Have you ever wondered about Saint Patrick? Since St. Patrick’s Day is coming up on Wednesday, here’s the lowdown on Saint Pat, and all the green traditions that go along with the day. Admittedly, this article is longer than most (a lot longer!), but once you read it, you’ll know more about Patrick and his wonderful March holiday than most people know! While you’re at it, please check out our Saint Patrick’s Day media to use in your emails, updates, or bulletins!
Just about everyone knows about St. Patrick’s Day. You know—the day that you’re supposed to wear green clothes. St. Patrick’s day is usually associated with four-leaf clovers, leprechauns, the Irish, and Catholics. Even though it’s not an official holiday, it is still a widely observed day, being remembered by the people of the U.K., Catholics, Anglicans, Eastern Orthodox, and people of Irish descent. Although most people know about the day, very few people know about the man behind the day. Who was Patrick? And what should we know about him?
Patrick: Will the real Saint Patrick please stand?
Unfortunately, getting at the truth of who Patrick was isn’t all that easy. There are several challenges in the way. For one, he lived a very, very long time ago—over sixteen hundred years ago. Beyond that, he lived in an age and place where not much was preserved in the way of written history. In fact, Patrick’s extant writings are some of the only writings that we have from that period in Irish history. Unfortunately, Patrick was not a prolific writer, and the little that he did write is sometimes difficult to understand. One of the most challenging aspects of trying to get to the truth about Patrick is the collection of myths, legends, and hagiography surrounding his life. It’s the kind of situation that happens when some great person leads an impressive life. After he or she dies, people start concocting stories—and it really doesn’t matter if they’re true or not—about the person’s life. For example, an actual American lumberjack may have inspired the tales of Paul Bunyan, but I’m fairly confident that Paul and Babe the Blue Ox didn’t dig the Grand Canyon, carve out the Great Lakes, or build Mount Hood. Those who want to find out the truth about Patrick must peel back layer after layer of legend to find out the facts.
Patrick: Why study him?
So, why are we studying an obscure figure from the ancient past, who lived in a foreign country, spoke a different language, and wrote very little? What have we to gain from this study? A lot.
A History Lesson. As we peer into the past, back hundreds and hundreds of years ago, we’re going to get a great history lesson. You may not be the biggest fan of history, but bear with me. A study of Patrick’s life will give us a glimpse into the legendary life of the Celts, will explain the opening of Ireland to the faith, and will help us to understand the missionary activity of the nascent church.
A Spiritual Encouragement. Also, we will gain encouragement from Patrick’s life. He wasn’t a miracle-working supersaint. He was man—dedicated to God and devoted to obedience. And God used him. We’ll focus on these lessons more at the end of our time, but for now, understand that learning about the life of Patrick is intended to encourage us to greater spiritual growth.
That’s worth taking thirty minutes to study, so let’s jump right into a better understanding of who this man was and his significance in history.
Dates
Although much of his life is shrouded in legend, there is no question that a real Patrick lived and died. Determining the exact dates of when he lived and died is a bit more difficult. He was probably born around the year 387, and died around 463. Regardless of the exact chronology, we know that he lived most of his life in the fifth century A.D.
Cultural Milieu
Britain during the time of Patrick was part of the expansive Roman Empire. Privileged to receive Roman defense, Roman walls (to defend from the still-savage tribes of the North), and Roman roads, Britain became a more civilized land. The barbaric Celtic peoples had settled into peaceful patterns of agriculture, and Patrick’s own hometown was comfortable, if not a bit quaint. Patrick’s town probably had a Christian church, though much of the land still practiced pagan traditions syncretistically with the official Christianity of the Roman Empire.
Origin
Because of Patrick’s close association with Ireland, most people assume that he was from Ireland. Not so. Actually, Patrick was a Briton. Presumably, his family was part of the landed upper class. His parents would have owned and managed an estate as well as played a role in the administration of the local Roman governance. Both Patrick’s grandfather (Poitus) and father (Calpornius) were officers in the Christian church, most likely deacons. Patrick was destined for a life of political authority and material wealth.
Early Years
As part of the educated aristocracy, Patrick received the conventional education in Latin. He put his Latin to use later in his writings. Patrick didn’t have the privilege of higher education, and this seemed to be a sharp regret of his, even an embarrassment, later in life. He wrote in his Confession, “Today I blush and fear exceedingly to reveal my lack of education; for I am unable to tell my story to those versed in the art of concise writing—in such a way, I mean, as my spirit and mind long to do.”
The teen years, as we all know, are notorious for strong temptations and regrettable acts. Patrick rebelled against his parents and against their faith. He declared himself an atheist. During this time of personal tumult, Patrick committed some atrocious sin, a sin so atrocious that it haunted him all his life, and even threatened to undo his ministry years after he committed it. Obviously, we are curious to know what kind of sinful atrocity could have had such far-reaching effects. We may never know, but scholarly theorizing points to sexual immorality, idolatry, or even murder.
