St. Patrick’s doctrine of the Trinity

Today is both the second day of Lent and the (lesser) feast of the great 5th century Irish missionary St. Patrick. For Americans making some effort at lenten discipline, it fortunately falls on a Sunday.

It is not a red-letter saint’s day in the American prayer book, and in fact is not even mentioned in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer at all. However, Eucharistic readings were later provided in the 1963 Lesser Feasts & Fasts, as well as (for the 1979 prayer book) the 1980 Lesser Feasts & Fasts.

Of these, there are only two overlaps. One is the collect

O ALMIGHTY God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant Patrick to be an apostle to the people of Ireland, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through the merits of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen. 

The collect is not mentioned in the Daily Office of CommonPrayer.org, but (as with other lesser feasts) is included in the daily worship of AnglicanHours.

The other is the Epistle, 1 Thessalonians 2:2-12, which includes this relevant except from St. Paul’s letter to Thessalonica:

But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.”

St. Patrick’s Breastplate

For Anglicans, the mandatory hymn is “I bind unto myself today” (St. Patrick’s breastplate), adapted by Ralph Vaughan Williams for The English Hymnal in 1906. The hymn has three main features

• The lyric is a catechetical text that teaches the doctrine of the Trinity and is attributed to Patrick, translated by Cecil Frances Alexander. The hymn is thus normally recommended for Trinity Sunday (and of course St. Patrick’s feast day).
• For the hymnal, Vaughan Williams combined two Irish folk tunes — St. Patrick arranged by C.V. Stanford, and Deirdre, which he arranged for the hymnal. The second tune adds a complexity and difficulty for newcomers.
• It is a long hymn: nine verses in the 1906 original, but “only” seven verses as introduced to America in Hymnal 1940.

In my interviews on church music practice last fall, it was a (slightly) controversial hymn: everyone loved the doctrine and the memories it evokes. However, the parishioners were split: most loved the complete hymn, but a minority complained that it was too long. (IIRC only one music director regularly abridged the hymn).

The hymn as printed in Hymnal 1940 and Hymnal 1982 has verses 1-5 (with verse 1 shorter) in unison to St. Patrick, verse 6 (in four parts) to Deirdre, and verse 7 in St. Patrick. Hymnary.org has page scans of many of the printed versions, including 

• Hymnal 1940 #268 and Hymnal 1982 #370: of the 7 verses, verses 3-5 are optional
• Glory to God (the 2006 Presbyterian hymnal): with guitar chords
• Evangelical Lutheran Worship (the 2006 ELCA hymnal): drops verses 3, 5
• Lutheran Service Book (the 2006 LCMS hymnal): drops verses 3-4, adds its own new verse after verse 5, drops verse 6 (with the separate tune) and then ends with verse 7

Not included in the page scans are two others that (like the LSB) use a single tune:

• Worship II (a popular unofficial Catholic hymnal from 1975): verses 1,2,4,5,7 (with one tune)
• New English Hymnal (1986) #159: verses 1-5 and 7. It includes the comment that “Hymn 278 may be inserted after verse 5 if desired"; while 278 has the words of Verse 6, it’s to Gartan, another Irish tune arranged by Stanford

Thus, this day, it will be American Protestants who carry on Vaughan Williams’ original vision and testimony to the patron saint of Ireland.