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Area: Nurturing |
Topic: Caregiver
Mentors |
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Article:
St. Patrick Biography
Underwritten
by ______
(Would you like to have your company, organization
or your name listed here?) |
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Dear Friends: This website is
inactive and is being maintained as only an archive site. Please
join us at our new site,
www.collectingconsort.com
You will find the following files at
our new site. All of these files can be accessed from: www.collectingconsort.com.
The St. Patrick Biography from this page
has been remastered and is available as an audio file (story told with
instrumental backing) and text file at:
http://www.collectingconsort.com/em_card_2_28_5_st_pat.htm
You will also find a beautiful recording of Danny
Boy along with the history of this song (text and audio file) at
http://www.collectingconsort.com/em_card_2_25_5_danny_boy.htm
Both these recordings are excerpted from our
Spirit Within St. Patrick's Day Special program that we produced for
National Public Radio in 1998. Audio and text files for this program
are available at:
http://www.collectingconsort.com/live_broadcast_3_98.htm
(Free MP3 audio download from the Collecting Consort)(no
longer available. Go to
http://www.collectingconsort.com/em_card_2_28_5_st_pat.htm)
A few words from Anne &
Gary:
Several years ago, we (our music
ensemble, the Collecting Consort) put together a one hour radio special
for public broadcasting and commercial radio stations.
Our desire for this program was to
portray St. Patrick's Day and the Irish people as being worthy of more
than "The wearin' of the Green" and drinking green beer.
To this end, we combined the history of Ireland, stories of the Land of Erin, along with Irish music to create a portrait of their contribution to
the world.
One of the most meaningful portions of that program was this biographical sketch of St.
Patrick.
We hope you enjoy this special St.
Patrick's Day treat featuring the Collecting Consort.
Anne is playing the Celtic harp, Tony Patterson did our keyboard work,
arranging and composed the middle composition. Nora Anderson is
featured on the English horn and oboe, and I (Gary) am doing the
narration.
We are sharing it here as a free MP3
download.
MP3 St. Pat
Audio Download
Instructions |
(no longer available.
Go to
http://www.collectingconsort.com/em_card_2_28_5_st_pat.htm)
Click here to download ST. PATRICK
BIOGRAPHY and then click on "Open from current location".
This selection is nine minutes long and will take quite a while to
download.
Email us at share@caregivercompanion.com
Let us know how this download works for you, and if you would like us to
provide more in the future.
| More Collecting
Consort Recordings |
If you are new to Collecting Consort
recordings, and you like what you hear, check out our other creative efforts
(most of them contain music without narration) at: COLLECTING
CONSORT RECORDINGS
For those of you who do not have the
capacity to download and play back this audio file, we have included the
script from this recording and a picture of St. Patrick below.
| Wales in the Fifth
Century |
A
beautiful spring morning opened as the sun broke through the dreary damp
clouds which had covered the harbor in Wales for so many days. It was the
beginning of the 5th century, and much of the British Isles was occupied
and ruled by the Romans.
16 year
old Maewyn was the son of Calphurnius, a high Roman official in Wales.
Their family lived a rich and noble life. Maewyn had little responsibility
and spent most of his time watching the boats and sailors from many lands
as they came and went from the harbor.
This
morning, he was taking in the warmth of the sun, lying on the hill high
above the harbor. His mind was engrossed by the freedom of birds as they
explored the currents of air along the cliffs, and the essence of spring
was present in the beautiful smell of the delicate yellow flowers around
him.
Maeywn's
curiosity was drawn to a fleet of small ships sailing through the narrows
and dropping anchor in the harbor. But something seemed unusual and wrong.
He realized the ships were not friendly.
Fearing
for his family, he ran down the hill toward their home as the warriors
began looting and burning the town. Even with the energy and strength of a
sixteen year old, he was no match for the invaders, and he soon found
himself bound with course ropes and thrown into the bottom of a boat. The
speech of his kidnappers told him he was a captive of warriors from
Ireland.
After a
few hours in the hold with the sea tossing him about, he was brought on
deck to discover a strange land. Instead of recognizing beautiful
buildings and homes with paved streets and people with his religious
beliefs, he found the gloom of mud huts and a primitive people dressed in
dirty animal skins and worshiping Pagan deities.
Because
of his age and strength, Maewyn was sold to a king in Northern Ireland.
His next six years were spent wearing a sheepskin tunic with a shaved
head, the marks of a shepherd slave. Lacking the comforts and pleasures of
his home in Wales, Maewyn's new existence was an important next step for
his future. He was forced to live a life of isolation in the wild. He
found himself becoming spiritually in tune with the wholeness of the
earth, and he turned more and more to meditation and prayer to fill his
lonely hours.
After
several years of this deprivation, he experienced a vision that told him
he would escape on a boat. Walking 2 hundred miles to the south, he found
a boat leaving for Wales. Homecoming was a unbelievable shock. Wales was
in ruins, and there was no sign of the Roman culture in which he had been
raised.
Then
Maewyn had another vision, and he felt the people of Ireland calling him
back to help them. To answer this call, he undertook 20 years of training
studying the scriptures, administration skills, and construction
techniques so he might return to Ireland as a Catholic bishop. Given the
name of Patrick by the church, he would become the spiritual leader that
turned the people of Ireland to a more peaceful and civilized life.
SEND
this article on St. Patrick to a friend.
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This page is
underwritten by ___________
(Would you like to have your company, organization or your
name listed here?)
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Other Caregiver Mentor articles:
The story of
Francis of Assisi's
journey to the Holy Lands on a peace mission during the 5th Crusade.
3/16/03
Free MP3 audio
download of the Prayer
of Francis Assisi
read by Gary with Anne providing a musical
background with her Celtic Harp. 3/16/03
St.
Valentine (The history
and legend behind this saint and the celebration of his day) 2 min.
02/07/01
Albert
Schweitzer,
a short biography on this
medical missionary, (2 min.) 01/04/01
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