One day, Patrick’s life changed in an instant. Irish slave raiders swooped on his unsuspecting pastoral town. Bent on massacre, pillage, and choice slaves, they ruined the little hamlet and snatched away Patrick and others as slaves. The Irish raiders had rounded up thousands from their British campaign and stuffed their human merchandise into dangerous and uncomfortable slave ships. These victims were on their way to Ireland to be sold as slaves. Ireland was a barbarian island nation, cannibalistic, pagan, and primitive. Patrick was sold to a farmer of western Ireland and worked as a shepherd for six years—years of intense toil, grueling conditions, and a troubled soul.
But Patrick recognized the value of his tenure as a slave. He wrote, “God used the time to shape and mold me into something better.” In that statement, he recognized the loving sovereignty of God who performs what is good in our life, molding and shaping us to become more like Jesus.
Call and Conversion
For Patrick, these difficulties drove him to God. Patrick went from a scoffing, young nobleman to a desperate, helpless slave. But in his desperation, he turned to God for salvation. He began praying. He began fasting. And God answered his prayers in an unusual way. Patrick received a dream in which he heard the message, “Behold, your ship is ready.” Patrick understood this dream to be a prophesy of his escape. Patrick would attempt to run away.
We lack details about the actual escape, but we do know that his ultimate destination, an eastern port of Ireland, was a two hundred mile trek. The arduous journey seemed to end in defeat, because when Patrick finally arrived at the port, he tried to gain access to a ship that was about to sail for Britain. Asking to board, he was met with stern resistance from the ship’s captain, and dejectedly walked away. As he trudged back the way he came, he heard shouting from the ship. “Come back! We’ll take you!” Patrick was allowed a position aboard the ship, and he eventually arrived in his homeland of Britain.
But Patrick was not simply going to settle in to a life of comfortable nobility once more. Now, at twenty-one, he had fully given his life to God. God began to work in Patrick’s heart, calling him back to the land from which had just come as a slave. God called him to return as a missionary.
The call came in the form of dreams. Patrick records a dream of a man named Victoricus who presented Patrick with a pile of letters. The letters, which were from Ireland, were an appeal for Patrick’s return. It would seem highly improbable that a young man with his life before him—a life of wealth, authority, prestige, and potential—would give it up on the basis of an odd dream. It is even more unlikely that he would actually return to the barbaric land and to the very people who brutalized him and subjected him to humiliating slavery. Yet Patrick knew he must obey the commission, so after a period of training and church experience, he returned to Ireland as a missionary.
Missionary Activity in Ireland
Patrick was determined to go to the most unreached areas of Ireland. Patrick and his contemporaries thought that Ireland was the end of the earth, the extreme northern reaches of the globe. His desire to take the Gospel where it had not been named, and a belief in the imminent return of the Lord, inspired his mission. His first foray was to the savage tribes of the far north of the island—tribes who were steeped in Druid paganism. He preached constantly and baptized people by the thousands, eagerly pursuing their evangelization. Patrick had another goal, however, and that was to encourage the scattered believers throughout the island.
He was a tireless, driving, enduring man. The difficulties that he faced in the evangelism of the Irish were staggering, and would have stopped a lesser man. God equipped Patrick with a bold character. This boldness was necessary in the Irish culture, in which all the odds were stacked against the reception of Christianity. Patrick did not hesitate to walk up to a Druid idol, and with a swift blow from his staff, topple the idol to the ground. Then, he would preach the gospel. Evangelistic methods like that are not returned with kindness. He was beaten, robbed, imprisoned, hounded by tyrants, and even sentenced to death. Like Paul, Patrick employed a team approach in his missionary activity. He also ordained clergy in the churches he planted around Ireland.
To best accomplish his evangelistic program, Patrick probably focused his efforts on the kings or chieftains of a certain region, or at least their children. When the leader converted to Christianity, his people would surely follow. However, much of Patrick’s labors were from farm community to farm community, slowly and systematically preaching the gospel to each family unit or small community.
Later Ministry
One key aspect of Patrick’s ministry was a conflict he had with a man by the name of Coroticus, to whom Patrick addressed a strong and heavy-handed letter of condemnation for his abduction of Patrick’s converts into slavery. Patrick’s excoriation of Coroticus, King of Alt Clut, raised the ire of British religious influentials, who wished to limit Patrick’s growing authority. They summoned Patrick to trial. This trial influenced Patrick to write his Confession, which, along with his Letter to Coroticus, are the only extant works of Patrick.
It was during the actual trial that Patrick’s sin from years before was raised as an attempt to discredit his current ministry. Patrick is quick to assure his accusers, British bishops, of his current blamelessness in ministry.
