St Patrick, Downpatrick and ancient gold.

Richard Warner

Lecale Miscellany (Journal of the Lecale Historical Society)

15 (1997), 100-104

St. Patrick, Downpatrick ,andAncient Gold

Richard Warner

(Ulster Museum)"

In my last essay in this journal (Warner 1995) I implied that Patrick had won his freedomfrom servitude by discovering treasure, possibly in the possession of his master Miliuc moccuB6in. Patrick himself wrote that a voice had informed hirn, while he was in bondage, that hewould soon go home and that his ship was ready. One of his seventh century biographers,Muirchu added nothing to Patrick's account of this matter but the other, Tirechan, added hismaster's name - Miliuc - and the place at which the angel (Patrick's 'voice') had spoken tohim - Sliab Scirit by Sliab Mis, probably Skerry rock near Slemish in Co. Antrim. An eighthcentury version of Patrick's life adds a further twist to the event: .

But Patrick replied: 'I do not think that the man I have served for many years will everlet me 'go'.The angel said to him: 'Go ahead and try, so that you may know if that man will deignto free you'. And he did so. But his master (Miliuc) replied to him: 'If you were to payme such a weight of gold' (indicating the size of a human head) "1could not even thenrelease you. for it'. . .But he went into the wilderness again, as usual, and told this to the angel. The angelsaid to him: 'Tomorrow pay attention to a certain pig among the herd. When he digs upthe earth, he will reveal the gift which you may offer for your freedom.' Which came aboutjust as he said... (VSQ)

There is an implication here that it was gold that the pig dug up. It is clear that this miraculousaddition had attached to the Patrick legend by the eighth century and I shall call the motif the'pig-finds-gold' motif and the story itself the 'escape variant' of the motif.

The ninth century Tripartite Life, probably the best known of the many biographies of Patrick,expanded this new 'escape variant' as follows:

Again Patrick betook himself to a remote place, w~ere there appeared to him an angelin the guise of a bird in the place which is called Schirec Archaille, , and to whomhe repeated Miliuc's response. The angel, however, instructed him that on the followingday he should observe the footprints of a certain pig from the herd, telling him that ina trench in the earth rooted up by it there would be found such a mass of gold as wouldfree him from the hands of hiscruel master. Patrick, acquiescing in the angel's instructions,found in the said trench no little quantity of gold - which when hebrought it to the greedymaster, being desirous of liberty, he was given permission to go, a free man, when he ,would. (TPL; trans. C Bourke).

The author of this ninth century Life (or his source, now lost to us) then added this motifof pig-finds-gold to an event that occurred much later - during Patrick's ~ission. The basicevent itself is found, in a simple and non-miraculous form (without pigs or gold), in the seventhcentury narrative by Tirechan. The version according to the Tripartite Life goes thus:

Patrick came into the territory of Corcu-Ochland to this side of the Ui Ailella Twobrothers were hiding in that place, namely Id and Hono: wizards were they. Said Honoto Patrick, 'What will you give me for that land?' 'thou hast gold: give some to mefor it.' Patrick replied, 'I have given my gold to all, but God will give me other.' He

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afterwards found a lump of gold where the swine were rooting, and Patrick gave him. that mass of gold for his land. Tir nBrotha is its name... (TPL)

I shall call this the 'land-purchase variant' of the pig-finds-gold motif.In 1177 the Anglo-Norman adventurer John de Courcy, with a few knights, took the town

of Dun da Lethglas (Downpatrick) from the over-king of the Ulaid, Ruaidri son of Cu Ulad (knownas Mac Duinnshleibe). He made what had for 600 years been the capital of the Irish Ulaid into,the capital of the new English lordship ot"Ulster. DeCourcy understood that the political statusof Dun was very strongly tied to religious stature of St. Patrick and he accordingly re-emphasisedthe traditional link between patrick and Dun (Heslip 1982). He placed an image of Patrick uponhis coins and named the new Benedictine priory on Cathedral Hill(within the ancient monastery)the 'Church of St Patrick of Dune'. He 'discovered' and enshrined the relics of Patrick, Brigitan~ Columcille 'with great ceremony and commissioned a monk at the nearby new Cistercian"abbey of Inch, one Jocelin, who had come originally from the monastary of Furness in Lancashire,to write a life of St. Patrick. Jocelin wrote in his preface that he was'told to write the life bythe Archbishop of Armagh, the Bishop of Down and John de Courcy, describing the last as 'themost illustrious. Prince of Ulidia, who is known to be the most esp'ecial admirer and honorer ofSt. Patrick'.

Jocelin drew much of his account from the earlier Irish and Latin Lives and narratives, andadded further embellishments of his own. We can be sure that he also heard traditions fromthe Irish people of the Downpatick district. The quotations from Jocelin's life given below arein the rather idiosyncratic English of its early nineteenth century translator, Edmund Swift.

