Saint Patrick: Missionary to the Irish
Few people are more specifically connected to a location than
Saint Patrick is to Ireland. What many don’t realize is that the venerable
saint, whose feast day is celebrated by secular and faithful alike every March
17th, wasn’t Irish at all.
Patricius, as he was likely born, lived on the coast of Roman Britain. Irish pirates roamed the coasts in the 400s, and when Patrick was around the age of sixteen, his home was raided and he was taken captive.
His first experiences of Ireland were as a slave. He spent six years on the emerald isle, working as a shepherd and longing for home. Although he had grown up in a Christian household, with a father who was a deacon and a grandfather who served as a priest, Patrick would look back on his time as a slave as the time when his own Christian faith really came to life for the first time. He spent much of his time as a slave praying.
Deliverance came near the end of those six years. A voice told Patrick his ship was ready, but he had to travel 200 miles to reach it. The trip home was arduous, and Patrick was probably somewhere in his twenties when he finally reached his former home. No doubt their joy on seeing him was tremendous! And no doubt they assumed he would stay put for the rest of his days.
But it wasn’t to be so. Patrick’s time in Ireland had changed him irrevocably. The God he had gotten to know in his prayers there continued to speak to his heart, and the call he put on Patrick’s heart may have surprised many, including Patrick himself. Patrick was called to go back to Ireland, not as a slave, but as a missionary. After becoming a priest and then a bishop, he returned to the green land he’d known only as a captive, and he preached the Christian faith to all who would hear.
The conversion of pagan Ireland to Christianity in the mid-fifth century is attributed to Patrick and to those followed him. Ireland at the time was a land with many small kingdoms ruled by chieftains. Patrick wisely set up church governance along familiar lines.
The Christianity that flourished under Patrick included Irish strengths such as a great love and reverence for nature. It’s from various writings after Patrick’s time that we learn of some of the legendary things attributed to him, many of them connected to the natural world in some way. His association with shamrocks comes from the idea that he used a three-leaf clover to provide the Irish with an understanding of the Holy Trinity, the Christian teaching about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The fantastical legend that he drove all snakes out of Ireland is probably symbolic of his driving away evil, or the fact that Christianity replaced Druidism, which may have used snakes as one of its symbols.
Patricius, as he was likely born, lived on the coast of Roman Britain. Irish pirates roamed the coasts in the 400s, and when Patrick was around the age of sixteen, his home was raided and he was taken captive.
His first experiences of Ireland were as a slave. He spent six years on the emerald isle, working as a shepherd and longing for home. Although he had grown up in a Christian household, with a father who was a deacon and a grandfather who served as a priest, Patrick would look back on his time as a slave as the time when his own Christian faith really came to life for the first time. He spent much of his time as a slave praying.
Deliverance came near the end of those six years. A voice told Patrick his ship was ready, but he had to travel 200 miles to reach it. The trip home was arduous, and Patrick was probably somewhere in his twenties when he finally reached his former home. No doubt their joy on seeing him was tremendous! And no doubt they assumed he would stay put for the rest of his days.
But it wasn’t to be so. Patrick’s time in Ireland had changed him irrevocably. The God he had gotten to know in his prayers there continued to speak to his heart, and the call he put on Patrick’s heart may have surprised many, including Patrick himself. Patrick was called to go back to Ireland, not as a slave, but as a missionary. After becoming a priest and then a bishop, he returned to the green land he’d known only as a captive, and he preached the Christian faith to all who would hear.
The conversion of pagan Ireland to Christianity in the mid-fifth century is attributed to Patrick and to those followed him. Ireland at the time was a land with many small kingdoms ruled by chieftains. Patrick wisely set up church governance along familiar lines.
The Christianity that flourished under Patrick included Irish strengths such as a great love and reverence for nature. It’s from various writings after Patrick’s time that we learn of some of the legendary things attributed to him, many of them connected to the natural world in some way. His association with shamrocks comes from the idea that he used a three-leaf clover to provide the Irish with an understanding of the Holy Trinity, the Christian teaching about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The fantastical legend that he drove all snakes out of Ireland is probably symbolic of his driving away evil, or the fact that Christianity replaced Druidism, which may have used snakes as one of its symbols.
