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Secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious (or irreligious) values and secular institutions. Secularization thesis refers to the belief that as societies "progress", particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance.^[1] The term secularization is also used in the context of the lifting of the monastic restrictions from a member of the clergy.^[2]

Secularization has many levels of meaning, both as a theory and a historical process. Social theorists such as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, and Émile Durkheim, postulated that the modernization of society would include a decline in levels of religiosity. Study of this process seeks to determine the manner in which, or extent to which religious creeds, practices and institutions are losing social significance. Some theorists argue that the secularization of modern civilization partly results from our inability to adapt broad ethical and spiritual needs of mankind to the increasingly fast advance of the physical sciences.^[3]

The term also has additional meanings, primarily historical and religious.^[4] Applied to church property, historically it refers to the seizure of monastic lands and buildings by anti-clerical European governments during the 18th and 19th centuries, which resulted in the expulsion and suppression of the religious communities which occupied them (see Kulturkampf). Otherwise, secularization involves the abandonment of goods by the Church where it is sold to purchasers after the government seizes the property, which most commonly happens after reasonable negotiations and arrangements are made. In Catholic canon law, the term can also denote the permission or authorization given for a member of a religious Order to live outside his or her religious community or monastery, either for a fixed or permanent period.^[5]

Background[link]

Secularization is sometimes credited both to the cultural shifts in society following the emergence of rationality and the development of science as a substitute for superstition — Max Weber called this process, "the disenchantment of the world" — and to the changes made by religious institutions to compensate. At the most basic stages, this begins with a slow transition from oral traditions to a writing culture that diffuses knowledge. This first reduces the authority of clerics as the custodians of revealed knowledge. As the responsibility for education has moved from the family and community to the state, two consequences have arisen:

• the collective conscience as defined by Durkheim is diminished; and
• through the fragmentation of communal activities, religion becomes more a matter of individual choice rather than an observed social obligation.

A major issue in the study of secularization is the extent to which certain trends such as decreased attendance at places of worship indicate a decrease in religiosity or simply a privatization of religious belief, where religious beliefs no longer play a dominant role in public life or in other aspects of decision-making.

The issue of secularization is discussed in various religious traditions. The government of Turkey is an often cited example, following the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate and foundation of the Turkish republic in 1923. This established popular sovereignty in a secular republican framework, in opposition to a system whose authority is based on religion. As one of many examples of state modernization, this shows secularization and democratization as mutually re-enforcing processes^{[citation needed]}, relying on a separation of religion and state. In expressly secular states like India, it has been argued that the need was to legislate for toleration and respect between quite different religions, and likewise, the secularization of the West was a response to drastically violent intra-Christian feuds between Catholicism and Protestantism. Some have therefore argued that Western and Indian secularization is radically different in that it deals with autonomy from religious regulation and control. Considerations of both tolerance and autonomy are relevant to any secular state.

Definitions[link]

John Sommerville (1998) outlined six uses of the term secularization in the scientific literature. The first five are more along the lines of 'definitions' while the sixth is more of a 'clarification of use':^[6]

1. When discussing macro social structures, secularization can refer to differentiation: a process in which the various aspects of society, economic, political, legal, and moral, become increasingly specialized and distinct from one another.
2. When discussing individual institutions, secularization can denote the transformation of a religious into a secular institution. Examples would be the evolution of institutions such as Harvard University from a predominantly religious institution into a secular institution (with a divinity school now housing the religious element illustrating differentiation).
3. When discussing activities, secularization refers to the transfer of activities from religious to secular institutions, such as a shift in provision of social services from churches to the government.
4. When discussing mentalities, secularization refers to the transition from ultimate concerns to proximate concerns. E.g., individuals in the West are now more likely to moderate their behavior in response to more immediately applicable consequences rather than out of concern for post-mortem consequences. This is a personal religious decline or movement toward a secular lifestyle.
5. When discussing populations, secularization refers to broad patterns of societal decline in levels of religiosity as opposed to the individual-level secularization of (4) above. This understanding of secularization is also distinct from (1) above in that it refers specifically to religious decline rather than societal differentiation.
6. When discussing religion, secularization can only be used unambiguously to refer to religion in a generic sense. For example, a reference to Christianity is not clear unless one specifies exactly which denominations of Christianity are being discussed.

Opposition[link]

Abdel Wahab Elmessiri (2002) outlined two meanings of the secularization term:

1. Partial Secularization: which is the common meaning of the word, and expresses "The separation between religion and state".
2. Complete Secularization: this definition is not limited to the partial definition, but exceeds it to "The separation between all (religion, moral, and human) values, and (not just the state) but also to (the human nature in its public and private sides), so that the holiness is removed from the world, and this world is transformed into a usable matter that can be employed for the sake of the strong".

Sociological use and differentiation[link]

As studied by sociologists, one of the major themes of secularization is that of "differentiation": the tendency for areas of life to become more distinct and specialized as a society becomes modernized. European sociology, influenced by anthropology, was interested in the process of change from the so-called primitive societies to increasingly advanced societies. In the U.S., the emphasis was initially on change as an aspect of progress, but Talcott Parsons refocused on society as a system immersed in a constant process of increased differentiation, which he saw as a process in which new institutions take over the tasks necessary in a society to guarantee its survival as the original monolithic institutions break up. This is a devolution from single, less differentiated institutions to an increasingly differentiated subset of institutions.^[7]

Following Parsons, this concept of differentiation has been widely applied. As phrased by Jose Casanova, this "core and the central thesis of the theory of secularization is the conceptualization of the process of societal modernization as a process of functional differentiation and emancipation of the secular spheres – primarily the state, the economy, and science – from the religious sphere and the concomitant differentiation and specialization of religion within its own newly found religious sphere." Casanova also describes this as the theory of "privatization" of religion, which he partially criticizes.^[8] While criticizing certain aspects of the traditional sociological theory of secularization, however, David Martin argues that the concept of social differentiation has been its "most useful element."^[9]

Institutional secularization[link]

In most Western countries, government, the not-for-profit sector and the private sector have taken over the provision of social welfare functions, but in Germany, secularization has not occurred to the same degree. There are still about 100,000 Church-based charitable foundations providing services from pre-school education to health care for the elderly, making the two major Churches the second largest employers after government. This is funded partly by the Churches out of their own revenues, with the balance coming from general tax revenue. Critics argue that by allowing the Churches to play such a major role, the State is breaching its duty of neutrality under Article 4 of the Grundgesetz, and they consider it inappropriate for such heavy subsidies to be given to the Churches. For their part, the Churches see this work as a natural part of their Christian mission. (On the extensive secularization in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century, see German Mediatization)

Current issues in the study of secularization[link]

At present, secularization as understood in the West, is being debated in the sociology of religion. Some scholars (e.g. Rodney Stark, Peter Berger) have argued that levels of religiosity are not declining, while other scholars (e.g. Mark Chaves, N. J. Demerath) have countered by introducing the idea of neo-secularization, which broadens the definition of secularization to include the decline of religious authority.

