{"id":3796,"date":"2013-03-17T20:44:56","date_gmt":"2013-03-17T20:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=3796"},"modified":"2015-03-02T13:56:38","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T13:56:38","slug":"how-magonus-succetus-became-naomh-padraig-st-patrick-or-is-it-padraig-naofa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/how-magonus-succetus-became-naomh-padraig-st-patrick-or-is-it-padraig-naofa\/","title":{"rendered":"How Magonus Succetus Became ‘Naomh P\u00e1draig’ (St. Patrick) — Or Is It ‘P\u00e1draig Naofa’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are\u00a0 so many topics concerning “L\u00e1 Fh\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig<\/strong>” (b\u00e9igil uaine<\/strong> and beoir uaine, aibhneacha uaine<\/strong> and amhr\u00e1in mar “Chaitheamh an Ghlais<\/strong>,” to name just a few), that they can’t possibly fit into one blog.\u00a0 So for this “Blag Fh\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig<\/strong>” we’ll just concentrate on the saint’s name (Magonus, Maewyn, Succetus, Succat,<\/em> P\u00e1draig, Qatrikias<\/strong>, et al.) and his title, Naomh<\/strong> (sometimes “Naofa<\/strong>“).<\/p>\n

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Seanstampa le picti\u00far de Naomh P\u00e1draig<\/p><\/div>\n

Many of you are probably already aware of the fact that St. Patrick was not born in Ireland.\u00a0 He mentions his birthplace in his Confessio<\/em>, which he wrote in Latin. But the place he mentions, “Banna Venta Berniae,” has remained a mystery for as long as scholars have been investigating it.\u00a0 Many say it was in northwestern Wales, others say southwestern Scotland, and right now the leading theory is Cumbria, in northwestern England, which is roughly halfway in between.\u00a0 I’ve seen about a dozen proposals for the specific location!<\/p>\n

At any rate, a key point to remember is that anywhere in that, let’s say, Aberystwyth-to-Ayr stretch, would have been Romano-Celtic in St. Patrick’s youth.\u00a0 In the Confessio<\/em>, he clearly describes a Romano-Celtic background, with the Latin names of his father and grandfather, Calpornius and Potitus, and their occupations, deacon and priest, respectively.\u00a0 An early form of the Welsh language was spoken in what we would today call southern Scotland, as indeed it was throughout the area we now call England.\u00a0 The Saxons and the Angles (from whom we get the name England) had yet to make an appearance.<\/p>\n

St. Patrick was not originally named “Patrick,” not even in any Irish version of the name, whose variants range from “Qatrikias”<\/strong> in Proto-Irish to today’s “P\u00e1draig<\/strong>.” \u00a0As much as can be pieced together, he was “Maewyn Succat<\/em>,” which was Latinized as “Magonus Succetus<\/em>.”\u00a0 The name “Patrick” is derived from the Latin “Patricius<\/em>,” related to “patrician,” and, less directly, to “pater”<\/em> (father).<\/p>\n

It was the declining years of the Roman Empire, especially from the early British perspective.\u00a0 St. Patrick was born ca. 386 A.D. and by the first decade of the 5th century, the Romans had pulled their troops out of Britain, leaving the land relatively unprotected.\u00a0 The troops were being called back to Italy to protect Rome, which was considered more vital to the Empire than its far-flung, not to mention cold and rainy,, territories to the northwest.\u00a0 The teenaged St. Patrick was kidnapped from “Banna Venta Berniae,” which was probably near the coast, by Irish pirates.\u00a0 Although these pirates may have been raiding the coastline for years, the declining presence of the Romans probably facilitated their activities, making retribution less likely.<\/p>\n

Thus begins the long saga of Patrick’s life, first as a scl\u00e1bha\u00ed<\/strong> (slave) and muic\u00ed<\/strong> (swine-herd) in northeastern Ireland, his trek across Ireland six years later to a boat which would take him to France, his studies in a monastery there, and his eventual return to Ireland, where he began his missionary activities.<\/p>\n

