“Patrick isn’t really a Saint with a capital S, having never been officially canonized by Rome. And Patrick couldn’t have driven the snakes out of Ireland because there were never any snakes there to begin with. He wasn’t even the first evangelist to Ireland (Palladius had been sent in 431, about five years before Patrick went). Patrick isn’t even Irish. He’s from what’s now Dumbarton, Scotland.” (Ted Olson, ChristianHistory.net).

Now that we have cleared away some of the mountain of mythical rubble concerning the Roman Briton Patricius, said to have been named Maewyn Succat at birth, we can remember him as one of the great Christian missionaries of the fifth century. No one would have predicted that Patrick’s life would lead to the evangelization of the Emerald Isle: as a sixteen year old son of a civil servant, he was seized by Irish raiders who swooped down on his village around the year 430. He served as a slave in Ireland, an utterly pagan and dangerous place of fierce tribes and bloodthirsty warriors. Patrick tended the pigs in the hills near his master’s palisade.

Patrick had heard the Gospel, probably from his own family, for Christianity had entered Britain many years before. Through about six years of slavery, he prayed and fasted and reflected on his faith in Christ. At the age of twenty-two, Patrick claimed to have received a supernatural message to flee to the coast where a ship would return him to his homeland. And so it was.

After several years with his family, some scholars believe he received some Biblical training in France. In any case, he dreamed that a man from Ireland appealed for him to bring the Gospel of Christ to the land of his enslavement. Patrick determined to take on the Druids and the demons that held sway over the hearts and minds of the Irish and off he went with his Bible, an unshakeable faith in God, and unbounded courage.

Patrick took his message directly to the chiefs of the various kingdoms, knowing that winning the leaders to Christ would likely lead to the conversion of many of the common folk. He followed the Apostle Paul’s admonition to choose elders among groups of Christians who were organized into local churches and this he rarely failed to accomplish. His message of repent and believe was the simple Gospel but he obviously remained to teach and disciple where he met with success. He debated the Druidical shamans and did battle with the demons of the Celts. The important results of the planting of Christianity in Ireland cannot be overestimated as teams of Irish missionaries took the Word of God to many people of the British Isles and mainland Europe and were instrumental in preserving the Scriptures from the barbarian invaders that would come in succeeding centuries.

Patrick lived a life of thankfulness to God and constant repentance for he did not underestimate his own sinfulness and failures. He left behind his autobiographical Confession and Letter to Coroticus, both considered authentic by modern scholars. The man now known as “St. Patrick” left a simple but profound legacy: For God gave me such grace, that many people through me were reborn to God and afterward confirmed and brought to perfection. And so then a clergy was ordained for them everywhere.
Think on these things as you watch the cavorting green-clad revelers, the oversized pugnacious leprechauns, and the green beer brought to you by the modern “St. Patrick’s Day” celebrants on March 17th.

Bill Potter