In other words, rather than using the proportion of irreligious apostates as the sole measure of secularity, neo-secularization argues that individuals increasingly look outside of religion for authoritative positions. Neo-secularizationists would argue that religion has diminishing authority on issues such as birth control, and argue that religion's authority is declining and secularization is taking place even if religious affiliation may not be declining in the U.S. (a debate still taking place).^{[citation needed]}

Finally, some claim that demographic forces offset the process of secularization, and may do so to such an extent that individuals can consistently drift away from religion even as society becomes more religious. This is especially the case in societies like Israel (with the ultra-Orthodox and religious zionists) where committed religious groups have several times the birth rate of seculars. The religious fertility effect operates to a greater or lesser extent in all countries, and is amplified in the West by religious immigration. For instance, even as native whites became more secular, London, England has become more religious in the past 25 years as religious immigrants and their descendants have increased their share of the population.^[10]

See also[link]

External links[link]

• Definition of Secularization at Garethjmsaunders.co.uk
• Secularization Theory: The Course of a Concept

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Berger, Peter. The Sacred Canopy. (1967)
• Berger, Peter. The Desecularization of the World. (2000)
• Bruce, Steve. Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedrals to Cults
• Bruce, Steve. God is Dead: Secularization in the West. (2002)
• Casanova, Jose. Public Religions in the Modern World. (1994)
• Chaves, M. Secularization As Declining Religious Authority. Social Forces 72(3):749–74. (1994)
• Ellul, Jacques. The New Demons.
• Gauchet, Marcel. The Disenchantment of the World. (1985/tr. 1997)
• Martin, David. A General Theory of Secularization. New York: Harper & Row. (1979).
• Sommerville, C. J. "Secular Society Religious Population: Our Tacit Rules for Using the Term Secularization. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37 (2):249–53. (1998)
• Said, E. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin. (1978).
• Skolnik, Jonathan and Peter Eli Gordon, eds., New German Critique 94 (2005)Special Issue on Secularization and Disenchantment
• Stark, Rodney, Laurence R. Iannaccone, Monica Turci, and Marco Zecchi. How Much Has Europe Been Secularized? Inchiesta 32(136):99–112. (2002)
• Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Harvard University Press. (2007)
• Warrier, Maya. Processes of Secularisation in Contemporary India: Guru Faith in the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission, Modern Asian Studies (2003)
• Abdelwahab Elmessiri, Dar Al-Shorok, "The Partial Secularization and The Complete Secularization", "العلمانية الجزئية و العلمانية الشاملة"

Kenneth Alfred Ham (born 20 October 1951) is a prominent Australian young-Earth creationist^[1][2] and advocate for a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis.^[3]

Biography[link]

Ken Ham obtained a bachelor's degree in Applied Science, with emphasis in Environmental Biology, through the Queensland Institute of Technology and, in order to begin teaching science in Australian public schools, a diploma in Education from the University of Queensland.^[4][5][6] On 30 December 1972, he married Marilyn ("Mally"),^[7] whom he describes as a "very, very submissive, supportive wife" who has "always supported me five million percent."^[8] The Ham couple have five children — four are married and one lives with them in the Cincinnati area and have seven grandchildren.^[5] In 1979, Ham co-founded what was to be later known as the Creation Science Foundation (CSF) in Queensland, Australia with John Mackay.^[9][10][11]

Answers in Genesis' Creation Museum.

Ham worked for the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), a leading young-Earth organisation.^[12] In 1994, with the assistance of what is now Creation Ministries International (Australia), Ham and colleagues Mark Looy and Mike Zovath set up Creation Science Ministries, later renamed Answers in Genesis.^[13] The Christian ministry specialises in young Earth creationism and promotes the belief that the initial chapters in Genesis should be taken as literally true and historically accurate.^[14] He then began raising "tens of millions of dollars" to build the ministry.^[15]

He has been awarded two honorary degrees: In 1997 from Temple Baptist College in Cincinnati, Ohio and in 2004 from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.^[5]On 28 May 2007 the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum opened in Petersburg, Kentucky, a project which cost $27 million. The necessary funds were donated throughout the 1990s.^[16] It is about 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m²)^[17]

In May 2007, Creation Ministries International (CMI) filed a lawsuit against Ham and AiG in the Supreme Court of Queensland seeking damages and accusing him of deceptive conduct in his dealings with the Australian organization. Members of the ministry were "concern[ed] over Mr Ham's domination of the ministries, the amount of money being spent on his fellow executives and a shift away from delivering the creationist message to raising donations."^[11] According to the CMI website, this dispute was amicably settled in April 2009.^[18] In 2008, Ham appeared in Bill Maher's comedy-documentary Religulous.^[19] In a press release AiG criticized the movie for what it called Maher's "dishonesty last year in gaining access to the Creation Museum and AiG President Ken Ham."^[20]

In March 2011, the Board of Great Homeschool Conventions, Inc. voted to "disinvite" Ham and AiG from "all future conventions" due to Ham's words about other Christians being "unnecessary, ungodly, and mean-spirited statements that are divisive at best and defamatory at worst."^[21][22][23] AiG responded: "It is sad that a speaker and ministry, which stand boldly and uncompromisingly on the authority of God’s Word, are eliminated from a homeschool convention."^[22] Ham hosts Answers. . . with Ken Ham, a 90-second radio program broadcast daily on over 600 radio stations worldwide and the Internet^[24] featuring Ham's commentary on issues.^[25]

Beliefs[link]

As a young Earth creationist, Ham believes that the universe was created about 6,000 years ago, and that Noah's flood occurred about 4,500 years ago in the year 2348 BC.^[26] He believes that the animals carried on Noah's ark produced the biological diversity observed on Earth. Ham also believes that dinosaurs co-existed with modern humans. He supports his view with biblical scripture.^[27] Ham accepts that natural selection can give rise to a number of species from an original population, by Mendelian recombination of already existing genes, but that new genes cannot arise from mutations, because this would be "adding information" (he claims that only intelligence can cause a beneficial mutation). Mutations and natural selection can only "remove preexisting information."^[28] All of these species are of the same kind, and no new kind can arise from this process.^{[citation needed]}

Ham does not trust radiometric dating, which is a well-established technique, the accuracy of which is accepted by nearly all scientists,^[29] used to date objects such as moon rocks, fossils and human artifacts.^[30] Since 1989, Ham has frequently made the comment, "Were you there?" regarding the origins of life and evolution,^[31] implying that knowledge of unwitnessed events is inferential and not observational. Talk.origins responded that the evidence for evolution "was there", asserting the necessity to continue the task of scientific inquiry, though missing Ham's concern for "observational science"^[32] In 2005, The Daily Show poked fun at Ham's question.^[33]

Ham believes that there is a difference between facts, and interpretation of facts. "Creationists and evolutionists, Christians and non-Christians, all have the same evidence—the same facts. Think about it: we all have the same earth, the same fossil layers, the same animals and plants, the same stars—the facts are all the same. The difference is in the way we all interpret the facts. And why do we interpret facts differently? Because we start with different presuppositions; these are things that are assumed to be true without being able to prove them. These then become the basis for other conclusions. All reasoning is based on presuppositions (also called axioms). This becomes especially relevant when dealing with past events."^[34]

Ham's beliefs and tactics have been criticized by other Christians and old earth creationists. Answers in Creation, an old Earth creationist website, has called Ham willfully ignorant of evidence for an old earth, and said that he "deliberately misleads" his audiences on matters of both science and theology.^[35] Astronomer Hugh Ross, a progressive creationist, has debated Ham and other Answers In Genesis staff^[36] regarding the compatibility of an old Earth with the Bible.^[37] BioLogos has also responded to Ken Ham's criticisms of their viewpoint.^[38]

Bibliography[link]

• Ham, Ken (1987). The Lie: Evolution. Green Forest: Master Books. ISBN 0-89051-158-6. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ken Ham at Answers in Genesis

Japanese people
日本人

Lady Murasaki • Nobunaga • Ieyasu • Emperor Meiji Hirobumi • Akiko • Hideki • Akihito Samurai during Boshin War • contemporary family
Total population
About 130,000,000
Regions with significant populations
Japan   127 million
Significant overseas populations in:  Brazil 1,500,000 [17]  United States 1,204,205 [18]  China (PRC) 131,534 [19]      Hong Kong 21,297 [20]  Philippines 120,000 [21]  Canada 98,900 [22]  Peru 90,000 [23]  Australia 71,013 [24]  United Kingdom 63,017 [25]  Thailand 45,805 [26]  Germany 36,960 [27]  Argentina 34,000 [28]  France 30,947 [29]  South Korea 28,320 [30]  Singapore 23,000 [31]  Taiwan (ROC) 20,373 [32]  Micronesia 20,000 [33]  Mexico 20,000 [34]  Bolivia 14,000 [35]  New Zealand 13,447 [36]  Italy 12,156 [37]  Indonesia 11,263 [38]  Vietnam 9,468 [39]  Malaysia 9,142 [40]  Switzerland 8,499 [41]  New Caledonia 8,000 [42]  Spain 7,046 [43]  Netherlands 6,616 [44]  Belgium 6,519 [45]  Marshall Islands 6,000 [46]  Palau 5,000 [47]
Languages
Japanese
Religion
Shinto and Buddhism view talk edit

This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana.