But back to our main goal for this blog, ainm an naoimh<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Today, St. Patrick is mostly known in Modern Irish as “Naomh P\u00e1draig<\/strong>.” “Naomh<\/strong>” [neev OR nayv] means “saint.”\u00a0 In formal contexts, he is sometimes known as “P\u00e1draig Naofa<\/strong>,” which is essentially the same, but more literally means “Holy Patrick” or “Sanctified Patrick.”\u00a0 You might recognize “naofa<\/strong>” from a related word in the most recent blog, “naofacht<\/strong>” (holiness), used in addressing the Pope or in announcing the Pope’s entry into a room.<\/p>\n

How exactly do we get from the “-mh” of “naomh<\/strong>” to the “-f-” of “naofa<\/strong>” and “naofacht<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Piece o’ cake, that is, Guinness cake, of course! \u00a0The Irish language underwent a major spelling reform in the 1950s, reducing the number of silent letters.\u00a0 “Naofa<\/strong>” used to be spelled “naomhtha<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Likewise, “naofacht<\/strong>” used to be spelled “naomhthacht<\/strong>.”\u00a0 Originally the “-tha” ending was added to “naomh<\/strong>” to make the word into an adjective (naomh + -tha<\/strong>).\u00a0 Since that “mhth” sounded like an “f,” the spelling was changed during the reform.\u00a0 A similar process happened with other words, including the very basic vocabulary word “scr\u00edofa<\/strong>” [SHKREE-fuh] which used to be spelled “scr\u00edobhtha<\/strong>,” more closely resembling its verbal forms “scr\u00edobh<\/strong>” [shkreev, “to write”], “scr\u00edobhaim<\/strong>” [SHKREEV-im, “I write”], etc.<\/p>\n

To create the word “naofacht<\/strong>” (holiness), a similar process happened, adding the ending “-thacht,”<\/strong> which created the abstract noun.<\/p>\n

So, now that you’ve learned all that, guess what happens when you want to say “Saint Patrick’s Day” or “Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!”\u00a0 The “naomh<\/strong>” part goes away altogether, at least in the traditional versions.\u00a0 It’s characteristic in Irish not to include the actual word for the saints in the names of many institutions or set terms (like feast-days) referring to them.\u00a0 For example, we have “Faiche Stiabhna<\/strong>” (St. Stephen’s Green) and numerous schools called “Col\u00e1iste Br\u00edde<\/strong>” (“St. Bridget’s College,” although the college’s name is often not translated at all but left in Irish).<\/p>\n

For the feast days of the saints, we have terms like “L\u00e1 Fh\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig<\/strong>” (the day of the feast-day of Patrick), L\u00e1 Fh\u00e9ile Br\u00edde<\/strong> (the day of the feast-day of Bridget), and “L\u00e1 Fh\u00e9ile Niocl\u00e1is<\/strong>” (the day of the feast-day of Nicholas).\u00a0 With “L\u00e1 Fh\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig<\/strong>” in particular, the full spelling of “Fh\u00e9ile<\/strong>” [AYL-yuh] is sometimes dropped, leaving us with “L\u00e1 ‘le P\u00e1draig<\/strong>.”\u00a0 The “fh-” of “fh\u00e9ile<\/strong>” is silent, making it all the easier for the pronunciation to be shortened. \u00a0Either way, the word for “saint” doesn’t appear.<\/p>\n

For “Happy St. Patrick’s Day,” the traditional form is actually a blessing, “Beannachta\u00ed na F\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig ort<\/strong>” (or “oraibh<\/strong>” for plural). \u00a0\u00a0Literally that’s “the blessings\/greetings of the feast-day of Patrick on you.”\u00a0 Again the word “saint” is not actually present.\u00a0 Nor is the word for “happy” (actually Irish has quite a few words for “happy” — sona, \u00e1thasach, gliondrach<\/strong>, etc. — ach sin \u00e1bhar blag eile<\/strong>) but they’re not used here because the word “beannachta\u00ed<\/strong>” [BAN-ukh-tee] implies the happiness of the day.<\/p>\n

