St. Pat and the Witches
Jenny
jennyg@compuserve.com
Sat Mar 13 14:52:58 1999
St. Patrick has a terrible reputation amongst modern Pagans -- and an undeserved one, in my opinion.  All kinds of "horrors" are blamed on him.  The myth of how he drove out the snakes is twisted about and turned into a story of how he attacked Druids/Witches/etc.  Kisma Stepanich (_Faerie Wicca_) even says he introduced Protestantism to Ireland... (I know some Irish Catholics who'd consider that grounds for justifiable homicide... <g>)*p*So as St. Patrick's Day approaches, I thought I'd break with tradition and say something NICE about the guy.*p*St. Patrick (or his early followers) actually wrote one of the first laws protecting witches from persecution.  The Synod of St. Patrick states that there are no such thing as blood-drinking witches, and anyone who accuses a person of this will be driven from the Church until he removes the charge:*p*"A Christian who believes that there is a lamia in the world, that is to say, a witch, is to be anathematized;  whoever lays that reputation upon a living being, shall not be received into the Church until he revokes with his own voice the crime that he has committed and accordingly does penance with all diligence."*p*The Synod's date is contested.  Most scholars believe it comes from the 7th century, however a sizeable minority believe it actually was written by St. Patrick.*p*