The Japanese people (日本人, Nihonjin, Nipponjin^?) are a nationality originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as nikkeijin (日系人^?). The term ethnic Japanese may also be used in some contexts to refer to a locus of ethnic groups including the Yamato, Ainu and Ryukyuan people.

Culture[link]

Language[link]

The Japanese language is a Japonic language that is sometimes treated as a language isolate; it is also related to the Ryukyuan languages, and both are suggested to be part of the proposed Altaic language family. The Japanese language has a tripartite writing system using Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Domestic Japanese people use primarily Japanese for daily interaction. The adult literacy rate in Japan exceeds 99%.^[6]

Religion[link]

Japanese religion has traditionally been syncretic in nature, combining elements of Buddhism and Shinto. Shinto, a polytheistic religion with no book of religious canon, is Japan's native religion. Shinto was one of the traditional grounds for the right to the throne of the Japanese imperial family, and was codified as the state religion in 1868 (State Shinto was abolished by the American occupation in 1945). Mahayana Buddhism came to Japan in the sixth century and evolved into many different sects. Today the largest form of Buddhism among Japanese people is the Jōdo Shinshū sect founded by Shinran.^{[citation needed]}

Most Japanese people (84% to 96%)^[7] profess to believe in both Shinto and Buddhism. The Japanese people's religion functions mostly as a foundation for mythology, traditions, and neighborhood activities, rather than as the single source of moral guidelines for one's life.^{[citation needed]}

Literature[link]

Bisque doll of Momotarō,
a character from Japanese literature and folklore.

Certain genres of writing originated in and are often associated with Japanese society. These include the haiku, tanka, and I Novel, although modern writers generally avoid these writing styles. Historically, many works have sought to capture or codify traditional Japanese cultural values and aesthetics. Some of the most famous of these include Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji (1021), about Heian court culture; Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings (1645), concerning military strategy; Matsuo Bashō's Oku no Hosomichi (1691), a travelogue; and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's essay "In Praise of Shadows" (1933), which contrasts Eastern and Western cultures.

Following the opening of Japan to the West in 1854, some works of this style were written in English by natives of Japan; they include Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Nitobe Inazo (1900), concerning samurai ethics, and The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo (1906), which deals with the philosophical implications of the Japanese tea ceremony. Western observers have often attempted to evaluate Japanese society as well, to varying degrees of success; one of the most well-known and controversial works resulting from this is Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946).

Twentieth-century Japanese writers recorded changes in Japanese society through their works. Some of the most notable authors included Natsume Sōseki, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Osamu Dazai, Yasunari Kawabata, Fumiko Enchi, Yukio Mishima, and Ryotaro Shiba. In contemporary Japan, popular authors such as Ryu Murakami, Haruki Murakami, and Banana Yoshimoto are highly regarded.

Arts[link]

The print Red Fuji from Hokusai's series, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.

Decorative arts in Japan date back to prehistoric times. Jōmon pottery includes examples with elaborate ornamentation. In the Yayoi period, artisans produced mirrors, spears, and ceremonial bells known as dōtaku. Later burial mounds, or kofun, preserve characteristic clay haniwa, as well as wall paintings.

Beginning in the Nara period, painting, calligraphy, and sculpture flourished under strong Confucian and Buddhist influences from China. Among the architectural achievements of this period are the Hōryū-ji and the Yakushi-ji, two Buddhist temples in Nara Prefecture. After the cessation of official relations with the Tang Dynasty in the ninth century, Japanese art and architecture gradually became less influenced by China. Extravagant art and clothing was commissioned by nobles to decorate their court life, and although the aristocracy was quite limited in size and power, many of these pieces are still extant. After the Todai-ji was attacked and burned during the Gempei War, a special office of restoration was founded, and the Todai-ji became an important artistic center. The leading masters of the time were Unkei and Kaikei.

Painting advanced in the Muromachi period in the form of ink and wash painting under the influence of Zen Buddhism as practiced by such masters as Sesshū Tōyō. Zen Buddhist tenets were also elaborated into the tea ceremony during the Sengoku period. During the Edo period, the polychrome painting screens of the Kano school were made influential thanks to their powerful patrons (including the Tokugawas). Popular artists created ukiyo-e, woodblock prints for sale to commoners in the flourishing cities. Pottery such as Imari ware was highly valued as far away as Europe.

In theater, Noh is a traditional, spare dramatic form that developed in tandem with kyōgen farce. In stark contrast to the restrained refinement of noh, kabuki, an "explosion of color," uses every possible stage trick for dramatic effect. Plays include sensational events such as suicides, and many such works were performed in both kabuki and bunraku puppet theaters.

Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has absorbed elements of Western culture. Its modern decorative, practical, and performing arts works span a spectrum ranging from the traditions of Japan to purely Western modes. Products of popular culture, including J-pop, manga, and anime have found audiences around the world.

Theories of origins[link]

An Ainu man, circa 1930

Arai Hakuseki, who knew in the 18th century that there were stone tools in Japan, suggested that there was Shukushin in ancient Japan, and then Philipp Franz von Siebold claimed that indigenous Japanese was Ainu people.^[8] Iha Fuyū suggested that Japanese and Ryukyuan people have the same ethnic origin, based on his 1906 research of the Ryukyuan languages.^[9] In the Taishō period, Torii Ryūzō claimed that Yamato people used Yayoi pottery and Ainu used Jōmon pottery.^[8]

A photograph of a Japanese samurai taken by Felice Beato in 1867

A common origin of Japanese and Koreans has been proposed by a number of scholars since Arai Hakuseki first brought up the theory and Fujii Sadamoto, a pioneer of modern archeleogy in Japan, also treated the issue in 1781.^[10] But after the end of World War II, Kotondo Hasebe and Hisashi Suzuki claimed that the origin of Japanese people was not the newcomers in the Yayoi period (300 BCE – 300 CE) but the people in the Jōmon period.^[11]

However, Kazuro Hanihara announced a new racial admixture theory in 1984.^[11] Hanihara also announced the theory "dual structure model" in English in 1991.^[12] According to Hanihara, modern Japanese lineages began with Jōmon people, who moved into the Japanese archipelago during Paleolithic times from their homeland in southeast Asia. Hanihara believed that there was a second wave of immigrants, from northeast Asia to Japan from the Yayoi period. Following a population expansion in Neolithic times, these newcomers then found their way to the Japanese archipelago sometime during the Yayoi period. As a result, miscegenation was rife in the island regions of Kyūshū, Shikoku, and Honshū, but did not prevail in the outlying islands of Okinawa and Hokkaidō, and the Ryukyuan and Ainu people continued to dominate here. Mark J. Hudson claimed that the main ethnic image of Japanese people was biologically and linguistically formed from 400 BCE to 1,200 CE.^[11]

Masatoshi Nei opposed the "dual structure model" and alleged that the genetic distance data show that the Japanese people originated in northeast Asia, moving to Japan perhaps more than thirty thousand years ago.^[13]

On the other hand, research in October 2009 by the National Museum of Nature and Science et al. concluded that the Minatogawa Man, who was found in Okinawa and was regarded as evidence that Jōmon people came to Japan via the southern route, had a slender face unlike the Jōmon.^[14] Hiroto Takamiya of the Sapporo University suggested that the people of Kyushu immigrated to Okinawa between the 10th and 12th centuries CE.^[15]