Just as an experiment, I tried putting “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” into Google Translate.\u00a0 Sorry, a lucht an aistri\u00fach\u00e1in uathoibr\u00edoch<\/strong> (“followers of machine translation”), but I wasn’t very satisfied with the results.\u00a0 I got “l\u00e1<\/strong>” followed by “sona<\/strong>” followed by “naomh<\/strong>” (lower-case, to boot) followed by “P\u00e1draig<\/strong>.”\u00a0 By the way, I just added the phrase “followed by” each time in writing this blog to minimize the likelihood that the incorrect phrase will be cut and pasted from this here.\u00a0 The Google result simply doesn’t fit Irish word order, let alone the culture behind the expression (the blessing, the idea that it’s a feast-day, not just a generic “l\u00e1<\/strong>,” and the idea that often saints are so honored that we don’t actually need the word “saint” to honor them in their institutions).<\/p>\n

The adjective “sona<\/strong>” is<\/em> typically used for “Nollaig Shona<\/strong>” [NUL-ik HUN-uh] and for “L\u00e1 Breithe Sona Duit<\/strong>” [law BRzhEH-huh SUN-uh ditch], which are “Merry\/Happy Christmas” and “Happy Birthday To You,” respectively.\u00a0 But I don’t seen any reason to change a good traditional Irish phrase just to make it match the English more literally.<\/p>\n

When I put “Beannachta\u00ed na F\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig<\/strong>” into Google for it to translate into English, it gives me, “P\u00e1draig greetings.”\u00a0 Apparently it ignored the middle of the phrase.\u00a0 Hmm, I thought the “f\u00e9ile<\/strong>” (feast-day) part was a key point here!<\/p>\n

Bhuel, p\u00e9 sc\u00e9al \u00e9, “Beannachta\u00ed na F\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig” oraibh go l\u00e9ir<\/strong>, and maybe next blog we’ll do a little follow-up.\u00a0 Which gets more hits this year — “b\u00e9igeal uaine<\/strong>,” “beoir uaine<\/strong>,” or “abhainn uaine<\/strong>“?\u00a0 Or the same terms searched with “glas<\/strong>” instead of “uaine<\/strong>.”\u00a0 A tricky topic because “uaine<\/strong>” is usually for man-made or dyed objects and “glas<\/strong>” for objects that are naturally green (unless they’re gray, like a cow or a horse, as noted in the previous blog).\u00a0 But if all of this greenery at St. Patrick’s Day evokes the naturally growing shamrock, then is it “uaine<\/strong>” because we’re using dye or “glas<\/strong>” because of the symbolism?\u00a0 It’s a difficult issue to answer absolutely, but I think we can safely count references to “green bagels” et \u00f3l, \u00fa\u00faps<\/strong> “al.” for next time and see where that leaves us.\u00a0 SGF, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) There are\u00a0 so many topics concerning “L\u00e1 Fh\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig” (b\u00e9igil uaine and beoir uaine, aibhneacha uaine and amhr\u00e1in mar “Chaitheamh an Ghlais,” to name just a few), that they can’t possibly fit into one blog.\u00a0 So for this “Blag Fh\u00e9ile P\u00e1draig” we’ll just concentrate on the saint’s name (Magonus, Maewyn, Succetus, Succat, P\u00e1draig…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":3798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[5159,5285,274848,274849,5439,274845,5667,274840,274841,274839,274846,274847,6385,274844,274843,6663,6674,6935,274842],"class_list":["post-3796","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-feile","tag-gaeilge","tag-green-bagel","tag-green-beer","tag-green-river","tag-holy","tag-irish","tag-maewyn","tag-magonus","tag-name","tag-naofa","tag-naomhtha","tag-padraig","tag-patricius","tag-qatrikias","tag-saint","tag-san","tag-st-patrick","tag-succetus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3796"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6414,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3796\/revisions\/6414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}