March 17, 2024 / 04:53 PM
Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, is one of the most popular saints, as he was a bishop and a great missionary. However, few know that one of his great legacies is his testimonial letter about slavery and that on one occasion he issued a sincere plea on behalf of girls and boys kidnapped to be enslaved.
In the “Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus,” St. Patrick intended to shame Coroticus, a 5th-century general, whose soldiers, in the saint’s words, were “stained in blood, with the blood of innocent Christians, whose number I have given birth to in God and confirmed in Christ.”
Furthermore, he denounced that the soldiers “distributed themselves to the defenseless baptized women as prizes” and said that he did not know what saddened him more: the dead, the captured or the enslavers themselves, “those whom the devil trapped so deeply.”