 MARCH 17, around 461 AD, St. Patrick died.
As a teenager, the Roman Legions guarding his community in Britain had
to be withdrawn to defend Rome, as invading heathen hordes, such as the
Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals and Huns, were overrunning the borders.
Unprotected, Britain was attacked by raiders, who carried away thousands.
Patrick was captured and sold as a slave in Ireland, which was ruled by the Druids, who practiced human sacrifice.
For six years Patrick herded animals for a Druid chieftain, as he wrote in his Confession:
"But after I came to Ireland---every day I had to tend sheep, and many
times a day I prayed---the love of God and His fear came to me more and
more, and my faith was strengthened.
And my spirit was moved
so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and
almost as many in the night, and this even when I was staying in the
woods and on the mountains; and I used to get up for prayer before
daylig ht, through snow, through frost, through rain...
There the Lord opened the sense of my unbelief that I might at last
remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God
who...comforted me as would a father his son."
Then Patrick had a dream, as he wrote:
"One night I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me: `It is well that
you fast, soon you will go to your own country.' And again...a voice
saying to me: `See, your ship is ready.' And it was not near, but at a
distance of perhaps two hundred miles...Then I took to flight...I went
in the strength of God who directed my way...until I came to that ship."
Patrick eventually made his way back to Britain and was reunited with what was left of his family.
Then, when he was about 40 years old, he had another dream  calling him back to Ireland as a missionary.
In his Confession, Patrick wrote:
"In the depth of the night, I saw a man named Victoricus coming as if
from Ireland, with innumerable letters, and he gave me one and while I
was reading I thought I heard the voice of those near the western sea
call out: 'Please, holy boy, come and walk among us again.'
Their cry pierced my very heart, and I could read no more, and so I awoke."
Patrick returned to Ireland, confronted the Druids, converted Chieftains, and used the three-leaf clover to teach the Trinity.
The Druids tried to ambush and kill Patrick nearly a dozen times:
"Daily I expect murder, fraud or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of Heaven."
Baptizing 120,000, Saint Patrick founded 300 churches. He wrote:
"Patrick the sinner, an unlearned man to be sure. None should ever say
that it was my ignorance that accomplished any small thing, it was the
gift of God."
In the next century, Irish missionaries sailed
back to Europe and evangelized the heathen hordes which had overrun the
Roman Empire.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment