St Patrick Archives - Finding direction

17 March 2010

The Truth about St Patrick

I’m re-publishing to the blog here an article I wrote many years ago (with a few minor changes) about St Patrick. Without further ado, here it is!

Patricius (Patrick)

385 – 465 AD (?)

Have you ever had a dream, only to have it shot down by the people around you? Maybe they’re doubtful of your abilities, or think that the thing you want to accomplish is impossible. If so, maybe you’ll be interested in how one man accomplished the impossible with the power of God, and changed the course of history…

Patrick (Patricius) was born to a noble family, and at least a third generation Christian, the son of a deacon (also a “decurion”, an important magistrate) and grandson of a priest. He was born in southwest Britain, and so was a Roman citizen, likely in the 380s AD. Early in his life, however, he did not follow his parent’s example. But when he was 16 years old, God got his attention.

Fierce Irish raiders broke through the now weak defences of Roman Britain, and attacked Patrick’s town. He was carried away as a slave, sold to a warrior chief, and was sent to work in Ireland caring for livestock. Suffering from constant hunger, cold and loneliness, he turned to God for strength, and from then on became a man of prayer.

County Mayo, Ireland, where Patrick may have worked as a slave.
Photo courtesy of Jim Moran

When Patrick was about 22 years old, he heard a voice saying, “You do well to fast. Soon you will return to your homeland.” Soon the voice spoke again,”Come and see, your ship is waiting for you.”

Taking this as his queue to escape, he fled about 300km (185mi) to a southeastern harbour, where he boarded a trade ship, and eventually made it back to Britain.

Finally safe at home, the story could have ended happily with that reunion with family and friends. But then, Patrick had a dream – the Irish people were calling to him – “Please, holy youth, come and walk with us again.” Patrick’s heart was moved for his former captors, and he decided to go.

It’s likely that Patrick first went to Gaul (France) to study at a church, and in time was ordained as a deacon. The church leaders were apparently not confident in Patrick’s ability as a missionary, and at first sent another man. But after only a year the first worker passed away, and Patrick, now past 40, was at last allowed to go to Ireland.

In later years, Patrick would write:

For by descent I was a freeman, born of a decurion father; yet I have sold this nobility of mine, I am not ashamed, nor do I regret that it might have meant some advantage to others. In short, I am a slave in Christ to this faraway people for the indescribable glory of “everlasting life which is in Jesus Christ our Lord”.

Patrick’s Mission

When Patrick arrived, aside from a few small churches, most of the Irish were pagans, worshipping everything from planets to plants. Magic and even human sacrifice was practised by the druids and priests. Patrick’s strategy was not to take away people’s beliefs in spirits, but to expose the spirits as demons and show that God’s power was greater.

Of course, he met with stiff opposition, and was constantly in danger of being murdered by the druids. Patrick, however, convinced a local king to tolerate Christianity, and when the king’s brother was converted, Patrick was granted land on which to build a place for a church to meet.

Soon he moved on to other unreached areas. When there was a group of new Christians, he would build a church, and, if he had the support of a wealthy landowner, he would also build a monastery, as a centre of learning and missionary training centre. In only fifteen years’ time he had evangelized across Ireland, and was now well known as a man of God. He planted some hundred churches and baptized perhaps a hundred thousand believers. All this in spite of the fact that he still felt he was uneducated compared to many he worked with, and was often very nervous to speak.

The Power of One

The Celtic churches and Celtic missionary movement were largely a result of Patrick’s ministry. Women played a large role in the ministry, although Patrick himself was careful not to even accept gifts from women, to avoid any mark on his reputation. Patrick continued in ministry for 30 years, and it’s said that Ireland became fully literate for the first time in his generation. He died in the 460s, in his 70s.

The heritage that Patrick left is still with us today, even in the area of law. Patrick was instrumental in laying the foundations of law in Ireland based on the ten commandments. More than 450 years later, the English monarch ‘Alfred the Great’ would make the ten commandments and the golden rule the basis of the code of law for England, which affected law and government around the world, most notably in Canada and the United States. Patrick was also among the first to speak out against slavery, with a passion that only a former slave could have had.

