Resurrecting St. Patrick – A Brief Bio

Resurrecting St. Patrick – A Brief Bio (this post is in process and will be completed soon)

“I declare in truth and with joy in my heart – before God and His holy angels – that I have never had any motive in my work except preaching the good news and its promises. That is the only reason I returned to Ireland – a place I barely escaped alive.” (Patrick, from his Confessions).

St. Patrick’s Timetable (all these dates and ages are approximate but still give us a relatively accurate glimpse):

… The Young Boy: Born around 390 AD in or near Wales in Roman Britain;

… The Teenage Slave: Kidnapped by Irish slave traders from roughly 406-412 AD, when Patrick was 16 years of age, and was enslaved in Ireland for about 6 years;

… The Obscure Priest: Trained for the priesthood somewhere in Britain and/or France, and ordained around 430 AD;

… The Pioneer Missionary: Traveled and preached mostly in northern Ireland for thirty years, between 432-462 AD.

The Young Boy. Patrick’s birthname was apparently Mawynn Succat, but at some point assumed the name Patricius. As his name points out, he was a patrician, born into the upper class of Roman Britain and thus a privileged member of the British elite. The exact birthplace is unknown, but was probably in Wales near the British coast. Patricius was most likely raised in a prosperous and well-established farmstead villa like any other rich boy who lived on the outer edges of the Roman Empire. It appears that his father was a deacon in the local church as well as an important local political figure, and that Patricius was raised in a rather nominal Christian faith that he didn’t take seriously. Patricius never gave Christianity a second thought until his whole life turned upside-down at about 16 years of age.

The Teenage Slave. The mostly uncivilized Irish natives were infamous during the 4th-5th centuries for their slave trade. They would silently glide into a British coastal area in their boats and kidnap whomever they thought would make a profit back in their homeland. It was during one of these slave raids that teenage Patricius ws taken by force from his comfortable home, placed in chains, and made to endure a trip back to Ireland. He would have immediately been placed on the slave block for sale, and was purchased by a farm owner to labor as a shepherd in the wild countryside of rural Ireland. He would remain with this one slave master for six years, working and sleeping outside through all the typical Irish weather… very hot, freezing cold, pouring rain with icy blasts of wind. Patricius would be tending the sheep in the untamed pastureland one day and then the rocky mountainsides the next. He learned to toughen up and adapt to whatever each day brought him. But that’s not all Patricius learned during his difficult days in slavery. He picked up the Gaelic language, the customs of the Irish culture, the elements of the Irish religious traditions, and the coping skills needed for life in the wilderness. So his days as a young slave were actually a blessing, especially as those years brought him close to God. He developed an intimate friendship with God and a sturdy faith in Him. Patrick is quoted as saying that he learned to pray as a slave, and he often prayed as much as a hundred prayers during the day, and then an equal amount at night. Patrick also grew to adopt fasting as an important part of his growing faith in Christ. Since most prayers were said out loud in that era, it’s no surprise that his impatient acquaintances would mockingly call him “holy boy.” After six years of living in misery and in a growing sanctity, Patricius had a dream, the first in a long sequence of dreams that were instrumental through the rest of his life. One night he heard the voice of God saying to him, “You have hungered well. Soon you will be going home.” And the very next night he dreamed that God told him, “Behold, your ship is ready.” So with no hesitation Patricius acted on those divine words, sneaked away from his slave master in the dead of night, and escaped into parts unknown for a mysterious ship. He walked over 200 miles in search of a coast and a waiting ship, through treacherous bogs, flowing rivers, thick forests and rocky mountains, all the while alert to wild animals and the danger in being caught. In Ireland at that time, a fugitive slave was legally equivalent to a murderer or major thief, and there would be fatal consequences if he were apprehended. After this difficult journey of about a month, Patricius finally arrived at a coastal bay where a ship was indeed waiting. After initial resistance, he was allowed to climb on board as a working shipmate, and they sailed away on their three-day voyage to Roman Britain. Patrick’s days as a slave were over as he landed on British soil.

The Obscure Priest. This next stage in Patrick’s life is relatively unknown and are often referred to as his missing years. We can only give an educated guess as to how Patrick went from long-awaited son to a deacon to a priest to a bishop. When the Irish merchant ship landed on the British coast, it happened to be uninhabited and devoid of people or any source of food. After wandering around for a couple of weeks, the crew was starving and mockingly said to Patrick, If your God is so great, then just pray to this God to provide some food before we starve to death! So Patrick prayed, and suddenly, miraculously, a huge herd of pigs crossed their path, providing all the food they needed as they moved inland. Eventually Patrick arrived home to his shocked and delighted parents who had given him up for dead. Patrick was their miracle-boy, and they implored him to stay home and lead a quiet life after all he had endured in Ireland. After a time, though, Patrick had another dream, and this time in his dream an Irish man brought a stack of letters to Patrick, and this man spread the letters before him and opened one letter in particular. Out of this letter a chorus of voices cried out, what Patrick later said was “The Voice of the Irish.” These voices shouted to Patrick, “Holy boy! Come back here and walk among us!” Soon after that, another dream included a voice from heaven saying, “The one who gave you your spirit, it is he who speaks within you.” That was all the confirmation Patrick needed. This was his call from the Lord to return to the land of his slavery and preach the good news to those folks who have never heard it. Patrick was completely convinced that God was inside of him and would enable him to complete the mission. So somehow, somewhere, Patrick trained to be first a deacon in the church in his mid-twenties, probably learning from a local bishop. Then he studied to be a priest, and then was anointed to become a bishop. All this training could well have been accomplished in France in one of their well-established learning centers for the clergy. But no one knows for sure. Finally, in his early forties, Patrick was commissioned by the bishop to go to Ireland as a missionary, even though most of the church leaders didn’t have much confidence in his intellect, his education, or his experience. But that did not deter Patrick in any way. He knew he was called and he answered to a higher authority. Among his last words to his church elders were, “God chose foolish little me from among all of you who seem so wise and so expert in the law and so powerful in your eloquence. God picked ignorant Patrick ahead of all of you – even though I am not worthy – He picked me to go forth with fear and reverence to serve the Irish faithfully.” 

 

‘If I have done anything good for my God whom I love, I beseech Him to grant me that with these new believers and those in captivity I may pour out my blood for His name, even if my body should be denied burial, and be miserably torn limb from limb by dogs or fierce beasts, or that the birds of heaven should devour it… It is certain that we shall rise one day in the brightness of the sun – that is, the glory of Christ Jesus our Redeemer.” (Patrick, from his Confessions).