In audio drama, St. Patrick 'comes alive brilliantly'

Friday, Mar. 24, 2017

WASHINGTON (CNS) — St. Patrick “comes alive brilliantly” in a just-released eight-part audio drama from Augustine Institute Radio Theatre, said the British actor who is the voice of the elder Patrick in the series.

St. Patrick was “a man who endures the most incredible suffering, endures slavery, and his faith – which is perhaps marginal at the beginning – grows and endures and then compels him to return not just to the land but to the man who enslaved him,” John Rhys-Davies told Catholic News Service in a March 16 telephone interview.

“The Trials of Saint Patrick” drama debuted March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. It is available at airtheatre.org.

Rhys-Davies leads an all-star cast that includes Sean O’Meallaigh, who plays the younger Patrick.

Rhys-Davies is best known for his roles in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. O’Meallaigh is known for his appearances in Irish television and has starred as Prudentius the monk in “Vikings,” now in its fourth season on the History Channel.

The audio drama is based on the history and writings of St. Patrick himself. He grew up a privileged youth in Britain. In A.D. 401 he was kidnapped and enslaved in Celtic Ireland. In six years as an ill-fed shepherd, he took solace in talking to God.

Eventually escaping, Patrick later began his crusade to convert Ireland to Christianity with spectacular success, founding hundreds of churches and converting thousands, using the lowly shamrock as a teaching tool to explain the Trinity. Within 200 years, pagan Ireland was virtually all Christian.