An Excerpt From St. Patrick’s Breastplate
The following poem is an excerpt of Saint Patrick’s Breastplate. The lorica has traditionally been attributed to Saint Patrick, but was likely written by an anonymous source. The poem also known as The Lorica of Saint Patrick and Saint Patrick’s Hymn.
The work also goes by the name The Deer’s Cry, thanks to an old legend that was published with the poem in 1903 in the Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus. Legend holds that Patrick’s adversary Loegaire, then-High King of Ireland, had laid an ambush in the path of Patrick and his monks as they made their way to Tara to sow the faith. Along the journey, Patrick sang the hymn, “and then it so appeared before those lying in ambush that they (Patrick and his monks) were wild deer with a fawn following them,” and Loegaire allowed them to pass through unscathed.