Happy St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick

He was born in the village of Bonnaventa in Western England, of a middle class family, about 389 AD. As the son of a Roman citizen, he was given a Roman name, Patricius. He felt a divine message, a call to convert the Irish to Christianity. Patrick was dowered with the relics of Peter and Paul, made a Bishop, and sent to Ireland. He found there, on the throne of Tara, an enlightened pagan, Laeghaire. Patrick failed to convert the king, but won full favor to carry out his mission.

Pious tradition tells a hundred fascinating stories of his miracles: he gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, cleansed the lepers, cast out devils, redeemed captives, raised nine persons from the dead, and wrote 365 books.

But probably it was Patrick's character, rather than his wonders, that converted the Irish- the undoubting confidence of his belief, and the passionate persistence of his work. He ordained priests, built churches, established monasteries and nunneries, and left strong spiritual garrisons to guard his conquests at every turn. He made it seem a supreme adventure to enter the ecclesiastical state; he gathered about his men and women of courage and devotion, who endured every privation to spread the good news that man was redeemed.

He did not convert all Ireland; some pockets of paganism and its poetry survived, and leave traces to this day; but when he died in 461 AD, it could be said of him, as no other, that one man had converted a nation.

Will Duran
The Age of Reason