Jubilee Saint: Patrick of Ireland
Continuing our series of saints who embodied some part of the jubilee, we focus this week on a fan favorite of American Catholics: Patrick of Ireland, the Apostle of the Emerald Isle. A lot of us think we know the story of Saint Patrick, but some of his story might surprise you.
Surprising fact #1: Patrick was not born in Ireland, nor was he Irish! He was born on the island of Britain (the ancient Roman territory) around the year 387. Though raised in a Christian family, Patrick was not particularly religious. But one day while walking at his family’s house near the water, he was captured by Irish pirates who took him back to their island and enslaved him for six years as a shepherd. Though Ireland’s native religion, ministered by the pagan Druids, was still universal on the island, it was in exile that Patrick found God. In the midst of his grief and desolation, he wrote in his Confessions, that “the love of God and his fear grew in me more and more…I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn.” After six years, he heard a voice one day telling him that he would soon go home and that his ship was ready. He escaped and travelled 200 miles to the port and convinced the captain to take him aboard to Britain.
God had a very specific purpose for freeing Patrick from slavery. Freed from physical slavery, Patrick would continually remember those who were spiritually enslaved to the darkness of unbelief. A few years after returning home, he was visited in a vision by a man from Ireland who brought the voices of his people who cried out to Patrick, “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.” He took this voice to heart and began his studies for the priesthood so he could minister among them. He arrived on the island in 433 at the age of 46 and began to convert the local chieftains and nobles to Christianity with his preaching and miracles. The Irish High King started an annual festival with a ceremonial fire to the gods, before which no one could light theirs. Patrick built a fire so big and strong that the Druid priests could not put it out, and the King was convinced that his pagan rituals were either useless or very immoral (as when they offered human sacrifice). He allowed Patrick to preach freely throughout Ireland, which he did successfully by converting the nobility’s sons and daughters to establish monasteries as his priests and nuns.
There are many other legends about Saint Patrick, some of which are undoubtedly true and others less so. He taught the Trinity with the shamrock, banished snakes from the island, changed into a deer to escape from his persecutors, raised many people from the dead to witness to Christianity, and talked a Celtic god to death. But one thing remains true: rescued himself, he went on to rescue many others for God. He lived the jubilee mission of ‘setting free the captives’ all throughout his ministry. May he intercede for us and those we know who are in slavery of unbelief!