An image from the new documentary I am Patrick. “If you’re looking for the real story of St Patrick, you will be able see this film and at the end of it understand this man. What he went through, facing death, his courage and his willingness to follow God to the ends of the Earth.”
These are the words executive producer Gordon Robertson uses to describe his upcoming I Am Patrick: The Patron Saint of Ireland documentary set to be released later this month.
I Am Patrick is an inspirational docudrama from CBN Films about the little-known life of Ireland’s most famous saint, which will be in US movie theatres for two days – March 17 and 18 – only.
The documentary will be available to viewers in Ireland and the UK on Netflix in time for St Patrick’s Day.
Gordon Robertson, CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), says he wants to give people an accurate understanding of who Patrick was in his new film.
“I want people to really understand his life and his calling,” Mr Robertson said. “The documentary is based almost entirely on his Confession, what he wrote about himself and also his letter to Coroticus.
“If you’re wondering who St Patrick is, you will be able see this documentary and get his version of who he is in his own words.”
He added: “We stay true to an English translation of his Confession and add one of the legends about St Patrick that was written in the 7th Century, where he lights fire on Easter – but that is the only time we depart from his actual writing.”
Shot in Ireland
Distributed by Fathom Events, I Am Patrick is written and directed by Jarrod Anderson who is co-producer along with Sarah Maunsell.
The film is shot in Ireland and Britain, and features Welsh actor John Rhys-Davies (Gimli in The Lord Of The Rings and Sallah in Indiana Jones) as the elder Patrick.
Mr Rhys-Davies has defended Christianity in the past and was quoted saying people “forget that Christian civilisation has made the world a better place than it ever was”.
The 75-year-old actor alluded to the abolition of the slave trade as one of Christianity’s “great glories”, alongside the championing of the “right of free speech” and “right of the individual conscience”.
Seán T. O’Meallaigh (Prudentius from Vikings) portrays the man Patrick, with Robert McCormack starring as the young Patrick.
“The acting in this film is first rate,” said the New York born producer, adding that “they are all named actors with lots of skill”.
“The production is all based on places shot entirely in Ireland and Britain that are reconstructed. There’s a reconstructed Irish village and those are the locations we chose, so when you see it, you’re going to be put back into the 5th Century when Patrick lived.”
On being asked why he decided to make the documentary now and not before, 61-year-old Robertson said it was because he wanted to do St Patrick “justice” by doing it “right”.
“When I first read his Confessions, I was just getting into television production. We started doing docudramas and in the past five years we got to a level where we said ‘let’s take this story on’.
“I think finally we got the script done and got to the production level that I thought we could handle in a way the topic deserved.”
He added: “St Patrick deserved our best, so we said ‘let’s get as authentic a look as we can, let’s get name actors, let’s do it justice and let’s do the story right’.”
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I Am Patrick is an 82-minute feature-length film that goes back through myth and legend to tell the true story of Patrick.
Through historical re-enactments, expert interviews and Patrick’s own writings, the docudrama traces Patrick’s journey from boy to man to saint.
The film is set in Britain in the 5th Century, when the Roman Empire was collapsing and barbarians were threatening civilisation.
A young man named Patrick lives a comfortable life as the son of a government official.
Despite being part of the Church, Patrick’s faith doesn’t mean anything to him until he is kidnapped by pirates at the age of 16 and enslaved in Ireland.
For six years, Patrick is forced to work as a shepherd and is driven to the brink of starvation. But it is here that he turns to his Christian faith.
He manages to escape and is reunited with his family in Britain only to have a prophetic dream calling him to take Christianity back to Ireland.
Against the wishes of his family, Patrick returns to Ireland as a missionary bishop and converts thousands to Christianity.
He opposes slavers, Irish kings and druids, but faces hostilities from his fellow Christians.
After a close friend exposes a dark secret of Patrick, it is believed he is ordered to leave his mission and return to Britain.
Patrick is faced with a defining life choice – obey God or man?
Reviews of the film so far have been favourable with Bill Donohue, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights president, endorsing the movie as a “treasure”.
Best-selling Catholic author Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle says I Am Patrick will “stir your heart”, while Michael Foust of online Christian magazine Crosswalk.com says it is “gripping, educational, inspiring” and a “must-watch for every Christian”.
Dan Bromwell, editor of Today’s Christian Living, encourages Christians to watch the documentary and highlights that “God isn’t looking for our ability as much as our availability”.
