St Patrick and baptism - some observations

The few excerpts from Bishop Tírechán's text in the previous postings show how absolutely fascinating his work on Saint Patrick really is.
 [Read the entire English translation from here.]

Tírechán takes us to the front lines of Christ's Kingdom and the borders expand with baptism. In the beginning of my Rex Regum blog I suggested that we can see the expansion of the rule of the invisible King Christ by following baptism. Nowhere in Migration era Europe is this more clear as in the work of the Apostle of Ireland.

Saint Patrick cannot say like Saint Paul

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
1 Cor 1:17 NIV

For baptism was the essential tool in his work and is done along with preaching and teaching according to the command of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 NIV

Visiting holy places
As Terry O’Hagan describes we really get the impression from Bishop Tírechán personally visited many of the sites he is telling about and gives accurate information about the things "still today there": the church is square, made of clay as there is no trees, and the burial is on the hill above it. In some cases he uses the title "holy man" rather than Saint Patrick whose memory may not have been so closely associated with all these sites with holy memories.


Baptism extended!
It is remarkable how the concept of baptism is extended in Tírechán to a baby not yet born whose mother is about to die and to the men beyond the grave. Particularly striking is the story of the voice from the grave explaining the cross and St Patrick's action of simply moving the holy cross to the right place.

A legend on such an encounter would surely have saved also this pagan laying beside the body of a Christian!

The tremendous power of baptism is like fresh news from a spiritual battle field and Tírechán's account authentically reflects 7th century concepts and beliefs. It is interesting, how he makes a difference between "druids" and "pagans".


Druid water worship as background?
The importance of wells and the stories of druid worshipping them as gods as well as the rising of Celtic Crosses near them all seem to suggest that there were ancestral beliefs connected with these water sources.

Saint Patrick is described as a Moses figure, demonstrates that there are no spirits in the well, only water, touching the rock of the well with his staff and blesses it with mighty Christian words - powerful things that bring flocks of local people to baptism and Christianity.

Could it be that old Irish religions contained a strong element connecting to wells which where then used by Saint Patrick and the Twelve Apostles in bringing the folks to Christ?

Something symbolic of this is in the National Cathedral of Ireland, Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, which is said to be built on the place where there was once a well and a high cross.