “For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you.” St. Patrick didn’t move a mountain, but he did drive all snakes out of Ireland.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! pic.twitter.com/u9YxanURLx

— Catherine Salgado (@CatSalgado32) March 17, 2024

The basic facts are that St. Patrick drove his bishop’s staff into the ground and ordered all snakes out of Ireland, thus proving the power of the Christian God. There have not been snakes in the Emerald Isle since. Some moderns scoff at the story, naturally, but that is because they don’t have the faith that can move mountains.

The Apostles had faith that converted the Roman empire. St. Patrick had faith that converted a whole country. Our Founding Fathers had faith that defeated the world’s most powerful empire and founded a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. One must believe that one can do the impossible, with God’s help, before accomplishing great things. Part of the reason modern America is going rotten with mediocrity is that fewer and fewer people really have faith in God, in America’s ideals, and in man’s capacity for greatness.

This St. Patrick’s Day and every day, let us pray for the strength and courage and faith to do mighty deeds like St. Patrick and all the great Irish and American heroes. The perfect prayer for this is that called the Lorca of St. Patrick, a prayer from a holy man to his God, asking that divine aid permeate every aspect of his life and being:

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
Amen.

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Saint Patrick, pray for us!