Once again, March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, is here with us. In the Owerri Catholic Archdiocese, Catholics will celebrate. Significantly, old boys of St. Patrick’s College, Ikot Ansa, Calabar(SPACO), wherever they may be, will celebrate in a special way in honour of St. Patrick, the pre-eminent missionary, the apostle of Ireland and patron saint of Nigeria after whom their great alma mater is named. So too will people celebrate where there is any trace of Irish tradition in the world. In particular, people of Irish origin will parade in honour of Saint Patrick on O’Connel Street in Dublin and on 5th Avenue in New York City, United States of America.

Who was St. Patrick?

“The greatest Irish man of them all was in fact not Irish by birth. He was really cosmopolitan, which explains his universal popularity.

His father, Carlphurnius, was Roman Governor of Britain, which accounts for the fact that some English (Praise God ) have evoked his protection. His mother, Conchessa, was French, which gives that nation their right to him. At sixteen he was kidnapped by Vikings, so Norwegians and Swedes say he was one of their own. They, in turn, sold him as a slave to an Irish chieftain. Six years later he escaped to France, studied under Bishop Germain of Auxerre and was ordained to the priesthood. After a brief missionary career in England, he was consecrated bishop by Maximus of Turin, which gives Italians some kind of hold on him, and a German Pope, Celestine, sent him officially to Ireland.

He consecrated 350 bishops, ordained over 5,000 priests, built more than 700 churches, transformed Ireland from paganism to Christianity in 30 years, and rid Ireland of snakes”

In Nigeria, the disciples of St. Patrick, the Irish missionaries, did a marvelous job in bringing the gospel to the country. We must mention particularly, Rev. Frs. of the St. Patrick Missionary Society of Ireland. In this connection, it is interesting to know that the idea of starting the St. Patrick Missionary Society of Ireland was conceived in Emekuku.

In February 1920, Bishop Joseph Shanahan, faced with the task of evangelizing Igboland, appealed to the ordination class in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Ireland, for volunteers to come and help him spread the news of Jesus Christ in Southern Nigeria. A young man, Pat Whitney, answered that call and wrote in his diary, “The appeal went to my heart. If I can, I will go. God direct me. By St. Patrick’s Day I will decide.” True to his resolve, on St. Patrick’s Day March 17, he decided for Nigeria and landed there on 15, December 1920. On December 23, 1921, sitting in the village of Emekuku in Southern Nigeria, Fr. Pat Whitney wrote in his diary “I’ve thought out a stunt of Maynooth Nigeria Diocese, and I am going to submit to His Lordship. If he approves, we shall aim at getting an organization set up at once in Ireland…..I wonder what will become of it.”

Thus began the dream of a St. Patrick Missionary Society in the mind of the 27-year old Irish priest. His dream was given shape on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1932 when St Patrick Missionary Society was born in Kiltegan, Ireland with only three founding members, Pat Whitney, 38, Frank Whitney, 39, and Francis Hickey, 46.

The year 2007 marked the 75th anniversary of  St. Patrick Missionary Society which the society celebrated on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2007 in St. Patrick’s College, Ikot Ansa, Calabar, one of the greatest institutions founded by the society. God works through man. And so we have it that Msgr. James Moynay, who later became the first Bishop of Calabar, pursuant to the philosophy of Bishop Shanahan that the wisest instrument of evangelization was the school, founded Sacred Heart College, Calabar in 1934, that was renamed St. Patrick’s College on St. Patrick’s day, March 17, 1943.

Apart from the building of health and educational institutions in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, St. Patrick Missionary Society has a House of Formation in Ijebu Ode. But the greatest achievement of the society is the propagation in Nigeria and other lands in the world of the seed that St, Patrick planted in Ireland more than 1,500 years ago, re-creating, re-generating, and re-fashioning old ways and thought, forging for humanity a new bond of universal brotherhood, a new perspective which reminds people that service to one’s nation involves 99% of duty and only 1% of rights and privileges. It was on this philosophy that Saint Patrick’s College, Ikot Ansa, Calabar (SPACO), was founded in 1934 by the late Msgr. James Moynah, a Priest of the St. Patrick Society, who later became the first Bishop of Calabar, to give a religious, moral and intellectual education to boys. Although SPACO was located in Calabar, it made its greatest impact in Igboland which was its largest catchment area. For example, of the 80 students, including this writer, admitted into Class 2 in January 1945 in SPACO, 64 were  Igbos. Of this 64, 19 came from the Orata clan of the old Owerri Division now made up of Owerri Municipal, Owerri North and Owerri West Local Government areas of Imo State.

As we celebrate the feast of St.Patrick, let us always invoke his prayers to guide our lives. That is why I have chosen to end this presentation with the Breastplate of St Patrick:

“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 lie 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 every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.”

Comments

comments