St. Patrick, Missionary to Ireland
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| Kilbennan St. Benin's Church Window |
As we consider Patrick’s life, it is hard to
separate fact from fiction. Historian Stephen Neill remarks: “Much in [Patrick’s]
life history is obscure, and later legend has confused still more the scanty
data which we have from Patrick’s own pen.” One of those legends would have it
that Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland into the sea. Another has him
using a shamrock to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity, three persons in one
God, to an unbeliever. There is also a legend that Patrick and his company were
miraculously spared from death in ambush when those lying in wait for him saw them
as eight deer and a fawn with a bundle on its shoulder. (Whitly Stokes, The Tripartite
Life, p. 41-47). This legend is linked to a hymn attributed to Patrick
known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.”
Here’s what we do know historically. Patrick
was born into a Christian family in Roman Britain about AD 389. Raiders from
Ireland pillaged the coast and carried Patrick back with them as a slave. Sent
to herd pigs, Patrick served six years and pondered his fate and his faith. Led
by a dream, he escaped his captivity and headed toward the sea.
He finally made his way to France, where he
became a monk and a priest. But he never forgot the land of his captivity, as
he himself said: “I heard calling me the voices of those who dwelt beside the
wood of Foclut which is nigh to the western sea, and thus they cried: ‘We
beseech thee, holy youth, to come and walk again amongst us as before.’”
Elevated to be bishop, Patrick returned to the
land of his captivity about AD 433 to set his captors free from their slavery
to idolatry. In this labor he spent the rest of his days. He preached
throughout the land, founded communities, and imparted to the Irish church of
his day a true zeal for missions. As he carried out his work, Patrick encountered
much opposition—from the representatives of the old religion, from the kings
whom he tried to convert, from British raiders who disrupted his work and
massacred his converts. But he outlived his enemies and wore down the
opposition and at the time of his death Ireland was largely a Christian
country.
An ardent and orthodox confessor of the
doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Patrick brought the joy of confessing the “Three
in One and One in Three” through the length and breadth of the Island during
his life. March 17th is generally regarded as the day of His death. In
his autobiography, Confession, Patrick wrote, “This is how we can repay
such blessings, when our lives change and we come to know God, to praise and
bear witness to His great wonders before every nation under heaven.”
And so, we thank God for this faithful
missionary who served the church and his adopted people of Ireland by bringing them
the Gospel of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. May we boldly share our faith
wherever our Lord plants us.
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