A 2011 study by Sean Lee and Toshikazu Hasegawa estimated that a common origin of Japonic languages had originated around 2,182 years before present.^[16]

Origin of Jōmon and Yayoi[link]

Japan at the height of the last glaciation about 20,000 years ago

Currently, the most well-regarded theory is that present-day Japanese are descendants of both the indigenous Jōmon people and the immigrant Yayoi people. The origins of the Jōmon and Yayoi peoples have often been a subject of dispute, and the recent Japanese publisher^[17] has divided the potential routes of the people living on the Japanese archipelago as follows:

• Aboriginals that have been lived in Japan for more than 10,000 years. (Without geographic distinction, which means, the group of people lived in islands from Hokkaido to Okinawa may all be considered to be Aboriginals in this case.)
• Immigrants from the northern route (北方ルート in Japanese) include the people from Korean Peninsula, Mainland China, Sakhalin Island, Mongolia, and Siberia.
• Immigrants from the southern route (南方ルートin Japanese) include the people from Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and in some context, India.

However, a clear consensus has not been reached.^[18]

History[link]

Paleolithic era[link]

Archaeological evidence indicates that Stone Age people lived in the Japanese archipelago during the Paleolithic period between 39,000 and 21,000 years ago.^[19][20] Japan was then connected to mainland Asia by at least one land bridge, and nomadic hunter-gatherers crossed to Japan from East Asia, Siberia, and possibly Kamchatka. Flint tools and bony implements of this era have been excavated in Japan.^[21]

Jōmon people[link]

Shakōki-dogū (遮光器土偶) (1000–400 BC), "goggle-eyed type" figurine. Tokyo National Museum, Japan.

Some of the world's oldest known pottery pieces were developed by the Jōmon people in the Upper Paleolithic period, 14th millennium BC. The name, "Jōmon" (縄文 Jōmon), which means "cord-impressed pattern", comes from the characteristic markings found on the pottery. The Jōmon people were Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, though at least one middle to late Jōmon site (Minami Mizote (南溝手^?), ca. 1200–1000 BC) had a primitive rice-growing agriculture. They relied primarily on fish for protein. It is believed that the Jōmon had very likely migrated from North Asia or Central Asia and became the Ainu of today. Research suggests that the Ainu retain a certain degree of uniqueness in their genetic make-up, while having some affinities with other regional populations in Japan as well as the Nivkhs of the Russian Far East. Based on more than a dozen genetic markers on a variety of chromosomes and from archaeological data showing habitation of the Japanese archipelago dating back 30,000 years, it is argued that the Jōmon actually came from northeastern Asia and settled on the islands far earlier than some have proposed.^[22]

Yayoi people[link]

Around 400–300 BC, the Yayoi people began to enter the Japanese islands, intermingling with the Jōmon. The Yayoi brought wet-rice farming and advanced bronze and iron technology to Japan. Although the islands were already abundant with resources for hunting and dry-rice farming, Yayoi farmers created more productive wet-rice paddy field systems. This allowed the communities to support larger populations and spread over time, in turn becoming the basis for more advanced institutions and heralding the new civilization of the succeeding Kofun period.

The estimated population in the late Jōmon period was about one hundred thousand, compared to about three million by the Nara period. Taking the growth rates of hunting and agricultural societies into account, it is calculated that about one and half million immigrants moved to Japan in the period.

Genetics[link]

Y-chromosome DNA[link]

An early study of human Y-DNA variation published in 1999 included a sample of 118 Japanese males, among whom haplogroup DE-YAP(xE-SRY4064) was found to be predominant (47%). Other haplogroups detected in this sample include haplogroup K-M9(xN1c-Tat, M2a-SRY9138, P-DYS257) (46%), haplogroup C-RPS4Y₇₁₁ (5%), haplogroup P-DYS257(xQ1a3a1-DYS199, R1a1-SRY10831) (2%), and haplogroup BT-SRY10831(xC-RPS4Y₇₁₁, K-M9, DE-YAP) (1%).^[23]

The movements of human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups

A 2004, Y-DNA study by Tajima et al. reported that the Ainu mainly belong to haplogroup D (87.5%).^[24]

A 2005 study by Michael F. Hammer reports genetic similarities between the Japanese and several other Asian populations, which shows that the common Y-DNA haplogroups of Japanese are D-P37.1 (34.7%), O-P31 (31.7%), O-M122 (20.1%), C-M8 (5.4%), C-M217 (3.1%), NO (2.3%) and N (1.5%).^[25] The patrilines belonging to D-P37.1 are found in all Japanese groups, but are more frequently found in Ainu (75.0%) and Okinawa (55.6%) and are less frequently found in Shikoku (25.7%) and Kyushu (26.4%).^[25] Haplogroup O and C-M8 are not found in Ainu, and C-M217 is not found in Okinawa.^[25] Haplogroup N is detected in samples of central Japanese, but is not found in Ainu and Okinawa.^[25] This study, and others, report that Y-chromosome patrilines crossed from the Asian mainland into the Japanese archipelago, and continue to make up a large proportion of the Japanese male lineage.^[26] If focusing haplogroup O-P31 in those researches, the patrilines derived from its subclade O-SRY465 are frequently found in both Japanese (mean 32%,^[27] with frequency in various samples ranging from 26%^[28][29] to 36%^[30]) and Koreans (mean 30%,^[31] with frequency in various samples ranging from 19%^[28][32] to 40%^[30]). According to the research, these patrilines have undergone extensive genetic admixture with the Jōmon period populations previously established in Japan.^[25]

Hammer estimated in 2005 that D-P37.1 and C-M8 emerged around 19,400 and 14,500 years ago respectively and those patrilines are referred to as descendants of indigenous people in Jōmon period.^[25] According to a 2008 study by Shi et al., however, if focusing haplogroup D, Andamanese and Tibetan people diverged from the original haplogroup D around from 66,400 to 51,600 years ago, and the Japanese subclade emerged around 37,700 years ago.^[33] The study suggested that those patrilines belonging to haplogroup D are possibly the first modern human groups in East Asia based on the Out of Africa theory because their ancestor haplogroup DE is found in African people in Nigeria along with Tibetan in East Asia.^[33]

A 2007 study by Nonaka et al. reported that Japanese males in the Kantō region, which includes the Greater Tokyo Area and is the most densely populated region of Japan, mainly belong to haplogroup D2 (48%), haplogroup O2b (31%), haplogroup O3 (15%), or haplogroup C (4%).^[34]

A 2010 study by Matsukusa et al. about the peoples in the Sakishima Islands reported that a part of the peoples in Miyako Island and Ishigaki Island also show the marks of YAP+ (53% and 26% respectively), being clearly different from Taiwanese aborigines.^[35]

Mitochondrial DNA[link]

A 2002 study by Kivisild et al. reported that Japanese people descended from indigenous Jōmon people may belongs to human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup M's subclades—M7a and M7b2.^[36] The matrilines of haplogroup M7 are especially common among Ryukyuans, while the matrilines of haplogroup Y1 among Ainu have been interpreted to suggest Siberian immigration to Japan.^[36] Although the study reported that those M7 matrilines seem to emerge in up to 18,000 years ago, the study also pointed out that their settlements may have occurred over 30,000 years ago if there was a population bottleneck in Japan.^[36]

