On Tuesday 30 May last, Archbishop Eamon Martin launched the The Spiritual Journey of St Patrick, a book by the late Father Aidan Larkin, in Dalgan Park, Co Meath.
Speaking at the launch, Archbishop Eamon said, “In my own studies and reading a lot of the literature about St Patrick narrowed my vision of him – all of those controversies surrounding his life narrowed my focus. Father Aidan points out aspects of the life and writings of Saint Patrick that I perhaps missed or neglected in my many readings of the Confession and the Letter to Coroticus.
“For example, Patrick doesn’t see himself as just a little part of a mission to Ireland. He sees himself as part of the entire mission of the Church. Saint Patrick connects himself to the scriptures and to his contemporaries – we sometimes forget that the Church Fathers were near contemporaries of Saint Patrick.”
Regretting that Ireland had “caricatured him a little bit too much down through the centuries,” Archbishop Martin said both Father Larkin’s and Father Dan Conneely’s research reaffirmed his understanding of Saint Patrick as a saint for the whole world and a saint for the whole Church – not just for Ireland or the Irish.
The Primate said, “But not only is he a saint for the whole Church, I think Father Aidan’s work reminds me that Saint Patrick is a saint for our times. Most recently we have become hugely conscious of the evil of human trafficking. We see how Patrick empathises with a whole host of people nowadays who are forcibly moved from their country or indeed who are forced from their circumstances and have to leave home as refugees or migrants.”
To purchase a copy of The Spiritual Journey of St Patrick click here.
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