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“The spells of women, smiths, and wizards” were listed among the many dangers to body and soul in the famous Irish prayer called Saint Patrick’s Breastplate. The story goes that it was Patrick’s prayer for safety when he anticipated an ambush on a journey to spread the Christian faith at the Royal Hill of Tara. Saint Patrick’s Breastplate also known as The Deer’s Cry or alternatively as The Lorica of Saint Patrick. Legend says his attackers were foiled because when Patrick and his monks reached the place where his enemies were lying in wait the holy men appeared as wild deer and were able to proceed in peace. This story incorporates a “magic mist” of concealment or shape-shifting which harkens back to much older Celtic sense of the miraculous.
Prints of Michael O’Conner’s illuminated Saint Patrick’s Breastplate
are now available to the public for the first time.
Link to purchase.
The nearly forgotten illuminated Breastplate of Saint Patrick created by Irish artist Michael O’Connor in 1961 is a creation of “national treasure” status. This wonderful painting was itself under a spell of concealment in a much more mundane way than Patrick and his monks. It was recovered from a dilapidated frame that has been shoved between a cabinet and a heating radiator for many years. Fortunately this marvel of Celtic art has been restored and is finally getting recognition more than fifty years after the artist’s death. Michael O’Connor, 1913 – 1969, was arguably Ireland’s most accomplished Celtic artist and calligrapher in his day. Why isn’t he famous? The simple answer is that this humble man never sought fame. In the middle of the 20th century there was very little interest in Celtic art.
In 1961 Ireland celebrated the Patrician Year. The 1,500th Saint Patrick’s Day was expanded to a yearlong affair. Unlike the parades, entertainment, and booze-ups we often expect now for Saint Patrick’s Day, it was largely a religious observance. One of Michael O’Connor’s best masterpieces was created for to commemorate this milestone. The Breastplate was exhibited in Tipperary. When the Patrician Year was over, O’Connor kept the artwork for his family which has since trusted it to the Kerry Writer’s Museum.
Artist Michael O'Connor examining the Book of Kells at Trinity College Dublin
The style, layout and ornamentation of Michael O’Connor’s art has its roots in the early Christian manuscript tradition of the 7th to 10th centuries, the Golden Age of Celtic Art. O’Connor’s work is informed by such masterpieces of calligraphy as the famed Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow, both preserved and displayed at Trinity College Dublin. The Breastplate also is highly influenced by the late 19th century tradition of the Celtic Revival, when illuminated addresses, charters and commemorative documents were frequently decorated with artwork reflecting the style and heritage of the ancient Celtic art of Ireland’s past.
My first glimpse of O’Connor’s work came in 2021 when Stephen Rynne posted some images on the Discussion of Celtic Art Facebook group. He had found a collection of O’Connor’s original artwork amongst his late father’s papers. Stephen’s father, Professor Etienne Rynne, was friends with the artist. The overwhelming reaction to the Facebook post was astonishment that we had not been aware of O’Conner’s art until then. Stephen Rynne has invested a lot of work into research into the life and background of O’Connor, discovered and rescued more of his artwork from obscurity, and established a permanent archival home at the Kerry Writer’s Museum in Listowel. The Writer’s Museum is an appropriate home for the collection as this grand house was formerly the home of Dr. Michael O’Conner. The museum that now houses O’Connor’s art was also his boyhood home.
O’Connor’s art remained obscure despite his work being often gifted at the highest levels of international diplomacy. Irish President Eamon de Valera presented illuminated artwork to US President John F. Kennedy, Popes John XXIII and Paul VI as well as President Nasser of Egypt and Issac Herzog, chief rabbi of Ireland and later chief Ashenkazi rabbi of Israel. The 1960s was solidly the era on Modern Art, which had very little use for nostalgic or historical styles. As diplomatic presentations the use of the ancient Celtic style made perfect sense, but these creations were of little interest to the fashionable art sophisticates of the day.
Stephen Walker, Jimmy Deenihan, and Stephen Rynne outside the Kerry Writer's Museum in Listowel with the original illuminated document commemorating the centenary of the Listowel Races.
Stephen Rynne is now involved in organizing the 3rd International Day of Celtic Art Conference, which will be hosted by the Kerry Writer’s Museum from 11 to 14 June 2026. Sales of the Breastplate prints will help fund the conference.
A Papal Blessing for the 1967 marriage of Etienne Rynne and Aideen Lucas. This illuminated family heirloom is now on display at the Kerry Writer's Museum.
Introduction to the Breastplate, from the top left corner of Michael O'Connor's illuminated creation:
Patrick made this hymn in the time of Leoghaire – son of Naill. The cause of it’s composition was to protect him and his monks against deadly enemies that lay in wait for the clerics. And this is the breast-plate of faith for the protection of body and soul against devils and men and vices. When anyone shall repeat it every day with diligent intentness on God even devils shall not dare to face him. It shall be a protection to him against every poison and envy. It shall be a protection to him against sudden death.
Patrick sang this hymn when ambuscades were laid against his coming by Leoghaire, that he might not go to Tara to sow the faith. And then it appeared before those lying in ambush that they (Patrick and his monks) were wild deer with a fawn following them. And the name of this Lorica: Deer’s Cry.
Text of Saint Patrick's Breastplate
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim, In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels, In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs, In the predictions of prophets, In the preaching of apostles,
In the faith of confessors, In the innocence of holy virgins,
In the deeds of righteous men.
I arise today, through
The strength of heaven, The light of the sun, The radiance of the moon,
The splendor of fire, The speed of lightning, The swiftness of wind,
The depth of the sea, The stability of the earth, The firmness of rock.
I arise today, through
God's strength to pilot me, God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me, God's shield to protect me, God's host to save me
From snares of devils, From temptation of vices, From everyone who shall wish me ill, afar and near.
I summon today
All these powers between me and those evils, Against every cruel and merciless power that may oppose my body and soul, Against incantations of false prophets, Against black laws of pagandom, Against false laws of heretics, Against craft of idolatry, Against spells of women and smiths and wizards, Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul; Christ to shield me today, Against poison, against burning, Against drowning, against wounding, So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.
[I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.
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Many people don’t understand that this kind of small-town life still exists in America. You might think in stereotypes like Mayberry, but there aren’t really towns like that anymore, are there? Not Mayberry exactly, but yes, something similar and half a century later.
Ai”, has crashed the Celtic Festival, drunk, pushy, and getting in everyone’s face with some of the most obnoxious and un-authentic Celtic art of all time
Monday-Friday 9-5
Saturday 10-3