In another study, ancient DNA recovered from 16 Jomon skeletons excavated from Funadomari site, Hokkaido, Japan was analyzed to elucidate the genealogy of the early settlers of the Japanese archipelago. Both the control and coding regions of their mitochondrial DNA were analyzed in detail, and 14 mtDNAs could be securely assigned to relevant haplogroups. Haplogroups D1a, M7a, and N9b were observed in these individuals, and N9b was by far the most predominant. The fact that haplogroups N9b and M7a were observed in Hokkaido Jomons bore out the hypothesis that these haplogroups are the (pre-) Jomon contribution to the modern Japanese mtDNA pool.^[37] In another study of ancient DNA published by the same authors in 2011, both the control and coding regions of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) recovered from Jomon skeletons excavated from the northernmost island of Japan, Hokkaido, were analyzed in detail, and 54 mtDNAs were confidently assigned to relevant haplogroups. Haplogroups N9b, D4h2, G1b, and M7a were observed in these individuals, with N9b being the predominant one.^[38] A study published in 2004 shows the combined frequency of M7a and N9b to be at least 28% in Okinawans (7/50 M7a1, 6/50 M7a(xM7a1), 1/50 N9b), 17.6% in Ainus (8/51 M7a(xM7a1), 1/51 N9b), and 10% in mainstream Japanese.^[39]

After a 2004 study by Tanaka et al. showed that Japanese belongs to various human mitochondrial DNA haplogroups—A, B, C, D, F, G, M, N and Z, a 2008 study by Bilal et al. estimated that haplogroup D4a is related to longevity among Japanese people.^[40]

According to an analysis of the 1000 Genome Project's sample of Japanese from the Tokyo metropolitan area, the mtDNA haplogroups found among modern Japanese include D (42/118 = 35.6%, including 39/118 = 33.1% D4 and 3/118 = 2.5% D5), B (16/118 = 13.6%, including 11/118 = 9.3% B4 and 5/118 = 4.2% B5), M7 (12/118 = 10.2%), G (12/118 = 10.2%), N9 (10/118 = 8.5%), F (9/118 = 7.6%), A (8/118 = 6.8%), Z (4/118 = 3.4%), M9 (3/118 = 2.5%), and M8 (2/118 = 1.7%).^[41]

A 2008 study by Nohira et al. reported that Japanese and Koreans shared various haplotypes of haplogroup D4.^[42]

Single-nucleotide polymorphism[link]

A 1996 study by Yoshiyuki Okano (Japanese:岡野 滋行) et al. of the Department of Pediatrics, Osaka City University Medical School, said that Japanese people descend from a Northern Mongoloid population from the Baikal area and said the presence of PKU mutation R413P in Northern China as well as Japan showed the effect of the founder effect or genetic drift.^[43]

A 2008 study about genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) by Yamaguchi-Kabata et al. reported that the most significant difference between Ryukyuan and Japanese outside Okinawa is the different frequencies of the T allele of rs3827760 in the human EDAR gene.^[44]

A 2008 study about genome-wide SNPs of East Asians by Chao Tian et al. reported that Japanese, Koreans and Han Chinese are far from southeast Asians, and Japanese is related to Koreans who are related to Han Chinese, but Japanese is relatively far from Han Chinese if compared to Koreans.^[45] However in another large genome-wide association study of East Asian populations,^[46] the Japanese are closer to Han Chinese, but the Koreans are relatively far away from Han Chinese if compared to Japanese. This study also included Native Americans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Europeans and Africans.

Another study done in 2010 about the peopling of Northeast Asia by Jongsun Jung et al. ^[46] found that, going by Identity By State (a more accurate indicator of genetic similarity and distance compared to Fixation Index) results, the Japanese are more related to the Vietnamese when compared to the Mongolians and Koreans. The Koreans and Mongolians were found to be the least genetically related to the Vietnamese. However further studies need to be conducted to infer about relationships between the Jomon Japanese and their genetic relationships to other East Asian ethnic groups to better understand the origins of the Japanese people.

Japanese colonialism[link]

Location of Imperial Japan

During the Japanese colonial period of 1895 to 1945, the phrase "Japanese people" was used to refer not only to residents of the Japanese archipelago, but also to people from colonies who held Japanese citizenship, such as Taiwanese people and Korean people. The official term used to refer to ethnic Japanese during this period was "inland people" (内地人, naichijin^?). Such linguistic distinctions facilitated forced assimilation of colonized ethnic identities into a single Imperial Japanese identity.^[47]

After the end of World War II, many Nivkh people and Orok people from southern Sakhalin, who held Japanese citizenship in Karafuto Prefecture, were forced to repatriate to Hokkaidō by the Soviet Union as a part of Japanese people. On the other hand, many Sakhalin Koreans who had held Japanese citizenship until the end of the war were left stateless by the Soviet occupation.^[48]

Japanese as a Japanese Citizen[link]

The article 10 of the Constitution of Japan defines the term Japanese based on the Japanese Nationality.^[49] Indeed, Japan accepts a steady flow of 15,000 new Japanese citizens by naturalization (帰化) per year.^[50] The concept of the ethnic groups by the Japanese statistics is different from the ethnicity census of North American or some Western European statistics. For example, the United Kingdom Census asks ethnic or racial background which composites the population of the United Kingdom, regardless of their nationalities.^[51] The Japanese Statistics Bureau, however, does not have this question. Since the Japanese population census asks the people's nationality rather than their ethnic background, naturalized Japanese citizens and Japanese nationals with multi-ethnic background are considered to be ethnically Japanese in the population census of Japan. Thus, in spite of the widespread belief that Japan is ethnically homogeneous, it is probably more accurate to describe it as a multiethnic society.^[52]

As a result, the word kei (系, can be translated roughly as lineage or origin) is used when the Japanese citizen describe their origin of ancestors other than the Japanese archipelago. For example, Tanya Ishii, a former Japanese member to the Japanese Diet referred herself as a "Russian Japanese" (ロシア系日本人, Roshiakeinihonjin^?), since she had Russian roots from her maternal lineage.

Japanese diaspora[link]

The Japantown Peace Plaza during the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival.

The term nikkeijin (日系人^?) is used to refer to Japanese people who emigrated from Japan and their descendants.

Emigration from Japan was recorded as early as the 12th century to the Philippines and Borneo,^[53] but did not become a mass phenomenon until the Meiji Era, when Japanese began to go to the Philippines, United States, Canada, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina. There was also significant emigration to the territories of the Empire of Japan during the colonial period; however, most such emigrants repatriated to Japan after the end of World War II in Asia.^[54]

According to the Association of Nikkei and Japanese Abroad, there are about 2.5 million nikkeijin living in their adopted countries. The largest of these foreign communities are in the Brazilian states of São Paulo and Paraná.^[55] There are also significant cohesive Japanese communities in the Philippines, East Malaysia, Peru, Argentina, and the U.S states of Hawaii, California, and Washington. There is also a small group of Japanese descendants living in Caribbean countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, where hundreds of these immigrants were brought in by Rafael L. Trujillo in the 1930s.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

Japan portal

• Ethnic issues in Japan
• Foreign-born Japanese
• Japantown
• List of Japanese people
• Nihonjinron
• Demographics of Japan
  • Ainu people
  • Azumi (people), an ancient group of peoples who inhabited parts of northern Kyūshū
  • Burakumin
  • Dekasegi
  • Ryukyuan people
  • Yamato people
  • Emishi, a group of people who lived in the northeastern Tōhoku region of Japan.

References[link]

External links[link]

• CIA The World Fact Book 2006
• The Association of Nikkei & Japanese Abroad
• Discover Nikkei- Information on Japanese emigrants and their descendants
• Jun-Nissei Literature and Culture in Brazil
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (English)
• The National Museum of Japanese History (English)
• Japanese society and culture
• Dekasegi and their issues living in Japan (Portuguese) (Japanese)

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Saint Patrick
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodoxy Anglican Communion Lutheran Church
Major shrine	Glastonbury Abbey; Armagh
Feast	17 March (Saint Patrick's Day)
Patronage	Ireland, Nigeria, Montserrat, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Boston, Loíza, Murcia (Spain), engineers, paralegals, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne; invoked against snakes, sins, witchcraft[1]

Saint Patrick (Latin: Patricius; Primitive Irish: *Qatrikias;^[2][3] Old Irish: Cothraige or Coithrige;^[4] Middle Irish: Pátraic; Irish: Pádraig; Old Welsh: Patric; Middle Welsh: Padric; Welsh: Padrig; Old English: Patric; ca. 387 – 17 March, 493^[5] or ca. 460^[6]) was a Romano-British and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints.

