The SAMS Lyceum of Martial and Societal Antediluvian Chronicles an Addendum to the SAMS Sporran – March 2020
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The SAMS Lyceum of Martial and Societal Antediluvian Chronicles An addendum to The SAMS Sporran – March 2020 Saint Patrick was a Roman Born in Scotland When one says St. Patrick several images spring to mind; Ireland Green, snakes, shamrocks and leprechauns. Much of that comes under the heading of wishful thinking. According to the Online Vatican Library, The real Saint Patrick was born in Kilpatrick, Dumbarton in AD 415. His real name was Maewyn Succat. His parents were Calphurnius and Conchessa Succat. His father belonged to a Romano-Britian family of high rank and held the office of Decurion. (A decurion {Latin:decurio, plural decuriones} was a Roman cavalry officer in command of a squadron (turma) of cavalrymen in the Roman army.) Calphurnius Succat was decurion stationed at The Antionine Wall in Scotland. Conchessa was a distant relative of the patron saint of Gaul, (France) St. Martin of Tours. When he was sixteen, Maewyn (Patrick) was carried off into captivity by Irish marauders and was sold as a slave to a chieftain named Milchu in Dalriada, a territory in the present county of Antrim in Ireland. For six years he tended his master's flocks in the valley of The Braid and on the slopes of Slemish, near the modern town of Ballymena. He heard a voice telling him he would go home soon and that a boat was ready. He walked about two hundred miles and found a boat that took him back to Scotland. Following his escape, he joined the priesthood and changed his name to Patrick. At age forty three he became a bishop and asked to be sent to Ireland. Upon his arrival he sought out his former master and paid him the amount of money that was required for a replacement. The town of Kilpatrick in Scotland still retains many memorials of Saint Patrick. At Kilpatrick frequent pilgrimages were held far into the Middle Ages to perpetuate there the fame of his sanctity and miracles. Now that we have the facts about St. Patrick straight, you might be interested to know that: *St. Patrick’s Day was first celebrated by the Church of England. It was religious Holiday. *In Ireland, it was a dry holiday until AD1970. *The modern St. Patrick’s Day was entirely an Irish-American creation; which explains a lot. *The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade was held in Boston in AD1737 by Irish soldiers fighting for The British. *He did not preach using a shamrock (Gaelic for young clover). Also the shamrock is not the national symbol of Ireland. That is The Celtic Harp. *The shamrock, has three leaves and was associated with three, a sacred number in the Celtic (Druid) religion. It was also the symbol of “The Triple Goddesses”. There are many forms of the Triad or Triple Goddesses in the Celtic Religion. For example, in ancient Ireland: The Morrigan Triad was Brigid, Ériu, and Morrigan. The similarity between the Celtic Triad and the Trinity was not lost on either Patrick or the Irish which he emphasized in his evangelization. * St. Patrick did not create the Celtic Cross. That symbol had existed long before his birth. It was used to symbolise north, south, east and west… and also earth, fire, air and water. *St. Patrick did not chase the snakes form Ireland. There never were snakes there to begin with. Along with Ireland there are no snakes in New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica. You may hold that tidbit in one hand and a dollar in the other and buy a doughnut. *The original color associated with St. Patrick is blue. *“Corned” beef and cabbage, a traditional Saint Patrick’s Day staple, doesn’t have anything to do with the grain corn (It didn’t arrive in Europe until the 15th century and it was referred to as maize). Instead, it’s a nod to the large grains of salt that were historically used to cure meats, which were also known as “corns.” *There are no lady Leprechauns. Leprechauns were cobblers (shoemakers). *With all that said, it would be quite appropriate of us, on March the 17th, to say “Alba Gu Braith” Scotland Forever. Unless, of course, you are Italian (Roman) then it would be “Per Sempre Italia”, Please feel free to say this instead of Eireann Gu Braith (Ireland Forever). Scottish History As we continue our exploration of The Celtic and their influence on our modern world this month’s topic is Celtic Society. Celtic Society While the Romans viewed the Celts as barbarians, Celtic Society was far from barbarous. In point of fact it was probably much closer to that fictitious ideal democracy. It was a very organized society and controlled by strict rules. Otherwise it would not have endured for thousands of years. As the Celts moved throughout Asia Minor and Europe itself, the Celtic Culture absorbed the local tribes and their cultures. However, the