25 March 2025

Some bishops attempted to have Patrick deposed. They accused him of taking bribes for baptisms and ordinations. They criticised his lack of culture. He disproved the former easily. Of his lack of culture, he said rather wisely, ‘Grace without learning is of more value than learning without grace.’

Realising that they hadn’t sufficient evidence against him, they began to scrape the barrel. Prior to his ordination, Patrick had confessed a sin to a friend ‘to whom I trusted even my soul’. The sin had been committed when he was sixteen years old.

Imagine his relief when the friend declared that he was still fit ‘to be raised to the rank of bishop’. However, this friend betrayed him. Thirty years later, he shared the secret of his sin. It was now used in evidence against him.

Patrick was deposed. Secundius was chosen to succeed him as bishop. He followed Patrick home to Connaught to break the news. Patrick was stunned. It was his dark night of the soul.

Nevertheless, he was not defeated. By his own efforts, he managed to be reinstated as bishop. He went on to build a new church on top of the hill at Armagh. There is still a cathedral there today!