The Life of Saint Patrick

People are often surprised to learn that St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, was not actually Irish. He was born Maewyn Succat in Roman Britain in ca.AD 389, in a place called Bannavem Taberniae or Banna Venta Berniae. The exact location of his birthplace is not certain; some historians speculate it was somewhere on the west coast of England, possibly near Carlisle, while others think it may have been in Scotland or Wales.

Patrick came from a fairly well-to-do family. His father Calpurnius was a member of the town council and a church deacon, and his grandfather Potitis was a priest, but as a boy, Patrick expressed no interest in the Christian religion.

When he was sixteen, Patrick's life drastically changed. He was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland, where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next six years as a shepherd, wandering the green hills and watching the flocks in solitude. It was during this time that he underwent a conversion; his faith grew, and he felt close to God.

One night while he was sleeping, he heard the voice of God speaking to him in a dream, saying, "Behold, thy ship is ready." Patrick fled his captors and traveled two hundred miles from County Mayo to a port on the coast, where he found a ship about to set sail. Persuading the captain to let him work for his passage, he eventually made his way home to Britain.

After he returned home, he had another visionary dream which inspired him to return to Ireland as a missionary. As a result of this dream, he went to Gaul (present day France) and studied to become a priest in the monasteries of Lerins and Auxerre. His training lasted for fifteen years; at the end of that time, Patrick returned to Ireland as a priest.

While not the first Christian priest to go to Ireland, he was by far the most successful in converting the Irish people. During the course of his mission there he baptized thousands, including the families of the Irish kings, established churches, and ordained other priests.

According to legend, he used the shamrock to illustrate the concept of the Holy Trinity, three divine persons in one God, by showing the three leaves coming from a single stem. He also incorporated some of the existing pagan traditions into his teachings, such as creating the Celtic cross by overlaying a circle representing the sun, a symbol highly venerated by the Irish, on top of the traditional Christian cross.

Patrick died on March 17, 461. He is reputedly buried at Down Cathedral, in Downpatrick, County Down, in Northern Ireland.

Attributed to Saint Patrick is the lovely prayer called "The Rune of Saint Patrick":

At Tara today in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And fire with all the strength it hath,
And lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick

http://www.history.com/content/stpatricksday/who-was-st.-patrick

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick

http://prayerfoundation.org/st_patrick_pages_index.htm