After Patrick’s death, while chaos was sweeping across a fallen Roman Empire and the illiteracy was becoming the norm, the now literate Irish had their own renaissance of sorts, copying many of the classics and of course transmitting the Scriptures.

In the later years of Patrick’s ministry, rumours about his past and suspicion about his methods were rumbling around in his homeland of Britain. He wrote his “Confession” to defend his ministry and give the credit to God. May all those in ministry be able to echo his words:

“I pray those who believe and fear God,
that no one should ever say that my ignorance accomplished any small thing that I did
in accordance with God’s will;
judge, and let it be truly believed, that it was the gift of God.
And this is my confession before I die.”

The faith of Patrick

Jim Devotional and Bible, Missions 0

The 17th of March marks over 1500 years since the death of Patrick, missionary to Ireland. I thought you might be interested in reading his confession of faith, translated from the latin by John Skinner. This is a small part of his Confession (Confessio), a defence of his ministry. Patrick’s writings are full of Scripture, and he shows a continuous love for the Trinity and a knowledge that we are called to reach every nation with the Truth.

There is no other God nor ever was nor will be in future days, other than God who is unbegotten Father, without beginning, yet from whom is all beginning and who holds all things in being as we have come to learn;

And his son Jesus Christ whom together with his Father, we bear witness, has most surely always existed even before time began, begotten spiritually and present with the Father in a manner beyond human words; before all time began.

And through him have all things, seen and unseen, been made, then he himself was made man, and once death had been overcome, he was received into the heavens with his Father.

“And he has given him full power over over every name in the heavens, on earth, and in the depths beneath so that every tongue shall confess him that Jesus Christ is our Lord and God” (Phi 2:9-11).

It is he whom we believe and we hope he will soon come again, to be “judge of the living and dead who will render to each man according to his deeds” (Acts 10:42; Rom 2:6).

And “he has poured out abundantly his Holy Spirit upon us” (Tit 3:5-6), given us his pledge of our immortality. Which Holy Spirit makes us both believers, obedient “children of God and equal heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17); whom we confess and adore, one God in the most holy named Trinity.

14 March 2004

Patrick’s Letter to Coroticus

Jim Devotional and Bible 1

I finished reading Patrick’s letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, which was actually a public rebuke of a raider who had taken a whole group of new Christians as slaves. Patrick writes with a kind of poetry that works like copyright protection. The letter was probably meant to be read and recited all over Ireland, and it would have been very difficult to copy incorrectly because the poetry would no longer “work”.

Here’s one section where Patrick defends his calling as a missionary, explaining that He is a slave of the Spirit and yet he does what he does for the wonderful eternal life that he looks forward to (reminds me of Hebrews 12:2). (Patrick was, of course, carried off as a slave to Ireland originally):

Could I have come to Ireland without thought of God, merely in my own interest?
Who was it made me come?
For here I am a ‘prisoner of the Spirit’ (Acts 20:22) so that I may not see any of my family.
Can it be out of the kindness of my heart that I carry out such a labour of mercy on a people
who once captured me
when they wrecked my father’s house and carried off his servants?
For by descent I was a freeman,
born of a decurion [a position of leadership] father;
yet I have sold this nobility of mine,
I am not ashamed, nor do I regret that it might have meant some advantage to others.
In short, I am a slave in Christ to this faraway people for the indescribable glory of ‘everlasting life which is in Jesus Christ our Lord’. (Rom 6:23)

For more on Patrick click here. Some of you may recognize this as chiastic poetry.

I used Patrick as an illustration when I spoke this morning in church – he’s kind of the opposite of Jonah, who did everything he could to avoid sharing God’s mercy with his enemies. Patrick, on the other hand, risked his life to share Christ with those who had taken him as a slave in his younger days. That shows what God’s mercy is really all about (see Rom 15:8-9, Luke 6:27-36)