Transcript

Stephen McDowell explores how St Patrick transformed Ireland in his lifetime

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition, of America's Providential History Podcast. Last week, in remembrance of St Patrick's Day, we looked at this Irish St Patrick and how he transformed Ireland in his lifetime, which was a great example, for us today of what God can do. And so we explored how Patrick was a world figure, one of the dominant personalities of world history, how he completely transformed a nation in his lifetime, and he set Ireland on its destiny. And so what he did there, this, event was a world event. And so we explored how thousands were regenerated through his work and efforts. He founded 700 churches, trained 700 bishops, 3,000 missionaries, set up many monasteries. But these were really training centers, biblical worldview training centers. How he worked to write new civil laws, wrote the Liber egs Lege Moise, and how he worked in every sphere of life and brought about transformation of this nation in his lifetime. Before Patrick, people of Ireland would go out carrying the sword and kidnapping, pillaging, stealing. But, after his, impact in that nation, the Ireland sons became teachers of whole nations and the counselors of kings and empires. And so today what I want to explore is the fruit of Patrick's work and the centuries that followed. his work because Patrick set in place the mechanism for long term impact through the training schools, through men he raised up who would lead the churches and continue to instruct and teach those individuals. So many other nations as we will, were impacted through those who were trained in the churches, seminaries and schools that Patrick started. There are many holy men and women continued his work as well, some very significant and famous, if you will. The three greatest Irish saints were Patrick, Bridget and Columba. Now, in the centuries succeeding Patrick, Christians swarm forth, as one gentleman said, like bees from a hive. They came from the Irish monasteries or those schools that were set up by Patrick and his disciples. They went from those schools to distant lands, carrying the faith and truth that brought many people out of barbarism. One historian wrote. It was thus when the whole world seemed irrevocably sunk in barbarism, the Irish went forth into every part of the world to spread Christianity and knowledge. For you see what was happening about the time that Patrick, in the early part of the four hundreds, God led him back to Ireland to begin to do his work there of transformation is during this same period when the barbarians, the Vandals, the Huns, the Franks, the Visigoths, the Saxons, the Angles, the Jutes and others began to sweep through Europe, they came over the Danube river from the north and swept in to the south and to the west in the 400s, conquering and destroying everything before them, including Rome. and the Roman Empire really, fell apart because one reason, because of the influence of the barbarians. And so the light of the gospel in much of Europe was threatened to be extinguished. Now, in the first few centuries of the Christian era, missionaries, swarmed throughout the known world. Even in Paul's time, as he writes in the gospels, and carried the gospel and impacted so many of those nations. Basically, those nations that were inside of the Roman emp Especially, those were impacted. And it was the fruit of that work that produced Patrick, who then God led to go into Ireland, that had not really been impacted by the gospel up until that time. And God then began to prepare this seed and bring fruit from the work that Patrick and his disciples did in Ireland. And that, So as the light of the gospel in much of Europe was threatened to be extinguished by the invasion of the barbarians, it was at this crucial time that the fruit of the work of Patrick in Ireland began to grow. There's a more recent book. The title of it describes the influence of what happens. Its title is how the Irish saved Civilization. Basically tells this story that I'm summarizing here. of the impact of Patrick and his disciples. And it's interesting how they saved civilization. You know, civilization is really the fruit of Christian. The Christian faith. Christianity, where it has gone, has brought civilization. You know, some say, well, didn't the Roman Empire bring about civilization? Well, to some extent. I mean, the Roman Empire is an example. The Greek empire and the Roman Empire are examples of the best that man can do apart from God. And they fell far short of what God intended. Two thirds of the Roman Empire were slaves, and there was not liberty and freedom for all men by any means. so true civilization came about as biblical Christian ideas began to be sown within people's hearts and minds and flow out to impact all aspects of culture. And so until the civilizing influence of Christianity comes to a people, then