At the hands of Jocelin at Dovitnpatrick the 'escape variant' became:...the Angel shewed unto Patrick an opening in the ground that had been delved up bythe swine, and therein he directed hitnto look for gold,with which he might redeem himselffromtli-e hands of his cruel master... (The Angel was) in the Mountain Mis, in the bordersof Dalnaradia, -and an Oratory.is erected there in honour of Saint Patrick....And Patrick went to the place which the Angel had pointed out unto to him, and he foundtherein. no small weight of gold:- wherefore he addressed for his ransom his hard andcruel Master, and with the offering of the yellow metal induced his mind, greedy of gold,to 'grant unto him his freedom (Jocelin) .

And the 'land-purchase variant' according to Jocelin reads:It seemed good unto the Saint to build in a certain plain a Church, wherein he might gathertogether unto God the people of his conversion; for the vvhich purpose he entreated fromthe owner of the inheritance that a place should be prepared, promising unto tiim theportion of Eternal Life..- But the man, accustomed to the Magicians' arts, held as noughtthat portion so worthy to be desired, requiring rather gold, for the which he ch~rishedan accursed appetite. And the Saint replied, that at that season gold he had none, forthat he had expended all which he had possessed in the building of Churches, and inrelieving the poor. But when he could no otherwise prevail, having first prayed, he wentunto an hole in the earth which had been delved up by swine, and therein found he asmuch gold as he required, and gave it in exchange for the land. (Jocelin)

Jocelin immediately, and quite unnecessarily, repeated the second variant:And there was another man possessing a neighbouring field, the which the Saint earnestlyentreated might be given unto the said Church. Wherefore, this man answering as evendid the other, again the Saint repaired unto the delved hole, and found therein an equalweight of gold, and gave it to the man for the purchase of his field. Thus did the Lordthrice shew unto Saint Patrick gold in the earth, delved up by swine; once of his ownredemption from captivity, twice in this place for the enrichment and endowment of a

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Church. And the latter of the two brothers, Ono by name, was touched in his heart, andnot only restored the gold unto the Saint, but even gave unto him for the founding andbuilding of a Church his own house, his inheritance, and all his substance (Jocelin).

Surprisingly, in view of the widespread borrowing of miraculous motifs by the Medievalhagiographers I have been unable to discover the pigs-find-gold theme in any of the numerousLives of the other Irish saints, nor am I aware of a biblical origin for it. Outside the Patricianstories the nearest I have come to it is gold miraculously found in the earth by St Brendan asrelated in the seventeenth century copy of his Life made by Michael O'Clery. As the 'escapevariant' is found in earlier sources than the 'Iand-purcha:;e variant' the obvious explanation wouldbe that the miraculous motif was invented de novo in the eight century to explain Patrick's escapefrom Miliuc, and later added to the less important story regarding the obtaining of land. I donot believe that this is an acceptable explanation, for it requires the motif to be drawn out ofthin air and fails to explain the fact that the motif is limited to the Patrician Lives.

I proposed in 1995, from quite other arguments, that Patrick had escaped by means of Romansilver that he had obtained locally. I realise now that I left the reader rather in the dark as tohow he might have obtained the silver - there was a sort of implication but no more. In factI was undecided whether he had discovered the silver in a hoard similar to that at Ballinreesor, and I favoured this second explanation, had stolen it from Miliuc's coffers. I had ignoredthe tradition that Patrick purchased his freedom from Miliucwith treasure that he had miraculouslydiscovered. I would now reconstruct the 'invention' of the 'escape variant' thus. I suggest thata tradition that Patrick had escaped with treasure, not to buy his freedom but to buy his passage,had survived orally until the eighth century. Perhaps the tradition also held, possibly correctly,that he had discovered this treasure in the earth. In the seventh or eighth century, I suggest,gold was discovered in the ground in a Patrician monastery. This discovery would have led toa new Patrician miracle motif - I shall call it the 'gold discovered in a Patrician context' motif.This became attached to the story of the escape through the linkage with 'treasure' in the escapestory. The pigs became the organ of this discovery in the' escape variant' because the traditioncast Patrick as a swine-herd while in captivity. This adequately explains, I believe, the 'escapevariant' of the motif. The' land-purchase variant' is very simple and requires only the attachmentof the modified basic 'gold discovered in a Patrician context' motif (that is with pigs attached).to any Patrician monastery. It is little more than a recasting of the original event which inspiredthe motif.

