St Patrick's Breastplate
Faed Fiada
I bind me today,
God's might to direct me,
God's power to protect me,
God's wisdom for learning,
God's eye for discerning,
God's ear for hearing,
God's word for my clearing.
God's hand for my cover,
God's path to pass over,
God's buckler to guard me,
God's army to ward me,
Against snares of the devil,
Against vice's temptation,
Against wrong inclination,
Against men who plot evil,
Anear, or afar, with many or few.
Christ near,
Christ here,
Christ be with me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
Christ over me,
Christ before me.
Christ in the left and the right,
Christ hither and thither,
Christ in the sight,
Of each eye that shall seek me,
In each ear that shall hear,
In each mouth that shall speak me, - Christ not the less,
In each heart I address.
I bind me today on the Triune - I call,
With faith in the Trinity - Unity - God over all.
Used as a Lorica ( a spell or incantation for you New Age
pagan folk ) for protection by St. Patrick from the pagan Druids that lay in
ambush to intercept and kill him and his companions on their way to the king's
court. They did not see Patrick pass, only a doe followed by her twenty fawns.
Hence the name, "Deer's Cry".
This is not to say that Patrick was a Christian Druid (and
yes, he did wear the Druid tonsure later in his life). Quite the contrary,
Patrick's heart may well have been Irish but his teachings were strictly Roman
(after all, he was sent by Rome). The Celtic Church simply did not exist during
his time. It wasn't until Rome abandoned Britain, and the resulting isolation
from the Roman Church that the Celtic Church took on its own identity. Many of
the stories about Patrick had been "enhanced" by the Christian Druids and
successive writers so one has to be careful about such interpretations.
St Patrick - Finn McCool
- Oisin