they're very limited in how that much they can flourish and advance and prosper and be free. And so the Irish, basically, the fruit of the work of Patrick and other Christians, saves civilization. So carrying Christianity, Ireland's sons, as one historian wrote, became the teachers of whole nations, the counselors of kings and emperors. In Addition to this, Christians from all over England and Europe flocked to Ireland to be trained in the Holy Scriptures. So over time, the schools that Patrick and his disciples started in Ireland and later in other places, the word went out that there's great ideas, great truth, things that people needed were being taught in these schools. And they came, flocked to these schools to learn this truth. And then they in turn would go back to their localities, their lands, to sow all that they had learned. Now, one of the most significant men raised up from the work of Patrick was a man named Columba, known as the Apostle to the Picts. The Picts were the name of those people that lived up in what is today Scotland. And Columbus influence and character was such that he was without a peer among his native Irish saints and really only had one pier among all the saints of Western Europe, and that was Patrick himself. So Columba was born, born in 521. Now, remember, it's probably around 461 people say that Patrick died. And after about three decades of working to transform Ireland. And so this would have been, you know, perhaps two generations, after Patrick, that Columba was born in 521. And he was born. He was born of royal stock, Irish royal stock. And he had the natural right to the kingship of Ireland, but he put it aside to serve God. after he was baptized, he was given the name Colum seal, which means dove of the church, by his fellow pupils, due to his always being at church between study times. Now, Columba was trained by ministers and priests at a number of different Christian schools and education centers. some would call them monasteries, but they're not monasteries in the sense of what we think of today. But they were really training education centers for a total equipping in every area of life. And so many people, they didn't just stay in the monasteries their whole life. They went out and carried what they had learned to so many others. And so Columba was trained in these, educated these centers that were begun due to Patrick's, influence. Columba traveled, preached, and founded himself about 30 monasteries or these Christian training centers in Ireland by the year 562. In that year, he is forced to leave Ireland and sail with some companions to the Isle of Iona. Iona is again an island north of Ireland, on the way to Scotland. If you were to sail from the north of Ireland up, that's where Iona is. And at Iona, Columba founded a famous monastery and school whose disciples carried the Gospel first to the Picts of Scotland and then to the Britons and the Saxons of England. Now, the Picts were a wild and crazy people. They were so wild that even the Romans could not, conquer them or civilize them. Instead of trying to deal with them and bring them into the Roman Empire, they just built Hadrian's Wall in the north part of England and say, we're just going to use this wall to keep them out if we can, and let them be. My name is McDowell, which is a Scottish name. And so way back, these Picts would have been my ancestors. But before the civilizing influence of Christianity came to Scotland because of the work of Columba, who was there because of the work of Patrick, these guys were wild and crazy. All people groups are wild and crazy to varying degrees, before the Christian faith comes to impart truth and zeal and character. And so, in particular the school at Iona that Columba founded, people who went out from those schools went and ministered to the pigs. But then after, not just the Picts, but also to the Britons and the Saxons of England. Because England, though in its early centuries had been Christianized, as I mentioned, especially around in the 400s, these barbarians began to flood Western Europe and flood England, began to kill many, Christians and Christian leaders. And they conquered militarily so much of this land. But because of men like Columba and the fruit of his work, eventually these people conquered the barbarians and, saw that they were converted to the Christian faith over time. And so the disciples of Columba were the first to evangelize these wild Picts. And then also the Anglo Saxons, these were some of the barbarians that came into England again in the early 400s. And they needed to be evangelized because the original Celts that lived there, the Anglo Saxons killed a lot of them. In fact, at one point there were like 1200 Celtic leaders, Christian leaders in prayer, and these barbarian Anglo Saxons killed them all. So they did conquer them initially. But then the ideas of the Christian faith came and spiritually conquered the Anglo Saxons.

