I came across this blog by Mark Batterson, a pastor, author, and blogger in Washington D.C. I love reading his thoughts and books and thought this interesting post on St. Patrick was insightful and would be beneficial to you... so here it is!
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here is a little backstory on Saint Patrick himself.
At the age of 16, Saint Patrick was captured by Irish raiders
and taken to Ireland where he became a slave to the chieftain of
Ulster. One night, after six years of slavery, Saint Patrick heard a
voice, "Behold, thy ship is ready." He traveled two hundred miles on foot
to a place where he knew no one and had never been. He wrote in his
autobiographical account, "After this I took flight, and left the man
with whom I had been six years; and I came in the strength of the Lord, who directed my way for good; and I feared nothing till I arrived at the ship. And on that same day on which I arrived, the ship moved out of its place."
Patrick
made his way back to Britain, found his family, and could have lived
out the rest of his life in relative comfort in the land of freedom.
But in 432 AD, he had another vision.
He saw a man coming to him from Ireland carrying innumerable letters.
"And I read the beginning of the letter containing 'The voice of the
Irish.' And while I was reading aloud the beginning of the letters, I
myself thought indeed in my mind that I heard the voice of those who were near the wood of Foclut, which is close by the Western Sea. And they cried out thus as if with one voice, "We entreat thee, holy youth, that thou come, and henceforth walk among us." And I was deeply moved in my heart, and could read no further; and so I woke."
Saint Patrick went back to Ireland as a missionary. No outside religion had penetrated Ireland in a thousand years. Saint Patrick founded more than 300 churches and baptized more than 120,000 people. His ministry was so influential that he came to be known as the one who "found Ireland all heathen and left it all Christian."
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