In the year 432 A.D. St. Patrick arrived in Ireland to perform missionary work among the people. According to tradition the druids, who supposedly could practice magic, foretold his arrival and the very clothes that he would be wearing.
Madeline Polland stays true to this tradition as she recounts the epic tale of St. Patrick’s work in Ireland from the viewpoint of Macha, a thirteen-year-old foster daughter to the chieftain. Macha’s life is apparently laid out before her. Her mind is filled with the plans that have been set to send her back to Tara to live with her birth parents once more and to eventually marry her off to a man of her father’s choice. But Macha’s foster brother Benen feels unsure about what life has in store for him. With the unexpected arrival of St. Patrick, Benen remembers the prophecy of the druids and finds himself drawn to this man and his teachings about God. With his father’s blessing he decides to follow Patrick wherever he goes. Macha listens to Patrick as well, and vows to herself to pursue Patrick’s God. To her, this means leaving behind her family and her fiancé to follow Patrick along with Benen. This dynamic saga narrates how through a series of intertwining events Macha comes to discover God’s will for her life.
I love the depth of Polland’s writing and its descriptiveness. She transports you to another time and place. You live through the legends that you have heard told about Patrick. As far as I know, she was mainly historically accurate when it comes to the details of Patrick’s missionary strategies.
One of the well-known legends about St. Patrick that is told in “Flame over Tara” is of how he used a three-leaved shamrock plant to explain the Triune nature of God. I find that whenever anybody attempts to fully describe this truth about God it is easy to veer off into your own thinking; simplifying something that is unexplainable. What does the Bible say about the Trinity? Shouldn’t we test everything against God’s word?
What else about the way St. Patrick communicated to the Irish people about God do you agree with or disagree with?
Story Starter Ideas:
- Imagine you are a person witnessing the arrival of St. Patrick or listening to him teach. What are your thoughts and emotions?
- Research his life in Ireland further. Reconstruct one of his experiences into a piece of historical fiction.
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