St. Patrick's Breastplate: A Reminder of the Necessity of Divine Protection

“Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity.” —St. Patrick

St. Patrick’s Day is undoubtedly a day to celebrate the rich history and culture of Ireland, but as we all are inheritors of European Christian culture, which was preserved and shaped to a very significant degree by the “Isle of Saints and Scholars,” even non-Irish people should have an interest in celebrating this holiday. And just as the word “Catholic” means universal, so every Catholic saint—including St. Patrick—is an example of holiness to the whole world, a model for every man from every country and ethnic background.

“[St. Patrick was kidnapped] from the British mainland around age 16, and shipped to Ireland as a slave. Sent to the mountains as a shepherd, he spent his time in the field in prayer. After six years of this life, he received. . .a dream in which he was commanded to return to Britain; seeing it as a sign, he escaped. He studied in several monasteries in Europe. Priest [and] Bishop. Sent by Pope Celestine to evangelize England, then Ireland. . .In 33 years [Patrick] effectively converted [Ireland]. In the Middle Ages Ireland became known as the Land of Saints, and during the Dark Ages its monasteries were the great repositories of learning in Europe, all a consequence of Patrick’s ministry.”

The prayer or “lorica” called the Breastplate of St. Patrick is a prayer Patrick wrote to ask for divine protection (hence the fact it is named after a piece of battle armor) in the 5th century while he was evangelizing Ireland. There are several reflections upon this poetic prayer that I would like to share.

Firstly, St. Patrick starts off by emphasizing the power of the “Name of the Trinity.” In our post-deconstructionist world, people seem largely divided between those who only care about words’ meaning insofar as they can force a ridiculous new definition of a word to be accepted (the LGBTQ ideology, for instance) and those who believe that words are relative and don’t have inherent meaning. Now, from the beginning of time people have understood that names have power. In Judaism, God’s name is so sacred that it was scarcely ever spoken aloud. In the Catholic tradition in which Patrick was steeped, God is to be called on by name constantly, but each use of the name has a spiritual power of invocation. St. Paul wrote (Phil. 2:10) that at the name of God, as possessed by Jesus Christ, “every knee should bow.” Patrick, by binding unto himself the Name of the Trinity, is emphasizing how powerful that name is in impacting reality.

Secondly, St. Patrick has a very short little creed worked into his prayer, a reminder every morning of why and what he was preaching. He wants to have the doctrines of his faith always fresh in his mind. What a lesson for modern Christians, who too often know next to nothing about the doctrines of their faith. Thirdly, St. Patrick invokes divine protection against all evils—spiritual and material. He knows full well that he is fighting with invisible demons as much as he is arguing with humans in his evangelizing mission. This consciousness of the constant spiritual battle raging in the universe is largely lost among moderns, who vaguely assume they are basically nice people and thus protected from all suffering by God, and also think of demons appearing or influencing them only in extraordinary circumstances.

Finally, in the most famous part of his prayer (“Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me etc.”) St. Patrick speaks to two great truths. The first is that God is everywhere—and if we love God, we will see Him in every part of His creation. Every tree and rock and child’s face will remind us of the Creator, as St. Patrick seems to indicate with his stanza glorifying creation such as the “virtues of the star lit heaven” (even those people or things we naturally may find annoying can be loved through God). The second truth is that the world has a lot of evil in it, and the only way to be sure that we will not commit sin is to surround ourselves with God’s presence and rely entirely on him. St. Paul said (Gal. 2:20), “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me.” It is a great mystery of Christianity that if Christ lives within us, and all we do is for and in and through Him, we will actually become more fully and more confidently ourselves.

“I bind unto myself today¹
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of Cherubim;
The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the Seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
Amen.

Sancte Patrícius, ora pro nobis!

[Saint Patrick, pray for us]!”²

May God bless you on this St. Patrick’s Day!

1. Note: There are multiple translations of the Lorica, some of which have lines which others do not. The version in this article is a purportedly ancient version.

2. CLICK HERE to listen to a beautiful rendition of the Lorica set to song.