Two authentic letters from him survive, from which come the only generally-accepted details of his life.^[7] When he was about 16, he was captured from Wales by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After entering the Church, he returned to Ireland as an ordained bishop in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he worked. By the seventh century, he had come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland.

Most available details of his life are from later hagiographies from the seventh century onwards, and these are now not accepted without detailed criticism. Uncritical acceptance of the Annals of Ulster would imply that he lived from 340 to 440, and ministered in what is modern-day Northern Ireland from AD 428 onwards. The dates of Patrick's life cannot be fixed with certainty but, on a widespread interpretation, he was active as a missionary in Ireland during the second half of the fifth century.^[8]

Saint Patrick's Day is observed on March 17, the date of his death.^[9] It is celebrated both inside and outside Ireland, as both a liturgical and non-liturgical holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation; outside Ireland, it can be a celebration of Ireland itself.

Background[link]

Most modern scholars of Saint Patrick follow a variant of T. F. O'Rahilly's "Two Patricks" theory.^[10] That is to say, many of the traditions later attached to Saint Patrick originally concerned Palladius, who Prosper of Aquitaine's Chronicle says was sent by Pope Celestine I as the first bishop to Irish Christians in 431.^[11] Palladius was not the only early cleric in Ireland at this time. The Irish-born Saint Ciaran Saighir the Elder lived in the later fourth century (352–402 AD) and was the first bishop of Ossory. Ciaran the Elder along with Saints Auxilius, Secundinus and Iserninus are also associated with early churches in Munster and Leinster. By this reading, Palladius was active in Ireland until the 460s.^[12]

Prosper associates Palladius' appointment with the visits of Germanus of Auxerre to Britain to suppress the Pelagian heresy and it has been suggested that Palladius and his colleagues were sent to Ireland to ensure that exiled Pelagians did not establish themselves among the Irish Christians. The appointment of Palladius and his fellow-bishops was not obviously a mission to convert the Irish, but more probably intended to minister to existing Christian communities in Ireland.^[13] The sites of churches associated with Palladius and his colleagues are close to royal centres of the period: Secundus is remembered by Dunshaughlin, County Meath, close to the Hill of Tara which is associated with the High King of Ireland; Killashee, County Kildare, close to Naas with links with the Kings of Leinster, is probably named for Auxilius. This activity was limited to the southern half of Ireland, and there is no evidence for them in Ulster or Connacht.^[14]

Although the evidence for contacts with Gaul is clear, the borrowings from Latin into the Old Irish language show that links with former Britain were many.^[15] Saint Iserninus, who appears to be of the generation of Palladius, is thought to have been a Briton, and is associated with the lands of the Uí Cheinnselaig in Leinster. The Palladian mission should not be contrasted with later "British" missions, but forms a part of them.^[16]

In his own words[link]

Slemish, County Antrim, where Saint Patrick is said to have worked as a shepherd while a slave.

Two Latin letters survive which are generally accepted to have been written by St. Patrick. These are the Declaration (Latin: Confessio) and the Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus (Latin: Epistola).^[17] The Declaration is the more important of the two. In it Patrick gives a short account of his life and his mission.

St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain at Banna Venta Berniae, a location otherwise unknown,^[18][19][20] though identified in one tradition as Glannoventa, modern Ravenglass in Cumbria.^[21] Calpornius, his father, was a deacon, his grandfather Potitus, a priest. When he was about sixteen, he was captured and carried off as a slave to Ireland.^[22] Patrick worked as a herdsman, remaining a captive for six years. He writes that his faith grew in captivity, and that he prayed daily.^[23] After six years he heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home, and then that his ship was ready. Fleeing his master, he travelled to a port, two hundred miles away he says,^[24] where he found a ship and, after various adventures, returned home to his family, now in his early twenties.^[25]

Patrick recounts that he had a vision a few years after returning home:

I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: "The Voice of the Irish". As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us." ^[26]

A. B. E. Hood suggests that the Victoricus of St. Patrick's vision may be identified with Saint Victricius, bishop of Rouen in the late fourth century, who was the only European churchman of the time to advocate or practice conversion of pagans, and who visited Britain in an official capacity in 396.^[27]

Much of the Declaration concerns charges made against St. Patrick by his fellow Christians at a trial. What these charges were, he does not say explicitly, but he writes that he returned the gifts which wealthy women gave him, did not accept payment for baptisms, nor for ordaining priests, and indeed paid for many gifts to kings and judges, and paid for the sons of chiefs to accompany him. It is concluded, therefore, that he was accused of some sort of financial impropriety, and perhaps of having obtained his bishopric in Ireland with personal gain in mind.^[28]

From this same evidence, something can be seen of St. Patrick's mission. He writes that he "baptised thousands of people".^[29] He ordained priests to lead the new Christian communities. He converted wealthy women, some of whom became nuns in the face of family opposition. He also dealt with the sons of kings, converting them too.^[30]

St. Patrick's position as a foreigner in Ireland was not an easy one. His refusal to accept gifts from kings placed him outside the normal ties of kinship, fosterage and affinity. Legally he was without protection, and he says that he was on one occasion beaten, robbed of all he had, and put in chains, perhaps awaiting execution.^[31]

Murchiú's life of Saint Patrick contains a supposed prophecy by the druids which gives an impression of how Patrick and other Christian missionaries were seen by those hostile to them:

Across the sea will come Adze-head,^[32] crazed in the head,
his cloak with hole for the head, his stick bent in the head.
He will chant impieties from a table in the front of his house;
all his people will answer: "so be it, so be it."^[33]

The second piece of evidence that comes from Patrick's life is the Letter to Coroticus or Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, written after a first remonstrance was received with ridicule and insult. In this, St. Patrick writes^[34] an open letter announcing that he has excommunicated Coroticus because he had taken some of St. Patrick's converts into slavery while raiding in Ireland. The letter describes the followers of Coroticus as "fellow citizens of the devils" and "associates of the Scots [of Dalriada and later Argyll] and Apostate Picts".^[35] Based largely on an eighth century gloss, Coroticus is taken to be King Ceretic of Alt Clut.^[36] It has been suggested that it was the sending of this letter which provoked the trial which Patrick mentions in the Confession.^[37]

Death[link]

According to the latest reconstruction of the old Irish annals, Patrick died in AD 461 on March 17, a date accepted by some modern historians.^[38] Prior to the 1940s it was believed without doubt that he died in 420 and thus had lived in the first half of the fifth century.^[39] A lecture entitled "The Two Patricks", published in 1942 by T. F. O'Rahilly, caused enormous controversy by proposing that there had been two "Patricks", Palladius and Patrick, and that what we now know of St. Patrick was in fact in part a conscious effort to blend the two into one hagiographic personality. Decades of contention eventually ended with most historians^[who?] now asserting that Patrick was indeed most likely to have been active in the latter half of the fifth century.^[40]

While Patrick's own writings contain no dates, they do contain information which can be used to date them. Patrick's quotations from the Acts of the Apostles follow the Vulgate, strongly suggesting that his ecclesiastical conversion did not take place before the early fifth century. Patrick also refers to the Franks as being pagans. Their conversion is dated to the period 496–508.^[41]

There is plentiful evidence for a medieval tradition that Patrick had died in 493. An addition to the Annals of Ulster states that in the year 553 (approximately two hundred and fifty years before the addition was made):

I have found this in the Book of Cuanu: The relics of Patrick were placed sixty years after his death in a shrine by Colum Cille. Three splendid halidoms were found in the burial-place: his goblet, the Angel's Gospel, and the Bell of the Testament. This is how the angel distributed the halidoms: the goblet to Dún, the Bell of the Testament to Ard Macha, and the Angel's Gospel to Colum Cille himself. The reason it is called the Angel's Gospel is that Colum Cille received it from the hand of the angel.^[42]

The reputed burial place of St. Patrick in Downpatrick

The placing of this event in the year 553 indicate a tradition that Patrick's death was 493, or at least in the early years of that decade, and the Annals of Ulster report under 493:

Patrick, arch-apostle, or archbishop and apostle of the Irish, rested on the 16th of the Kalends of April in the 120th year of his age, in the 60th year after he had come to Ireland to baptise the Irish.