Mr Robertson, who has travelled the world and made documentaries about history and biblical archaeology, says the main purpose of the film is to remind us that “God still speaks” to us in the present day.
“I want people to understand that God still speaks today,” he said.
“For St Patrick his revelation of that came when he was shepherd in Ireland. He’s a slave, but he’s put in charge of flocks.
“A lot of it has to do with when you have time. If you’re St Patrick, you’re sitting on a hillside tending a flock, but you have time to mediate, you have time to pray.
“So that’s what St Patrick did for six years as a slave. He developed an intimate relationship with God and through that, incredible things happened. So that’s the takeaway: that you can have that same experience.”
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Known as the ‘Apostle of Ireland’, Patrick is one of the most famous saints in the history of the Church. Early Medieval sources credited Patrick as the first bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, referring to him as the founder of Christianity in Ireland. While details of Patrick’s life remain somewhat of a mystery, it is widely acknowledged that he was an active missionary in Ireland during the 5th Century.
Legend has it that Patrick arrived at Slane, Ireland in 433 AD and from then, there are several myths about what he did next.
Some say he banished all the snakes from the country after a 40-day fast on the top of Croagh Patrick. Others claim he spoke to ancient Celtic ancestry or that his walking stick became a living tree.
But the most prominent folklore was that he met a chieftain of a druid tribe and, after divine intervention, was able to convert him.
This enabled Patrick to preach the Gospel throughout Ireland, convert many others and build churches across the land.
Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to illustrate the Christian Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to the Irish people.
He built churches, preached and converted all of Ireland to Christianity. Patrick wrote about his life, love for God and mission in Confessions, which are found in The Book of Armagh kept in Trinity College Dublin.
He is believed to have died in the small village of Saul, where he had built the first Irish Church, on March 17 in 461 AD. The nearby town of Downpatrick, Co. Down is where he is reputedly buried.
Yale University graduate Robertson, who frequently co-hosts CBN’s The 700 Club television program, says St Patrick has been one of his “heroes” since his childhood.
“I have been inspired by the life of St Patrick for some time now,” he said.
“He became one of my heroes; I grew up celebrating St Patrick’s Day every year and thought I knew something about him. But it was not until I read his Confession 23 years ago that I got a true picture of the man.”
Missionary
Mr Robertson, who has a Juris Doctor degree from Washington and Lee University, practiced law in Virginia for 10 years before he became a missionary.
While he was in Asia, he read and got inspired by St Patrick’s story before later becoming a television producer.
He says his affiliation with St Patrick and connection to Ireland goes way back in his family tree.
“My mother is a Catholic from Ireland, my father is called Pat (short for Patrick) and my grandfather came to America from Ireland about a 100 years ago.
“I then married a girl who comes from an Irish family, her father’s name is Patrick, my brother-in-law is Patrick and my son is named Patrick, so there’s a deep connection.
“Anyone who has an Irish background owes a great debt to St Patrick,” he added.
“Without him saying ‘yes, I want to go back to Ireland’ a lot of the culture – certainly the Christian faith we share – would not have been possible if he had not said yes to that vision.”
Following his death, Patrick was largely forgotten about. But slowly the mythology around him grew, and centuries later he was honoured as the patron saint of Ireland.
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Although Patrick was never canonised by the Church, due to there being no formal canonisation process at time, he was later proclaimed a saint by popular acclaim.
The date of his death (March 17) was officially enshrined in Canon Law as a holy day by the Vatican in 1631.
Until the 1700s, St Patrick’s Day was a minor religious holiday only observed in Ireland with priests acknowledging the feast day and families having a meal.
In the US, however, St Patrick’s Day was celebrated by Irish charities and Irish immigrants with huge banquets.
The first St Patrick’s Day parade was held in Boston in 1737, followed by New York in 1762, by Irish soldiers during the US Revolutionary War and they began to flourish in the 19th Century.
As time went by, the parades became a show of pride, unity, strength and celebration of heritage for Irish communities.
Traditions like wearing the colour green (initially blue was associated with St Patrick), dying the Chicago River green (since 1962) and having a pint of Guinness became a St Patrick’s Day custom.
The event became global in 1995, when Ireland’s government began a campaign to market St Patrick’s Day as a way of driving tourism and showcasing Ireland to the world.
Today, St Patrick’s Day has evolved into the largest international celebration of Irish culture worldwide.