In ancient Ireland, a lorica was a sort of prayer, or hymn-charm, recited to provide categorical protection against an evil. When pled toward God, it might appeal to his sovereignty over all creation: from under the earth up to the heavens. Or it might consider all fronts of attack: demons, human foes, the sinful self, various trials, and tribulations. Lorica translates to breastplate, taken from the “armor of God” passage in Ephesians. It is worthy to note that the breastplate covered the front and back of its wearer (i.e., protection on all fronts).
Tradition has it that Saint Patrick wrote a lorica, today called The Breastplate of Saint Patrick, as he anticipated his work of evangelizing the pagan Irish king, Leoghaire. Though history has not left such a definitive record, we can read times in Patrick’s Confessio (his testimony) when he might have prayed something similar to the words of the prayer attributed to him.
A wonder of God’s immutability is that prayers are often eternally applicable. Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, a written prayer that invokes his unchanging characteristics can be prayed by believers in the year 2026 just as it could in the year 400. Because of this feature of God-ward prayers, songwriters Wendell Kimbrough and Dan Wheeler adapted this ancient prayer for The Porter’s Gate album, Worship for Workers.
The album was conceived to bridge the sacred-secular divide, because Christian workers report that “their [Sunday] worship seems to have nothing to say to the realities of their daily work.” When we don’t recognize the sanctity of the mundane, it helps to pray written prayers from the Psalms or the Book of Common Prayer and liturgies from the Every Moment Holy series. These are literally timeless (because God is) and allow us to pray as our brothers and sisters of old did. This helps us recognize the unshakable and eternal nature of our faith.
So, in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, let’s consider some lyrics from The Porter’s Gate’s adaptation of the Breastplate of Saint Patrick. (In bold are lines specifically taken from Patrick’s lorica.)
Christ Goes Before Us
When my work takes me places I don’t want to go–Christ before me. And my heart aches with sorrow as I hit the road–Christ be with me.
Saint Patrick was British but imprisoned as a teenager in Ireland. He escaped “in the strength of God” to his homeland only to be taken captive again. Years later, in Britain, he received a vision that called him back to Ireland, this time as a missionary. One can imagine the reluctance to do mission work for the people who twice enslaved you. It is akin to Daniel serving in the court of his people’s captors or Jonah preaching to his national enemy. Yet, to their oppressors, these men were called.
In praying these words from the lorica, we remember that if we are going in the direction we have been sent, Christ has gone before us in it; the Spirit is preparing the hearts of the people we will encounter. He is also with us now on our way.
(Read this article when you hate to go to work.)
God Sees & Hears All
When I work hard but someone else gets the reward–God’s eyes see me. I ask for promotion, and they shut the door–God’s ears hear me.
Saint Patrick wrote in his Confessio (paragraphs 26-31) of a time “some superiors…put my sins against my hard work as a bishop.” They were slandering him for something he had done thirty years prior and even confessed to in confidence. Rather than allow bitterness to take root, he prayed, like Stephen, “that God not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).
To plead his case, he described his commitment to the people of Ireland “until I almost perished.” He related that God “prepared me for what I would be today. I was far different then from what I am now.”
The same night of his accusation, he received a vision which could be the origin of these lines in his lorica. In the vision, God told him, “[I] have seen with displeasure the face of the one who was chosen deprived of his good name.” The saint perceived that God was “identifying himself with me.” Though his character was being besmirched, he felt God saw and heard the kind of man he really was.
(Read this article when you feel like you didn’t get your due.)
Our Strength Comes from God
Though there are many more words to the song and lorica, we’ll finish with this refrain in both.
I rise up today in a strength that is not my own. I’m held by the promise of God that I’m never alone.
Despite doubts, homesickness, and oppression, Saint Patrick remained faithful to the people of Ireland and to the Lord. Humbly, he wrote (paragraph 56), “For [God] I perform the work of an ambassador, despite my less than noble condition…he chose me for this task so that I would be one servant of his very least important servants.” This bold saint wondered, “Who am I that the Lord is mindful of me? And why should I be the one to do it?” But like the Virgin Mary, he readily answered, “I am Your servant. Let it be so.”
Though we may not go down in history equal to Saint Patrick, modern Christians wake up with a strength that only comes from God. We place our faith in the same God Saint Patrick did: Christ, Immanuel, God with us. Even when we need someone else’s prayer to help us through, Christ will never leave us. He is our breastplate, covering us from the front and back with his righteousness.
