Once
again, St. Patrick’s Day is upon us. While we commemorate the patron saint of
the Emerald Isle, we should pause for a moment to thoughtfully consider: Who
was this man?
Legends about Patrick
abound; but truth is best served by our seeing two solid qualities in him: He
was humble and he was courageous. The determination to accept suffering and
success with equal indifference guided the life of God’s instrument for winning
most of Ireland for Christ.
Details of his
life are uncertain. Current research places his dates of birth and death a
little later than earlier accounts. Patrick may have been born in Dunbarton,
Scotland, Cumberland, England, or in northern Wales. He called himself both a
Roman and a Briton. At 16, he and a large number of his father’s slaves and
vassals were captured by Irish raiders and sold as slaves in Ireland. Forced to
work as a shepherd, he suffered greatly from hunger and cold.
After six years,
Patrick escaped, probably to France, and later returned to Britain at the age
of 22. His captivity had meant spiritual conversion. . . . His great desire was
to proclaim the Good News to the Irish.
In a dream vision
it seemed “all the children of Ireland from their mothers’ wombs were
stretching out their hands” to him. He understood the vision to be a call to do
mission work in pagan Ireland. Despite opposition from those who felt his
education had been defective, he was sent to carry out the task. He went to the
west and north, where the faith had never been preached, obtained the
protection of local kings and made numerous converts.
He suffered much
opposition from pagan druids and was criticized in both England and Ireland for
the way he conducted his mission.
In a relatively short time, the island had experienced deeply the Christian spirit, and was prepared to send out missionaries whose efforts were greatly responsible for Christianizing Europe.1
I like the opening observation that he had two “solid qualities,” viz. humility and courage. Oh, that we would have such solid qualities of heart and soul!
It is further observed,
Patrick was a humble, pious, gentle man, whose love and total devotion to and trust in God should be a shining example to each of us. So complete was his trust in God, and of the importance of his mission, he feared nothing—not even death.2
Here we discover the bedrock of his exemplary character: love for, total devotion to, and complete confidence in God. This is not the way of the world—and look at the rotting fruits of godless living and thinking!
But Jesus calls us to a different Way than that of the world. He says, Follow Me.
Will we do this? Will we trust Him and His Way in every aspect of our lives? I assure you, following Jesus and His Way is the greatest privilege we will ever have in this life or in the life to come.
I
leave you with a prayerful verse penned by St. Patrick.
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1http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1325
2http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=89