Transmitting from the Mojave Wilderness in Joshua Tree, California, now is the time for Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

Night has fallen on the desert.

No matter where you are in the wild world, people are celebrating the evangelist saint of ancient Ireland.

He called himself Patricios, Patrician, Patriarch, father of His People, Enlisted Father.

That last one's the old Latin definition.

Originally to describe members of the Roman Senate.

Patrick's achievement was, so we are told,

the peaceful conversion of the polytheistic, nature-loving,

and supernaturally gifted people of Ireland to Roman Christianity.

It's something we celebrate today by dumping food coloring in the Chicago River.

And the grocery stores pile up the Guinness by the checkout lines.

And a lot of people who rarely take a drink go out and do it poorly.

Patrick was maybe the first and last person to bring anything peacefully to Ireland.

Maybe that's why the wild Irish of the late 4th and early 5th century let it happen.

Somebody was always raiding and colonizing Ireland.

The Vikings, Oliver Cromwell, scamy.com companies 15 or 20 years ago, etc.

Patrick had to convince the warlords and the kings and especially the wealthy women who supported his ministry that his magic could match the magic of the druids.

The druids for their part, are said to have prophecy Patrick's mission and its killing effect on the old sacred society of Ireland,

in which the druids held the roles of priest and judge, magician, and mystic.

Across the sea will come Ad's head, grazed in the head.

His cloak with a hole for the head, his stick bent in the head.

He will chant impieties from a table in the front of his house.

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