The World of Patrick’s Breastplate: Seeing through the Eyes of a Medieval Prayer

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendour of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

This stanza connects us to the rest of creation. While animals are not mentioned here, we still see that everything from sun to rocks is part of the strength through which we arise today. This is something we normally see as emblematic of “Celtic Christianity” that it is important to stop and remember that this simply good Christian theology. God pervades all of reality; he upholds and sustains it. These things by virtue of their existence (and thus their truth, goodness, and beauty) participate in God who is the source of all existence. Thus can we pray by them or with them and they can contribute (I think actively) to the strength by which we arise today.

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me.
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak to me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me
From snares of devils,
From temptation of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

Here we begin a more explicit lorica section. Before we have been arising in the strength of God and creation. Now we are asking for direction and protection. I think it possible to read this section as a reference to the Holy Spirit, but it is not explicit. More important is the belief that both devils (and I think here vices ought to be read as personal beings, as a category of devil) and humans will seek to harm us and that we need God’s protection from them. Even more interesting is the implicit belief that humans can, in some way, cause us harm from which we might need protection from a distance. That is, this prayer is not exclusively concerned with protection from harm of people right in front us, but from far away, implying both physical and spiritual hurts can be dispensed from a distance.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.

I take “these powers” to mean all the things in whose (or through whose) strength we have arisen today. Again here we see something of the world this author inhabited. This is a world of “magic,” a world where those who align themselves with the devils (whether implicitly or explicitly) can have real effects on my person. Here we can see something of Taylor’s “porous self.” These people are permeable and may do harm to me body or soul. And so the author of this prayer invokes God and his creation (insofar as it participates in him) to protect us from those who pervert God’s creation. You can see that this conception of evil is that of perversion or privation in the way it inverts many of the categories from the third stanza (interestingly this is the sixth stanza). We prophets in both, I think the pagandom reference ought to refer us back to the patriarchs (those who followed God before the incarnation); heretics to the apostles (those who established, not perverted, the faith; idolatry to the confessors (those who died rather than worship idols); and women, smiths, and wizards to the innocent virgins and righteous men.

Christ to shield me today,
Against poisoning, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So there come to me abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lied down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye of every one who sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

Here we get to the proper shielding. Christ is invoked to pervade our entire life. To protect us from natural hurts inflicted by creation in general or humans in particular (but hurts, it would seem of a rather mundane kind as opposed to those listed in the preceding stanza). Christ is invoked to be where he already is, namely everywhere. I also see something evangelistic in the prayer that Christ be in the mind, eye, mouth, and ear of everyone who encounters the one who prays. While obviously some of this is so that the pray-er is protected, I cannot help but think some of it has to do with the hope of salvation for the one who is being prayed about.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

And so the prayer ends where it began, with an invocation of the Trinity. Reminding us again that God is the beginning, middle, and end of all things, not least of which is our lives.

The world of “The Lorica” is one, as Gerard Manley Hopkins would say, that is “charged with the grandeur of God.” The Holy Trinity pervades every aspect not only of our lives but of both immaterial and material creation. He can protect us (unless he wills otherwise) from the hurts of those who pervert his creation. He is in and around us everywhere. And he can be met in anyone. I think we ought to take this prayer as a challenge. It ought to challenge us to see the world a little differently. Not as simply divided between natural and supernatural, but as pervaded, as intertwined with God and with immaterial creation. I hope too that it will be effective, that praying this prayer will help protect us as it teaches us too.

Sincerely,
David