I will disgress at this point. Some of the stories tell how, when Miliuc had received the gold,and Patrick had been released, the gold miraculously vanished. This addition was required toprevent an inconsistency with the older tradition, found as early as Muirchu's Life and repeatedin the later narratives, that on his return to Ireland one of his first acts was to seek to redeemhimself from Mili,ucwith a ransom of gold which he brought over, according to the TripartiteLife, in a large quantity from aboard. Clearly he would have had no need to do this had the firstpayment not miraculously disappeared, thus cheating the pagan Miliuc.

I will now explore the basic 'gold discovered in a Patrician context' motif. Gold ornamentswere produced in huge numbers in the Bronze Age in Ireland (Eogan 1994), and in rather smallernumbers during the Iron Age. Present research suggests that in the Bronze Age, but probablynot in the Iron Age, the ornaments were made of Irish gold. Very large quantities of these goldobjects were ritually deposited, singly or in hoards. During the first few centuries after Christgold was rare in Ireland, but was of immense impo.rtance in the Roman empire, for jewelleryand for coinage. Roman explorers in the River Boyne area of Co. Meath seem to have discoveredsome of these gold hoards and were exporting the ancient ornaments to be melted down. Oneof their discoveries, a piece of a Late Bronze Age torque inscribed with Roman letters, was

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Someof the LateBronze Age gold ornaments found on Cathedral Hill, Downpatrick (copyrightUlster Museum).L

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deposited by them at the front of the great prehistoric tomb of Newgrange to appease the localgod (Carson & O'Kelly1977). .

In the Early Medieval period, the time between Patrick and Jocelin of Furness,goldwasinfrequently used in Ireland, and then mostly to adorn other materials. Two or three small goldingots have been discovered in Ireland, which the prehistoric gold expert Mary Cahill believesare of Early Medieval date - probably around the ninth century (personal communication). Theanalysis of two of these ingots suggests that they had been melted from Late Bronze Age gold.It therefore seems probable that BronzeAge gold ornaments were being discovered during thecenturies after Patrick and that these formed the main source of gold for royal and monasticornamental work in the Early Medieval period.

This is the point at which Downpatrick enters the story, for it was the chief place of Patrick'smission, the site of an important Patrician monastery and the place where his legend was likelyto have best survived (Warner 1995). Is there evidence that the 'gold discovered in a Patriciancontext' motif might have been stimulated by a discovery in Downpatrick? Indeed there is. Inthe 1950s, during the digging of new graves on Cathedral Hill, two hoards of Late Bronze Agegold ornaments (comprising a total of 16 items, mostly bracelets) were discovered (Proudfoot'1955 & 1957). These hoards had been buried sometime around the1 Oth century BC, and severalother ornaments of the same date have been found in the surrounding countryside. It has beensuggested that Cathedral Hillwas, at that time, a major settlement with earthwol k defences- a hillfort (Proudfott 1956). The Early Medieval monastery, with its strong Patrician connection.and perhaps even founded by Patrick,was built on precisely the same site,some time after thefifth century AD.(Brannon 1988a & b; Buchanan & Wilson ,1997): It was a place of greatimportance for several centuries, being adjacent to the capital of the Ulaid at the earthworkenclosure now called English Mount" '.

It seems unlikelythat the two hoards discovered within a short time of each other fortyyears ago were the onlygold hoards to have be,enburied on the hill,and it seems equally unlikelythat others were not unearthed during the extensive ecclesiastical building works beginning inthe eighth century or earlier. Such a discovery woul9 certainly have been sufficient to give riseto the motif, associated only with St. Patrick, of the miraculous discovery of gold.

Jocelin = Jocelin)s Life of Saint Patrick) trans. Swift, 1809.Muirchu = Muirchu)s Life of Saint Patrick, trans. de Paor, 1993, 175-197.Tirechan = Tirechan's Memoir, trans. de Paor, 1993, 154-174.TPL = Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick (Bethu Phdtraic), trans. Stokes, 1887.VSQ = Vita Secunda and Vita Quarta, trans. Byrne & Francis, 1994.

Brannon, N, 1988a, I Archaeological excavations at Cathedral Hill, Downpatrick, 1987,Lecale Miscellany, 6, 3-9.

Brannon, N, 1988b.,.'Life and death at an early monastery', Pieces of the Past (Belfast,HMSO), 61-64. .

Buchanan; R. & Wilson, H., 1997, Downpatrick (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, IrishHistoric Towns Atlas no. 8).

Byrne, F. & Francis, P., 1994, 'Two Lives of Saint Patrick: Vita Secunda and Vita Quarta',J. Royal Soc. Antiqs. Ireland, 124, 5-117.

Carson, R. & O'Kelly, C., 1977, 'A catalogue of the Roman coins from Newgrlmge...',Proc.Royal Irish Acad., 770, 35-55.

de Paor, I., 1993, Saint Patrick's World (Dublin). .

Eogan, G., 1994, The Accomplished Art (Oxford).104