Around the year 433 Saint Patrick was in trouble
He had broken the pagan law by lighting the Easter fire.
The High King of Ireland, Lóegaire mac Néill, summoned him to Tara. As Patrick had been a slave of the country it was most likely that the summons was to result in the death penalty. Nevertheless, Saint Patrick braved the danger for the chance to secure the king’s permission to evangelise the island.
Placing the mission in God’s hands, Saint Patrick and his companions set forth on Easter Sunday and as they travelled they sang a particular hymn as protection. Saint Patrick suspected that the king’s men were lying in wait to ambush and kill him in the dark forest between Slane and Tara.
St Patrick's BreastplateThe prayerful song they sang is known as Saint Patrick’s “Lorica” - Latin for the breastplate of a Roman soldier and potentially harks back to new testament letter to the Ephesians where Saint Paul writes ‘Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place’. (Eph 6:14)
The story goes that as the soldiers waited to ambush Saint Patrick they only came across a small group of deer which they allowed to pass by. This explains why Saint Patrick's Breastplate is also known as the Deer's Cry. The mission to convert King Lóegaire and his subjects from paganism to Christianity succeeded.
There are many settings of the prayer and one can only wonder what the original musical setting of Patrick's singing was.
The following video is Jean Watson's contemporary setting of a shortened form of the prayer.
This song has been arranged for Canto in time for Saint Patrick’s Day 2025.