This tradition is also seen in an annalistic reference to the death of a saint termed Patrick's disciple, Mochta, who is said to have died in 535.^[43]

St. Patrick is said to be buried at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down, alongside St. Brigid and St. Columba, although this has never been proven. The Battle for the Body of St. Patrick demonstrates the importance of both him as a spiritual leader, and of his body as an object of veneration, in early Christian Ireland. Saint Patrick Visitor Centre is a modern exhibition complex located in Downpatrick and is a permanent interpretative exhibition centre featuring interactive displays on the life and story of Saint Patrick. It provides the only permanent exhibition centre in the world devoted to Saint Patrick.^[44]

Seventh-century writings[link]

An early document which is silent concerning Patrick is the letter of Columbanus to Pope Boniface IV of about 613. Columbanus writes that Ireland's Christianity "was first handed to us by you, the successors of the holy apostles", apparently referring to Palladius only, and ignoring Patrick.^[45] Writing on the Easter controversy in 632 or 633, Cummian—it is uncertain whether this is the Cummian associated with Clonfert or Cumméne of Iona—does refer to Patrick, calling him our papa, that is pope or primate.^[46]

Two works by late seventh-century hagiographers of Patrick have survived. These are the writings of Tírechán, and Vita sancti Patricii of Muirchu moccu Machtheni.^[47] Both writers relied upon an earlier work, now lost, the Book of Ultán.^[48] This Ultán, probably the same person as Ultan of Ardbraccan, was Tírechán's foster-father. His obituary is given in the Annals of Ulster under the year 657.^[49] These works thus date from a century and a half after Patrick's death.

Tírechán writes

"I found four names for Patrick written in the book of Ultán, bishop of the tribe of Conchobar: holy Magonus (that is, "famous"); Succetus (that is, the god of war); Patricius (that is, father of the citizens); Cothirtiacus (because he served four houses of druids)."^[50]

Muirchu records much the same information, adding that "[h]is mother was named Concessa."^[51] The name Cothirtiacus, however, is simply the Latinized form of Old Irish Cothraige, which is the Q-Celtic form of Latin Patricius.^[52]

The Patrick portrayed by Tírechán and Muirchu is a martial figure, who contests with druids, overthrows pagan idols, and curses kings and kingdoms.^[53] On occasion, their accounts contradict Patrick's own writings: Tírechán states that Patrick accepted gifts from female converts although Patrick himself flatly denies this. However, the emphasis Tírechán and Muirchu placed on female converts, and in particular royal and noble women who became nuns, is thought to be a genuine insight into Patrick's work of conversion. Patrick also worked with the unfree and the poor, encouraging them to vows of monastic chastity. Tírechán's account suggests that many early Patrician churches were combined with nunneries founded by Patrick's noble female converts.^[54]

The martial Patrick found in Tírechán and Muirchu, and in later accounts, echoes similar figures found during the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity. It may be doubted whether such accounts are an accurate representation of Patrick's time, although such violent events may well have occurred as Christians gained in strength and numbers.^[55]

Much of the detail supplied by Tírechán and Muirchu, in particular the churches established by Patrick, and the monasteries founded by his converts, may relate to the situation in the seventh century, when the churches which claimed ties to Patrick, and in particular Armagh, were expanding their influence throughout Ireland in competition with the church of Kildare. In the same period, Wilfred, Archbishop of York, claimed to speak, as metropolitan archbishop, "for all the northern part of Britain and of Ireland" at a council held in Rome in the time of Pope Agatho, thus claiming jurisdiction over the Irish church.^[56]

Other presumed early materials include the Irish annals, which contain records from the Chronicle of Ireland. These sources have conflated Palladius and Patrick.^[57] Another early document is the so-called First Synod of Saint Patrick. This is a seventh-century document, once, but no longer, taken as to contain a 5th century original text. It apparently collects the results of several early synods, and represents an era when pagans were still a major force in Ireland. The introduction attributes it to Patrick, Auxilius, and Iserninus, a claim which "cannot be taken at face value."^[58]

In legend[link]

St. Patrick banishes all snakes from Ireland[link]

Pious legend credits St. Patrick with banishing snakes from the island,^[59] chasing them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill.^[60] This hagiographic theme draws on the mythography of the staff of Moses, messenger of Yahweh to gentile Egyptians. In Exodus 7:8–7:13 , Moses and Aaron use their staffs in their struggle with Pharaoh's sorcerers, the staffs of each side morphing into snakes. Aaron's snake-staff prevails.^[61]

However, all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes, as on insular "Ireland, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica...So far, no serpent has successfully migrated across the open ocean to a new terrestrial home" such as from Scotland at one point only eight miles from Ireland, where a few native species have lived, "the venomous adder, the grass snake, and the smooth snake", as National Geographic notes,^[62] and although sea snake species separately exist.^[60][63] "At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish", says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched extensively through Irish fossil collections and records.^[60] The List of reptiles of Ireland has only one land reptile species native to Ireland; the viviparous or common lizard.

The only biological candidate species for appearing like a native snake in Ireland is the slow worm, actually a legless lizard, a non-native species more recently found in The Burren region of County Clare as recorded since the early 1970s, as noted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of Ireland, which suspects it was deliberately introduced in the 1960s. So far, the slow worm's territory in the wild has not spread beyond the Burren's limestone region which is rich in wildlife.^[62]

One suggestion, by fiction author Betty Rhodes, is that "snakes" referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids^[64] during that time and place, as evinced on coins minted in Gaul. Chris Weigant connects "big tattoos of snakes" on Druids' arms as "Irish schoolchildren are taught" with the way in which, in the legend of St. Patrick banishing snakes; the "story goes to the core of Patrick's sainthood and his core mission in Ireland."^[65]

St. Patrick uses shamrock in an illustrative parable[link]

The Shamrock

Legend (dating to 1726, according to the OED) also credits St. Patrick with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leafed plant, using it to illustrate the Christian teaching of three persons in one God.^[66] For this reason, shamrocks are a central symbol for St Patrick’s Day.

The shamrock had been seen as sacred in the pre-Christian days in Ireland. Due to its green color and overall shape, many viewed it as representing rebirth and eternal life. Three was a sacred number in the pagan religion and there were a number of "Triple Goddesses" in ancient Ireland, including Brigid, Ériu, and the Morrigan.

St. Patrick's dead ash wood walking stick grows into a living tree[link]

Some Irish legends involve the Oilliphéist, the Caoránach, and the Copóg Phádraig. During his evangelising journey back to Ireland from his parent's home at Birdoswald, he is understood to have carried with him an ash wood walking stick or staff. He thrust this stick into the ground wherever he was evangelising and at the place now known as Aspatria (ash of Patrick) the message of the dogma took so long to get through to the people there that the stick had taken root by the time he was ready to move on.

St. Patrick speaks with ancient Irish ancestors who were born long before his time[link]

The 12th century work Acallam na Senórach tells of Patrick being met by two ancient warriors, Caílte mac Rónáin and Oisín, during his evangelical travels. The two were once members of Fionn mac Cumhaill's warrior band the Fianna, and somehow survived to Patrick's time.

