Saint Patrick’s Day

Patrick was born in Roman-controlled Britain in about 390 AD. When he was a youth, Irish barbarians attacked his village and took him captive to Ireland, where he was sold as a slave to a feudal king.

In Thomas Cahill’s book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, Patrick is described as a slave-shepherd. “The work of such slave-shepherds was bitterly isolated, months at a time spent alone in the hills.”

As Patrick faced his first months of loneliness, hunger, illness and despair, he began seeking God. He later wrote in his book, Confessions, “I would pray constantly during the daylight hours” and “the love of God . . . surrounded me more and more.”

After six tough years, Patrick had a life-changing dream. The message: “Your hungers are rewarded. You are going home. Look – your ship is ready.”

Almost immediately, Patrick snubbed his fear of punishment, left his flock, and walked two hundred miles to the Irish coast. There, he found a ship and traveled back to Britain, where he joined a monastery and ultimately became a priest.

Years later, Patrick couldn’t deny his love for the Irish people and his calling to return to them. Ireland was now dominated by full-scale barbarism, where murder, rape, slavery, and even human sacrifice were commonplace. Nonetheless, Patrick wrote, “I am ready to be murdered, betrayed, enslaved – whatever may come my way.”

He was compelled to return for the Irish people.

"Daily I expect murder, fraud or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of Heaven.”

Historian Thomas Cahill concludes, “Only this former slave had the right instincts to impart to the Irish a New Story, one that made sense of all their old stories and brought them a peace they had never known before.”

It is estimated that Saint Patrick baptized 120,000 people and founded 300 churches in Ireland. Patrick later wrote: "Patrick the sinner, an unlearned man to be sure. None should ever say that it was my ignorance that accomplished any small thing, it was the gift of God."