Lorica of St. Patrick, Part 3

I could have finished this poem of in two posts, but it would have taken such a drastic change in tone I thought it better to split it again. 

Now we come to the two verses which Cecil Frances Alexander chose not to translate and metricize, perhaps knowing that even in what we see as the benighted 19th century, no church in its right mind would include them in its hymnal, even if the seventh verse were a full enough verse to bother with. 

Verses six and seven are the poet's "therefore" to verse fives invocation of God's protection and guidance. And frankly, it makes me laugh.*

6.
          So have I invoked all these virtues between me, [and these]
          against every cruel, merciless power which may come against my body and my                   soul
          against incantations of false prophets,
          against black laws of heathenry,
          against false laws of heretics,
          against craft of idolatry,
          against spells of women and smiths and druids,
          against every knowledge that defiles men's souls.
7.
          Christ to protect me today,
          Against poison, against burning, against drowning, against death-wound,
          Until a multitude of rewards come to me!

Ok, so the first couple and last couple lines are alright. Cruel, merciless powers are kind of timeless in the 'need protection against' category. I'm not sure about incantations, but false prophets, check. The next sound a little archaic, but still kosher, so to speak. Black laws of heathenry. Not sure what would count as 'heathenry' these days, but alright, I'm good invoking virtues between me and whatever laws might be heathenous (its actually a word!). False laws of heretics. Check (though who counts as a heretic might get a little dicey). Craft of idolatry. I wasn't aware that it was a craft, I always thought people just sort of fell into it, but alright, anti-idolatry, can't argue with that.

"Spells of women and smiths and druids". My reactions, respectively: seriously?, huh?, and ok, I can see that. With a little more thinking and remembering my book of celtic mythology that I was given a while back, I'll almost give him the women. Almost. This writer was a good 300 years removed from the celtic religion being dominant. But women in Celtic mythology (at least the ones I read) were scary powerful (Their main goddess was a tripartite battle goddess, if that gives you some idea), and women in almost all pagan cultures were assumed to have some sort of magic power (heck, even today, though we have the courtesy of making it tongue in cheek. Ever hear "Never trust anything that can bleed for a week and live?").

On the smiths? I got nothing. The Celts had a smith god, but who didn't? A smith beat up the poet when he was a kid? No idea. Pass.

Druids. Yep, I can see wanting protection against them. Even if you don't believe they had any magical powers, they were the dudes who made a habit of human sacrifice. I'd be scared of the guys who made a habit of strangling, bludgeoning, slitting the throat of and/or drowning their sacrifices in peat bogs. Nasty bunch. But, since as a breed they have been extinct for the last millenium and a half, not terribly relevant.

Knowledge that defiles mens' souls. I'm with you there, Mr. 8th-century-poet-dude. You have no idea what kind of knowledge there is out there on this thing called the internet. Seriously, you have no idea. This line is more relevant than ever.

Protection against unnatural death by poison, burning, drowning and death-wound. Pretty much covers my list of ways I'd like not to die. Verse seven is basically a prayer for a peaceful, natural death. A pretty timeless thing.

Which brings us to the eighth and ninth verses. These verses, which are combined into on in Alexander's version because they belong together, are sometimes used as a benediction at the end of church services.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

This is to me a deeply comforting verse. Jesus said "I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20), but this drives home what 'with you' means. Christ walks beside us, because we have asked him to dwell in our hearts. He is watching our backs, and laying out the path before us. Christ woos us and wins us. He comforts us in times of trouble and brings us back to life. He surrounds us with his love, whether we are alone and at peace or in deepest trouble, and speaks to us through both our loved ones and the people we meet along the way. What more comprehensive expression of Christ with us could you ask for?

The last verse reiterates the first, with a slight clarification:

I bind unto myself today
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.
Of whom all nature hath creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Just in case the whole "THIS God made all of creation, not those pagan fakes" was too subtle, the poet says it hear explicitly, ending his prayer the way we should probably end everything. Praising the Lord of our salvation.

~PhysicsGal

*I also kind of had to laugh at the Order of St Patrick's comment on Alexander's omission of these two verses: "This is unfortunate because those sections contain the only deliverance from witchcraft in the Breastplate.  This has left these Christians vulnerable to witchcraft attack." If this is all that's standing between us and witchcraft, we're all in trouble.