Saint Patrick's Bell[link]

The Shrine of St. Patrick's Bell

The National Museum of Ireland in Dublin possesses a bell first mentioned, according to the Annals of Ulster, in the Book of Cuanu in the year 552. The bell was part of a collection of "relics of Patrick" removed from his tomb sixty years after his death by Colum Cille to be used as relics. The bell is described as "The Bell of the Testament", one of three relics of "precious minna" (extremely valuable items), of which the other two are described as Patrick's goblet and "The Angels Gospel". Cille is described to have been under the direction of an "Angel" for whom he sent the goblet to Down, the bell to Armagh, and kept possession of the Angel's Gospel for himself. The name Angels Gospel is given to the book because it was supposed that Cille received it from the angel's hand. A stir was caused in 1044 when two kings, in some dispute over the bell, went on spates of prisoner taking and cattle theft. The annals make one more apparent reference to the bell when chronicling a death, of 1356, "Solomon Ua Mellain, The Keeper of The Bell of the Testament, protector, rested in Christ."

The bell was encased in a "bell shrine", a distinctive Irish type of reliquary made for it, as an inscription records, by King Domnall Ua Lochlainn sometime between 1091 and 1105. The shrine is an important example of the final, Viking-influenced, style of Irish Celtic art, with intricate Urnes style decoration in gold and silver. The Gaelic inscription on the shrine also records the name of the maker "U INMAINEN" (which translates to "Noonan"), "who with his sons enriched/decorated it"; metalwork was often inscribed for remembrance.

The bell itself is simple in design, hammered into shape with a small handle fixed to the top with rivets. Originally forged from iron, it has since been coated in bronze. The shrine is inscribed with three names, including King Domnall Ua Lochlainn's. The rear of the shrine, not intended to be seen, is decorated with crosses while the handle is decorated with, among other work, Celtic designs of birds. The bell is accredited with working a miracle in 1044 and having been coated in bronze to shield it from human eyes, for which it would be too holy. It measures 12.5 × 10 cm at the base, 12.8 × 4 cm at the shoulder, 16.5 cm from base to shoulder, 3.3 cm from shoulder to top of handle and weighs 1.7 kg.^[67]

Sainthood and modern remembrance[link]

The neo-gothic St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, as seen from Rockefeller Center.

March 17, popularly known as St. Patrick's Day, is believed to be his death date and is the date celebrated as his feast day.^[68] The day became a feast day in the universal church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding, as a member of the commission for the reform of the Breviary^[69] in the early part of the 17th century.

For most of Christianity's first thousand years, canonisations were done on the diocesan or regional level. Relatively soon after the death of people considered to be very holy people, the local Church affirmed that they could be liturgically celebrated as saints. As a result, St. Patrick has never been formally canonised by a Pope; nevertheless, various Christian churches declare that he is a Saint in Heaven (he is in the List of Saints). He is still widely venerated in Ireland and elsewhere today.^[70]

St. Patrick is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on March 17. St. Patrick is also venerated in the Orthodox Church, especially among English-speaking Orthodox Christians living in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland and in North America.^[71] There are Orthodox icons dedicated to him.^[72]

Places associated with Saint Patrick[link]

Slemish, County Antrim

St Patrick's statue at Saul, County Down

St Patrick's Oratory at the top of Croaghpatrick, County Mayo

• Slemish, County Antrim and Killala Bay, County Mayo

When captured by raiders, there are two theories as to where Patrick was enslaved. One theory is that he herded sheep in the countryside around Slemish. Another theory is that Patrick herded sheep near Killala Bay, at a place called Fochill.

• Saul, County Down (from Irish: Sabhall Phádraig, meaning "Patrick's barn")^[73]

It is claimed that Patrick founded his first church in a barn at Saul, which was donated to him by a local chieftain called Dichu. It is also claimed that Patrick died at Saul or was brought there between his death and burial. Nearby, on the crest of Slieve Patrick, is a huge statue of Saint Patrick with bronze panels showing scenes from his life.

• Hill of Slane, County Meath

Muirchu moccu Machtheni, in his highly mythologized 7th century Life of Patrick, says that Patrick lit a Paschal fire on this hilltop in 433 CE in defiance of High King Laoire. The story says that the fire could not be doused by anyone but Patrick, and it was here that he explained the holy trinity using the shamrock.

• Croagh Patrick, County Mayo (from Irish: Cruach Phádraig, meaning "Patrick's stack")^[74]

It is claimed that Patrick climbed this mountain and fasted on its summit for the forty days of Lent. Croagh Patrick draws thousands of pilgrims who make the trek to the top on the last Sunday in July.

• Lough Derg, County Donegal (from Irish: Loch Dearg, meaning "red lake")^[75]

It is claimed that Patrick killed a large serpent on this lake and that its blood turned the water red (hence the name). Each August, pilgrims spend three days fasting and praying there on Station Island.

• Armagh, County Armagh

It is claimed that Patrick founded a church here and proclaimed it to be the most holy church in Ireland. Armagh is today the primary seat of both the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Ireland and both cathedrals in the town are named after Patrick.

• Downpatrick, County Down (from Irish: Dún Pádraig, meaning "Patrick's stronghold")^[76]

It is claimed that Patrick was brought here after his death and buried in the grounds of Down Cathedral.

Other places named after Saint Patrick include:

• Ardpatrick, County Limerick (from Irish: Ard Pádraig, meaning "high place of Patrick")^[77]
• Patrickswell or Toberpatrick, County Limerick (from Irish: Tobar Phádraig, meaning "Patrick's well")^[78]
• St Patrick's Chapel, Heysham
• St Patrick's Island, County Dublin
• St Patrick's Isle, off the Isle of Man
• Llanbadrig (church), Ynys Badrig (island), Porth Padrig (cove), Llyn Padrig (lake), and Rhosbadrig (heath) on the island of Anglesey in Wales
• Templepatrick, County Antrim (from Irish: Teampall Phádraig, meaning "Patrick's church")^[79]

In literature[link]

• Robert Southey wrote a ballad called Saint Patrick's Purgatory, based on popular legends surrounding the saint's name.

• Stephen R. Lawhead wrote the fictional Patrick: Son of Ireland based on the life of the celebrated Saint.^[80]

• Parke Godwin wrote the fiction novel The Last Rainbow based on the life of Saint Patrick and incorporating elements of fantasy established in his earlier novel Firelord.

• Dutch/Scottish singer Chris Anderson wrote a poem called "Saint Patrick's Lament", based on the Saint's remembrance festival Saint Patrick's Day.

• In Lloyd Alexander's novel Time Cat, the main characters encounter an enslaved Irish shepherd implied to be the future St. Patrick.

See also[link]

• Croagh Patrick
• St. Patrick's blue
• St. Patrick's Flag
• St. Patrick's Purgatory
• Ireland
• Druid

References[link]

Further reading[link]

*Byrne, Francis J. (1973), Irish Kings and High-Kings., London: Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-5882-8 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Saint Patrick

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Saint Patrick

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Saint Patrick

• Writings of Saint Patrick
• The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick, edited by James O'Leary, 1880, from Project Gutenberg.
• Page devoted to the life of St. Patrick at Catholic.org
• BBC: Religion & Ethics, Christianity: Saint Patrick (Incl. audio)
• Opera Omnia by Migne Patristica Latina with analytical indexes
• Oase Sankt Patrick
• CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork includes Patrick's Confessio and Epistola, as well as various lives of Saint Patrick.
• Saint Patrick's Confessio Hypertext Stack as published by the Royal Irish Academy Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources (DMLCS) freely providing digital scholarly editions of St Patrick's writings as well as translations and digital facsimiles of all extant manuscript copies.

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