History is silent regarding the end of Patrick’s ministry, but we know that by the time of the trial, he had seen an amazing awakening in Ireland. As an old man and battle-scarred hero, Patrick could look back with joy and thanksgiving on a race well run. In true missionary spirit, he wrote in his Confession, “If I have ever done anything worthwhile for the God I love, I ask that I might be allowed to die here for his name with these converts and slaves.”
Patrick’s missionary enterprises are now shrouded in myth and legend. Patrick was purportedly a great miracle worker, accomplishing the healing of many and even raising people from the dead. In the stories of his power encounters with Druid demonism, we read stories of Patrick walking through closed doors, going for months without food, turning men into deer so they could escape capture, turning men into foxes to inflict punishment on them, causing impenetrable darkness to suddenly occur and other fantastic tales. One of the most familiar legends of Patrick is his banishing snakes from Ireland. He was said to have taught the doctrine of the Trinity by using the three-leaved shamrock as a visual representation of the truth the three-in-one Godhead.
Patrick was not the first Christian to bring the gospel to Ireland. Credit for that goes to a man by the name of Palladius, who predated Patrick’s mission to Ireland by several years. It is Patrick’s ministry, evidently farther-reaching than Palladius’s, that we know best. Here is a brief survey of Patrick’s legacy.
Sainthood
Because of his obvious sincerity and fervor, the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church have sainted Patrick. He is hailed as an Irish national hero to this day.
Patron Saint of Ireland
Because he is attributed with turning Ireland from a nation of barbarians to a nation of Christians, Patrick is the patron saint of the country.
Missionary Movement
Patrick also had an impact far beyond what he could have achieved personally. After his death, Ireland became home to a fervent spirituality, mostly sustained by disciplined monastic orders. The monks of Ireland were so respected that they helped steer a course of orthodoxy for the church in the years to come. The monasteries of Ireland became renowned for their heights of scholarship. The influence of Irish monasticism spread beyond the tiny island, as Irish missionary monks blanketed the continent. These peregrini preached a message of high morals and a transformed life to the pagans in Germany, Italy, and beyond. The most famous of Irish missionary monks is Columba, to whom is attributed the evangelism of the Picts. History also remembers eleven other influential “apostles,” as they came to be called, from Ireland.
St. Patrick’s Day
The most obvious legacy that Patrick has left us is March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. The Catholics consider it a feast day, and many of the devout attend Mass on this day. Although the day is dominated by parades, green clothes, beer-drinking, and green-dyed rivers, it is a day inspired by the original Patrick who witnessed a Christian awakening in a land darkened by paganism.
Orthodoxy
In a day rife with the heresy of Pelagianism, Patrick steers a completely orthodox course in his Confession and the other writings attributed to him. The beginning of the Confession records a few lines from a contemporary creed, perhaps developed in part by Patrick, that displays a remarkable incisiveness regarding the nature of the Godhead and even the hypostatic union.
Restoration: The defeats of the past ought not to keep us from victory in the future.
Patrick was a sinner. And, evidently, he committed a grievous sin during his teenage years. However vile his sin was, it did not keep him from becoming one of the most memorable and respected missionaries of all time. Take encouragement from this fact, and do not let past sin prevent you from present service. God chooses not to use perfect people for His work, and He has a plan for you, regardless of your past.
Sacrifice: “No sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”
Although this quotation is borrowed from the missionary C.T. Studd, it is an apt phrase for Patrick’s life, too. Patrick, like Studd, gave up a life of immense promise—wealth, nobility, political prestige, recognition, and comfort—to “suffer” as a missionary. His life, ravaged by torturous travel and spiritual travail, was not a life of ease. But it was a life of reward. Like Livingstone, who despite his privations, claimed to have never made a sacrifice, Patrick realized that true joy is found in giving one’s all for the sake of Jesus. Realize that you, too, have the opportunity to sacrifice—be it a career, a comfortable American life, or personal renown—for the sake of the gospel.
Humility: “God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).
Today, pride is often accepted or excused as merely a personality thing, or something that is not that big of a deal. Is this God’s view of pride? According to Proverbs 6:17, it is definitely not. Patrick was a man who demonstrated true humility. For all his great experiences and ultimate triumph in evangelizing thousands of Irish, he would be justified in being somewhat proud of his illustrious accomplishments. Yet the tenor of his Confession, and even the vituperative Letter, demonstrate a remarkable humility that should be a lesson in humility to us—we who will probably accomplish far less in our lifetime than Patrick did in his.
Mission: “The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed” (Hudson Taylor).
In an age bereft of missionary activity, Patrick is contrasting figure. His ultimate legacy is not March 17th, shamrock legends, or Irish sainthood. His ultimate legacy is in the thousands, and—who knows?—the millions of souls who heard the salvation message because of his influence. Patrick was a missionary. He was a cross-cultural, gospel-preaching missionary. He knew that Jesus’ commission demanded his obedience. We, like Patrick, stand face-to-face with a commission that demands our obedience—the commission to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt. 28:19-20).