PATRICK

"I entreat those who believe in and fear God ... that nobody shall ever ascribe to my ignorance any trivial thing that I achieved or may have expounded that was pleasing to God, but accept and truly believe that it would have been the gift of God."

As I read about St. Patrick, I am left in awe of all that God did in and through him. I will attempt here to set forth a relatively brief summary of Patrick's life, using largely his own testimony.

"I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many" was born in 385 to a deacon in the Catholic church in Gaul (Great Britain). Despite the Godly influence of his father, he followed the majority of his countrymen in rejecting God. He writes that when he was 16, "I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our desserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation."

The young boy was taken to Ireland and sold as a slave to a chief named Milcho. He was placed in charge of the sheep and had many hours of solitude. This was much to his advantage in one sense, because "there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God." He did not have anyone to train him out there, but he spent as much time as he could talking directly to God. " I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow,in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time."

One night, after about 6 years, as he slept he heard a voice telling him that he would soon depart for his home country and that his ship was ready. He escaped from his captor and made a 200 mile journey through unknown territory to the coast "by the power of God who directed my route to advantage (I was afraid of nothing), until I reached that ship." Just for context, 200 miles would take 2 3/4 hours in a car on the freeway. That's about the distance between Minneapolis and Alexandria, and Patrick walked it without having any clue where he was going. After a journey that possibly took months, Patrick arrived on the exact day that the ship was leaving.

He asked to go aboard but the steersman refused. Patrick turned around and started to pray. Before he had finished, he heard one of the men shouting after him, "Come quickly because the men are calling you." So he boarded the ship.

Three days later they reached land and started walking. 28 days later they still hadn't reached civilization and their food ran out. The steersman, who apparently still didn't want Patrick along, started to mock him. "You say your God is great and all-powerful; then why can you not pray for us? ... it is unlikely indeed that we shall ever see another human being." Patrick, who had evidently been preaching to his crew mates for last month, replied, "Be converted by faith with all your heart to my Lord God, because nothing is impossible for him, so that today he will send food for you on your road, until you be sated, because everywhere he abounds." Sure enough, within a short time a heard of pigs wandered across the road and the crew was saved. It was just in time, because many of the men had recently fainted and would have been left beside the road to die. For the rest of the journey the crew had food.

That very same night as Patrick was sleeping "Satan attacked me violently... and there fell on top of me as it were, a huge rock, and not one of my members had any force." Patrick did not know what to do, but called out. He writes "I believe that I was aided by Christ my Lord, and that his Spirit then was crying out for me." He quotes from scripture, "In that hour, the Lord declares, 'it is not you who speaks but the Spirit of your Father speaking in you.'"

After 10 days the crew reached civilization, just as they were about to run out of food again. Patrick returned home, though historians believe that most of his immediate family had been killed in the raid. His kinsfolk asked him to never leave again. He had not intention to! But then he received a vision...

TO BE CONTINUED!