Celtic Culture proved to be the dominant one providing a unified Code of Mores and Laws and a common language (more or less). That is why today someone who can speak, say, Polish can still communicate with folks for the Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania and most ‘Slavic’ countries. Before the establishment of the Roman Empire a Celtic language was spoken throughout Asia Minor and Europe, except in the Mediterrean basin. Chinese mythology even holds the Tocarians (Celts) as the founders of their civilization. The Highland Code, up holding clan loyalty and personal honesty, is a remnant of these laws. Celtic Society was divided into two parts; The Aristocracy and The Commoners. They did possess slaves but they were exclusively foreigners captured in war. The largest group - the commoners, was composed of the Tuath similar to today’s Clan. Caesar referred to them as tribes. The Tuath was further subdivided into the Fine or families. In each Fine, the oldest male of the oldest male held sway. Although even before Roman times this ‘rule’ had evolved to include females usually the wife of the deceased elder. In the Tuath the leaders of each Fine would select one among them to lead. His role was not so much as a king, but more of the wizened elder that clan members sought for guidance. Similar to the “chief” in early Native American societies. Each Fine was self-sufficient and tended to live in a small area. The Tuath was a group of genetically related Fines and as such controlled a larger area. The Tuath's were held together by the nobility, which consisted of three groups: Bards, Filids and Druids. Another “non-barbaric” concept - equality among the sexes was first practiced by the Celts or more correctly the Geadhaels. Greek mythology speaks of a warrior race of women called the Amazons. It was Herodotus who wrote of a race of warriors led by women and living north of the Black Sea about 1200 BC. Graves have been found in Kazakhstan and China holding the remains of women clothed as warriors with weapons, some have even had the trappings of leadership. In Celtic Society men and woman were known to fight together. One needs only to look at Boadicea, the adversary of the Romans in Londinium, for verification. Another Roman writer Diodorus wrote about the Celts and their “gruesome custom” of keeping severed heads in cedar boxes. Some heads were carved in stone and dried human heads were found everywhere Celts settled. This custom was anything but gruesome. Celtic people believed the head to be the home of the soul. To the Celts this was pretty much the same idea as the Romans slaughtering all the captured warriors and selling the women and children ito slavery. Herodotus, like Caesar, cited Celtic customs like the severed head and the Amazons as further evidence of their lack of civilization and therefore were gravely in need of Greco/Roman influence. One popular myth was that the Celtics worshiped trees and practiced human sacrifice led by Druid priests. It is simply that - a myth. The Celtics were Pandeists meaning they worshiped many gods, but not plants, although some gods did manifest themselves through non human entities. Although the Celtic gods and goddesses were anthropomorphic, most were associated some form of natural phenomena. This was not an uncommon idea in early times -think of Moses and the burning bush. There is no specific record of human sacrifice, nor evidence ever found. Only undocumented rumors, from Caesar through his propaganda and from Lucan, a Roman poet and avid admirer of Caesar.(One might consider Lucan as an early version of a PR man fronting for Caesar while he was away fighting. ) Many historians have written about the Celts: Greek- Herodotus of Halicarnassus (The Father of History), Hieronymus of Cardia, Hecataeus of Miletus, Dionysius of Miletus, Charon of Lampsacus, Hellanicus of Lesbos, Xanthus of Lydia. Roman- Cicero, Strabo, Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, Cato the Elder, Livy, Seneca, Sallust, Suetonius, Appian, Polybius, Flavius Josephus and even Publius Vergilius Maro (you know him as Virgil his epic work the The Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas travels, following the fall of the city of Troy- The Trojans were Celtic.). All of these historians wrote about the Celts and never once mentioned human sacrifice. Considering the length of time and extent of the Celtic Civilization (The Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans including Asia, Asia Minor and Europe) it is inconceivable that any of these Historians would have failed to mention this, if it had actually occurred. Human sacrifice was possible but not probable. In the 4,500+ year reign of the Celts only one writer mentioned human sacrifice (old Gaius Julius) therefore the inescapable conclusion is that the Celts simply did not practice this morbid ritual.