> Return to Press Room

Gallery Wright Presents:

3-10-09
For immediate release
Contact Mary Wright
802-464-9922, 802-368-2522
Two versions, long and short one



Gallery Wright presents new icon paintings by Pam Erhlich. Erhlich not only loves painting icons Erhlich also loves researching the history of the saints she paints. Featured in the new paintings is St Patrick. About St Patrick Erhlich writes: “ Around the year 400 AD the dread pirate Niall of the Nine Hostages raided the coast of Britain capturing booty and slaves. One of them, a boy named Maewyn, was sold to a Druid warlord in Ireland, a wild place at the end of the known Roman world. While he labored he learned the language and to respect the ancient traditions of the Celts. At the age of twenty he had a vision that a ship awaited to carry him home. He escaped his servitude and had no sooner arrived home than he had another vision asking him to go back to the serve the Irish. He underwent years of religious study and was named the Bishop of Ireland. He spent the rest of his life tirelessly traveling the land, converting the people and their warlords, creating monasteries and becoming a legend. He died March 17, 461. His name was Patrick.

Much of what we think we know about St. Patrick, who’s day we celebrate on March 17, is fiction. For example:

•    St. Patrick was not Irish.
•    He was not the first Bishop of Ireland. (He was the second.)
•    He did not rid Ireland of all snakes. (There never were any.)
•    He did not use the shamrock to teach about the Trinity. (By-the-by, a four-leafed clover is a mutated shamrock, lucky because it’s rare.)
•    He was associated with the color blue, not green.
•    He did not look like a modern bishop. His dress was similar to early Celtic Christian monks. Ireland did not accept the Roman traditions until the Synod of Whitby in the Seventh Century.
•    The St. Patrick’s Day Parade began in Colonial America.
•    Leprechauns have absolutely nothing to do with St. Patrick.
•    St. Patrick did not drink Guinness. (But probably would have.)

What is known about St. Patrick, his life and accomplishments, makes him a truly inspiring figure. Two letters he wrote survive, the earliest written documents of Ireland. One is his Confession, which gives biographical information and the other is the Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus. Coroticus was a warlord who was excommunicated by Patrick for taking slaves. In these documents we find:

•    St. Patrick respected the Celtic traditions and peacefully integrated them into his teachings of Christianity.
•    He was the first ever to write about the evils of slavery.
•    He was an advocate for women’s rights.
•    He was brave and courageous, going to a land that was at world’s end.
•    He was on the committee named by the Chieftain of Tara to draft the world’s first democratic laws, the Brehon Laws.
•    The monasteries he founded later provided protection for the books and knowledge of the Greco-Roman world during the Dark Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Celebrate the history and the apocryphal legends of a remarkable man and may you have a happy St. Patrick’s Day.” Erhlich’s icon paintings are on view at Gallery Wright throughout the spring. For more information visit Gallery Wright, open Thursdays through Sundays 11-5, 7 N Main St, 802-464-9922. www.gallerywright.com