Darerca

CHAPTER 18

Paddy travelled all over Ireland converting people to Christianity. He used the shamrock to explain the doctrine of the Holy Trinity - three divine persons in one. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The people understood the simplicity of his message. They were baptized in local rivers, lakes and holy wells.
At one gathering a boy cried out in pain.
"What happened, there?" Paddy asked.
A girl answered for him. "A grass snake bit him."
Paddy stalked down. The staff lifted in his hand as he cried out: "Banish them."
He looked at the bite and said a quick blessing and instantly the pain disappeared. The boy actually smiled.
At another place he wanted to depict how Christianity would grow and he used his staff as an example. He planted it in the ground and asked God for rain. In astonishment, the drenched people watched as the staff grew into a tree. "So it will be with faith," Paddy observed.
And all of the people who saw these things believed, prayed and were converted.

*

There were strange things that happened to Paddy, including visions and visitations from heaven.
It was known that he'd conversed and debated with the ancient Irish including Oisin.
Oisin had lived in the land of Tir na nOg, which translated as the land of the young - a mythical figure. He was the son of Fionn mac Cumhaill and Sadhbh, and a legendary warrior of the fianna and a poet. His mother Sadhbh had been turned into a deer by a druid, and when Fionn had been out hunting he'd come across her but hadn't killed her. She'd then regained her human form, and Fionn had married her and settled down. She became pregnant with Oisin, but the druid turned her back into a deer and released her into the wild. Years later, Fionn found his son on Benbulbin.
When Oisin is older he meets Niamh - a goddess of the sea - who takes him away to Tir na nOg.
After what seems like three years, but is in reality three hundred, Oisin decides to visit home. Niamh gives him a white horse for the journey, but warns him he must not dismount or the years will catch up to him. Oisin returns home to find Fionn's home in disrepair, and decides to go back to Niamh. On the way he comes across a party of men trying to move a huge boulder and he stops to help. However his girth breaks and he falls to the ground, becoming an old, old man. Just before he dies, he has a vision of Saint Patrick and he relates the stories of the Fianna to Paddy who listens attentively. The more he knows of these legends, the easier will be his mission.
It was important to Paddy that he knew as much as possible about the ancestry of the Irish. He needed to understand what made these people 'tick'. Unlike his own homeland, it was a land that hadn't been touched by the Romans. The Romans had called the land Hibernia, but hadn't invaded it, even though they knew it was a land of abundance.
They regarded the people there as barbarian and not worthy of the effort. Paddy knew different. He knew they would become a land of saints and scholars, courtesy of a vision by Victorious. He also knew them to be a kind and courageous people, full of humour and daring.
Victorious had been right. He had been welcomed back to Hibernia with open arms. True, there were some who would never accept his teachings but that wasn't his doing.

*

Paganism had been around for centuries. The Druids had a huge say about how life was lived.
False gods were worshipped. The Druids had their own beliefs and codes. They didn't believe in leaving written records. They looked to nature a lot and if for example plenty of ladybirds were seen it signalled very hot weather ahead.
They were known to be polytheistic, and worshipped various gods and idols. In this, they weren't too far removed from the Roman way of life.
However the Celts believed themselves to be tougher material than that of mere Romans and the harshness of the weather they endured was testament to that. Or, that's what they told themselves.