“I Am Patrick”
All
was quiet as Patrick and his charioteer, Odhran, drove through
the fog-enshrouded Irish landscape. Suddenly, a spear sliced
through the air and plunged into Odhran, killing him instantly.
Patrick knew the spear had been meant for him, sent flying
from the hands of a druid priest. Once again Patrick had
narrowly escaped death.
The story behind St. Patrick’s Day is about a real man who lived and worked to bring Christianity to Ireland. Tall tales and legends surround him, but the living St. Patrick was a kind, gentle man who loved the people of Ireland and devoted his life to helping them.
Patrick was born around A.D. 385 in what is now Great Britain. He spent his childhood exploring the area around the coast and listening to his father, Calpurnius, preach to the townsfolk.
When
Patrick was sixteen, his village was attacked by a band
of Irish warriors.
“I was taken captive as a mere child,” Patrick
wrote in his autobiography, Confession. He was
sold into slavery along with hundreds of others.
For six long years, Patrick tended his captor’s herds in the rolling green fields of Ireland. “I was reduced by hunger and poor clothing,” he wrote. “Every day I was in Ireland I had to travel against my will.”
During the long, harsh days alone with the herds, Patrick began to pray. Little by little, his faith in God and Christianity grew. “More and more my love of God and reverence for Him began to increase,” he wrote. “My faith grew and my spirit was stirred up.”
Finally, when he was twenty-two, Patrick managed to escape his bondage and return to his family. But by now his love of Christianity had made him determined to become a priest and return to Ireland to preach there. For twelve years he lived in a monastery and studied. Then, tearfully bidding his family and friends good-bye, he set off for Ireland.
At this time, most Irish people worshipped pagan gods. As Patrick traveled the countryside and spoke of his beliefs, many people became eager to learn about the new way of life he preached. But the druids—priests of the old religion—attacked and persecuted Patrick and anyone who followed him.
Patrick knew he needed help against the druids, so he went to the court to gain favor of the Irish High King, Laoghaire. Although the king wouldn’t convert to Christianity, he was impressed with Patrick and how bravely he handled the druids’ attacks. King Laoghaire allowed Patrick to preach, and many people in the royal court became Christians.
But the druids were not finished with Patrick. They were bitter about his friendship with the king, and kept trying to get rid of him. “I daily expect to be murdered or robbed or reduced to slavery,” he wrote.
Not only was he in constant danger, but he also missed his family terribly. “I have given up country and kinsfolk,” he wrote. But his devotion to the Irish people overpowered his homesickness again and again. “How dearly I would love to go, like a man going to his homeland and relatives,” he wrote. “I yearn for it, but the Lord told me to come here and stay with the Irish for the rest of my life.”
Patrick traveled the Irish countryside for thirty years, building more than three hundred churches and schools throughout the land. He died in Ireland on March 17, around A.D. 461.
“I cannot hide the gift of God which He gave me in the land of my captivity,” Patrick wrote. “There I sought Him and there I found Him.”
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The shamrock might be as important a symbol to Ireland as the bald eagle is to America. Many say that St. Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to teach people the Christian Trinity. The leaves represent the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Irish Americans held the first St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York in 1762. Ireland didn’t have its own parade until it borrowed the idea from the United States in 1969. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City is the world’s largest. Every year, more than 120,000 people participate.