The Anglo Saxon invasion of Britain pushed back the Celtic church

So people from all over came to Columbus School all over, Western Europe, really, all over Ireland they came to study. But all over Western Europe, so many came to this school before and after his death in 597. And it gradually grew in size and influence. So all of the British Isles and much of Europe were transformed through Columba and those from Iona. Now, the Anglo Saxon invasion of Britain in the 5th century pushed back the Celtic church that had Been there probably since the first century, certainly by the first part of the second century. So it pushed back the Celtic church and thus the missionary movements from Iona into Scotland. And then another, disciple by the name of Aiden, who, around the year 634, he began to go into England to minister and disciple and to preach England to help bring the gospel, to them. And so, those trained at Iona first went to an unevangelized land, Scotland, and saw it converted over time. Then, the disciples of these schools and others like Aidan went into Britain, which had been a Christian nation that had become paganized and then now rechristianize do to the influence of, really, Patrick's work and the disciples that came forth from him in the schools that he started. So many Irish monks went out from Iona to spread Christianity. Many went to the Picts in the uppermost part of the British Isles. As I mentioned, Aidan went to northern Britain, the northeast part of England today, around the year634,635, and founded the monastic community in Lindisfarne, our holy isle. And this became a flowing fountain of faith for England. And Aidan became the apostle of England. And so in the years following, he trained many in Lindisfarne. This school, monastery he set up, but he also planted many churches and other training centers in England, other parts of northern England. The Saxons he came to minister to in turn, propagated the gospel throughout England. So seeds were planted, and gradually the barbarians were evangelized, and they evangelized their brethren as well. Missionaries from Lindisfarne, like Cuthbert in 664, traveled down into England and evangelized this country that I said had been taken over by the barbarian Anglo Saxons. In the four hundreds. The Irish missionaries trained many Saxon ministers who went out as well. So they were doing what Jesus said, make disciples. What Paul did, he told Timothy to do, to make disciples. Who they will make disciples. And Patrick and the schools had a vision for this. All those that came out of these various training centers established over these, really centuries, this is work for a couple of centuries after Patrick. Now, while England was being evangelized, missionaries continued to flow out of the schools of Ireland, carrying God's word to all lands from the British Isles to Northern Africa, from the Pyrenees to Palestine. And many of these missionaries never returned to their family, friends, and country, but gave their entire lives to God's cause. As one historian wrote, from the end of the 6th to the beginning of the 10th century, the little isle in the western ocean was the means of giving the Gospel of Christ to the vast track of barbarian swept Europe. Now another famous, individual who went out from Ireland was a, gentleman by the name of Columbanus. And he went into central Europe around the year 590, establishing many training centers and schools, traveling throughout Gaul, kind of today the area of France, and as far as Saint Gallen and what is today Switzerland, and Babio, which is what is today Italy. And he reached Bavio about 614 A.D. and so the light which Columbanus disseminated wherever he went was like one historian said, was like the sun and its course from east to west. Columbanus was born in the year 543, was trained in, monasteries in Ireland and became an important Christian leader around the age of 47. He gave up everything in order to carry Christ's gospel to the heathen, as was the practice at this time. 12 disciples went with him into Europe around the year 590. Many people were converted due to their efforts, including King Siegbert. Now Columbanus built a permanent monastery and school at luxor again around 590 to which many came to be educated. And this became the center of religious and intellectual life in the eastern part of what is today France. Columbanus later traveled into other parts of Europe, converting many to the faith, founding monasteries and drawing many people to these schools that he was establishing. He founded a monastery in Switzerland. And as I said, he eventually made it to Italy even. And at Bobbio, in what is today Italy, erected a monastery which became a center of holiness and learning for centuries to come. And it was here that his very fruitful life ended. And so before and after the death of Columbanus, many of his disciples, these would have been Irish disciples. And then later on disciples, in the mainland from the schools that he established, they went throughout Europe, spreading the Christian faith and establishing many training centers and churches. Many of these followers became famous on their own. For example, Saint Gall founded a monastery on Lake Constance, around which grew the town of St. Gallen in Switzerland. He also left a number of important writings. And so he affected the continent for centuries after his death. Many other Irish missionaries work throughout Europe over the years, becoming the spiritual fathers of France and of what is today France and Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands and other countries. So Europe and all of civilization owe, a great debt to the thousands of Irish Christians who flooded the land over the centuries. And so during the era of the Irish missionaries, which would have been like from the end of the 6th to the beginning of the 10th centuries, Ireland was so known for its piety that it was sufficient to be an Irishman, to be considered holy and become the immediate founder of an abbey. In other words, the reputation of these people coming out of Ireland. And again, these were a, ah, product originally of Patrick and then Patrick's disciples. And it had such a high reputation that when people in the mainland western Europe heard, hey, you're from Ireland. That was sufficient enough to consider they're holy and they can found a school, and we'll be glad to listen and to follow them. And so these holy men spread the Christian religion and Christian learning Through which they laid the foundation of western culture and civilization. So the Irish saved civilization by planting the seeds of God's kingdom that affected all spheres of life and bore fruit for centuries to come. And so when we think of Patrick, we need to understand that his work not only transformed Ireland really in his lifetime, but following through the work that he did through all the churches, he started that through so many people that were converted, through the training schools that he set up, through his disciples who carried on after him that they went, they made disciples, they set up new schools, and they began to spread not only, throughout Ireland, but through all of western Europe. And so God in his providence was at work to advance his purpose in history. So it's providential that around the same time that Rome fell, When the barbarians invaded, that city in the early 400s and within the next couple of generations at the most, when the empire ceased to exist. And by the way, one contributing factor to the collapse of the Roman empire Was that there were huge influx of immigrants, if you will. In a way, you could call them illegal immigrants in the sense that they had no vision for the Roman empire. They didn't understand the Roman peace and the mission of Rome. And of course, by this time, Christianity, had begun to influence those who lived in the Roman empire in a great way. But these barbarians had not been introduced to the Christian faith. They didn't have a vision for what civilization was all about. And so this is a contributing factor to the collapse of Rome and the Roman empire. But God in his providence, raised up the church, and this is the mission of the church to disciple the nations. And they did that by teaching everything that Christ taught, everything in the scripture. And in particular, God used this humble man, Patrick, whom he had providentially prepared, as we discussed last week. He used Patrick to go and not only transform Ireland, but through his work over the centuries that followed, it preserved western civilization. They went back into western Europe that at Once, early on, the early centuries had been Christianized to a large degree. But now, once that the barbarians had swarmed into Western Europe, it needed to be Christianized again. But God had the people prepared, the schools were there, the training was there, the vision was there. And so disciples, you know, directly or indirectly over time from Patrick, Columba, Columbanus, Aiden, Ina and others began to flow forth to and into all of Western Europe in order to preserve civilization, to continue to transmit truth that they received in their Biblical training and to make sure that God's plan and purpose continued to march forward as he announced when, centuries before this. And so this is a great story for us to know, a great example of the ever increasing kingdom of Christ and that God in His providence works to advance his purpose. And he used it to preserve Western civilization, to convert these barbarian tribes to the Christian faith. And by the way, he began to give the Bible in languages of some of these barbarians that used to be barbarians, give them a language and then the Bible written in his language like ah, Saint Cyrille and Saint Methodius in the eight hundreds that they had a vision. Christian missionaries had a vision to give a written language to the Slavic people and produced a Bible in that language so they could read the Bible in their own language, which of course contributes to transformation, individual transformation, transformation of society and of public life and civil life and the church and all spheres of life. And so God was at work. We see God at work through this marvelous story of Patrick and what came out of his life, a great example for us today because the same God who was working at this time had continued to work after that. We've looked at some of that story in previous podcasts. We'll explore more events taking place in Europe, events in America. We'll even in future podcasts look at how has God continued, continued to move in the nations, especially in the last few generations. That'll be the topic of some future podcasts as well. So I hope you'll continue to join us and listen to us. Listen to this America's Providential History podcast also invite you to Visit our website providencefoundation.com where you can see books and materials that you can get and read about this story. I encourage you to pick up America's Providential History, a book. If you haven't read or pick it up and read it. If you have read it, read it again because it helps tell this story of how God is at work advancing his kingdom purposes because there shall be no end to the increase of his kingdom as we read in the scriptures. Well, glad you joined us today. I, hope to have you back next week where we'll continue to tell the story of God's hand in history.