20/06/2022
A Laochra! 英雄たちよ！Heroes!
Ireland has an unusual path in coming to Christianity and very different from most other places. Most countries or regions arrive at a majority Christian population due to a history of sacrifice and persecution.
In Ireland however the native population is known to have accepted Christianity exceptionally well due to its erstwhile stoic nature. Early belief aligned seamlessly with the idea of valor and virtue that was followed by the warriors and nobility of the day. In the end Ireland converted, famously with the help of St. Patrick and without the need for any mass blood-letting, even though it still remains a signature path to the faith’s uptake in most other regions or countries.
As such Ireland lasted many centuries without a martyrology and instead poured endless droves of devout, insightful and charitable souls across the land, into neighboring Britain and then into the European mainland, not to mention all those even up into the 20th century.
However Ireland does enter periods of great darkness, and even though it surpassed the Viking onslaught beginning in the 700s the period that Ireland’s begins to write its martyrology isn’t until the 16th century, when England’s King Henry VIII’s breakaway from Rome and his subsequent mission against the monasteries begins a torrent of violence and opportunistic blood-lust lasting through his daughter’s reign and for centuries beyond.
Today is the feast of those Irish Martyrs and Confessors. It commemorates those that professed their faith with the highest sacrifice, and it would be remiss of us to not recognize the coming together of both honest heroism and the height of Gaelic courage in the face of such overwhelming odds, so that they might secure their salvation and shine a light of integrity to the rest of us, their legacy, years later.
On a lighter note, hero, it’s also Monday so get cracking!
Ná déan nós agus ná brís nós!
R
