Life Lessons from St. Patrick

Written By Luke Constantineau
“Sons of the Church, made prisoners by the enemy, changed their masters into servants of the Gospel”
— St. Prosper of Aquitaine
 

          What is St. Patrick’s Day? Is it when the Chicago River gets dyed green? Is it when people go to parades full of Irish-themed regalia and do pub crawls? When you are at risk of a pinching if you don’t wear something green? All of this is what we in America do on St. Patrick’s Day, but it isn’t what St. Patrick’s Day really is. Who even is St. Patrick? His status as patron Saint of Ireland is probably the extent of common knowledge, but St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish. So what makes him Ireland’s patron saint, what was his life all about, and what can we learn from him?

          As I mentioned, St. Patrick wasn’t Irish, but a Briton, most likely from somewhere in the western part of what is now England.1 It was from this place, in Roman Britain,2 where a young Patrick was taken into captivity in Ireland at the age of sixteen.3 At this time, Patrick “did not know the true God.”4 This would change during his captivity, however, and St. Patrick wrote that while a slave in Ireland, “the Lord opened the sense of my unbelief that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God.”5

St Patrick by Adriaen Collaert, 1603

Inscription reads: The Irish attacked Britain. Patrick is captured and carried back to Ireland.

          This is where we can learn the first of two lessons from the life of St. Patrick—a lesson of faith through hardship. For St. Patrick, the years he spent as a slave “were also the years of his ‘conversion.’”6 In times of great distress—when we are faced with famine, poverty, violence, loss, and evil all around us—it can be easy to turn away from God or to affirm preexisting rejections of Him. We might shake our fists and ask God: ‘How could you do this to me?’ or drown in pain, hopeless and alone. This is not the course of action we should be taking, nor should we encourage others to take it. Instead, hardships should help us to seek a better understanding of Christ’s suffering and thus grow our relationship with God. This is especially the case considering that the feast day of St. Patrick always falls within Lent, a season of penance which calls us to reflect on Christ’s hardship during his tribulation in the desert. Just as Christ fasted for 40 days and was tempted by the devil, we too must take times of hardship as opportunities to grow in patience, hope, and love—for God and one another.7 But the life of St. Patrick teaches us more than faith through hardship.

The Baptism of the King of Cashel by Saint Patrick, by James Barry c. 1800

          For Patrick would not live a slave forever; he was delivered from his captivity in Ireland through the grace of the Lord.8 After returning to his family in Britain,9 Patrick had a dream which beckoned him back to Ireland.10 This dream served to fortify the aim of Patrick’s life—to bring the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ to the people of Ireland.11 To do this, Patrick travelled to Gaul, where he received a clerical education12 and was consecrated as Bishop of Ireland, giving him authority and resources that would make his mission to spread the faith to the pagans of Ireland more effective.13 Thus, it would “come to pass in Ireland that those who never had a knowledge of God, but…[had] always worshipped idols and things impure, have now been made a people of the Lord.”14 St. Patrick was not the first to bring the faith to Ireland.15 Still, he is responsible for securing its dominant place in the hearts of the Irish.16 He did this by converting the kingdoms of Ireland that remained pagan in spite of previous missions, providing organisation to existing pockets of Christianity, and bringing Irish Christianity into connection with the broader Christian world.17 This mission was not smooth sailing for Patrick; he wrote that while in Ireland, he daily faced the risk of “murder, fraud, or captivity, or whatever it may be,”18 but he “fear[ed] none of these things because of the promises of heaven.”19

          This is where the second lesson from St. Patrick’s life comes—that we should pursue missions to those in need in the face of risk. The world we occupy is undoubtedly in need of missions and faithful Christians standing for what is right, even if it flies in the face of what is standard for the culture in which we find ourselves. It can be intimidating to speak up about what is right, and this is something that St. Patrick felt as well, writing that he “long had in mind to write, but hesitated…afraid of exposing [himself] to the talk of men, because he [had] not studied like…others.”20 Despite this fear, St. Patrick was not deterred, and he fulfilled God’s commands, preaching the Gospel to Irish pagans, baptising them and ordaining others throughout Ireland.21 This bravery of St. Patrick’s serves as an example to us, for we must not let the world in which we reside dissuade us from speaking the truth of the Gospel and undertaking the work that needs to be done.

The Apostle of Ireland St. Patrick by Currier & Ives c. 1864

          Take the holiday for which this piece is written. St. Patrick’s Day, as it is often celebrated, has become a day in which overindulgence in food and alcohol is common and even encouraged. While it is certainly fine to enjoy oneself, we must be wary of gluttony and intemperance, and rather than surrendering to these vices, we must keep our celebrations rooted in the same love of God and the virtues that St. Patrick embodied. When faced with evil in the world, it is our duty to confront it to the best of our abilities, even if the society we find ourselves in calls that evil good. We must let Christ guide our hearts in all we do—let us flip the tables22 where we see them.

          St. Patrick is responsible for securing Christianity’s prominence in Ireland. He was a man unafraid of hardship, for he had the strength of Christ in him. The strength of Christ guided his life through times of struggle and bolstered his resolve to fulfil the mission he was called to. By taking these lessons from the example of St. Patrick, we might grow closer to the Lord and one day become saints ourselves.

The peace of the Lord be with you always on this joyous feast day of St. Patrick.

Notes

  1. John Bagnell Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York: Book of the Month, 1905/1999), 17.

  2. John Bagnell Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York: Book of the Month, 1905/1999), 16.

  3. St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 21.

  4. St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 21. While St. Patrick’s father was a deacon, and his grandfather a priest, he recounts not really knowing God, and his biography by JB Bury suggests that Patrick did not take his faith seriously.

  5. St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 21.

  6. John Bagnell Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York: Book of the Month, 1905/1999), 30.

  7. The Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition translation will be used. Rom 5:3-5.

  8. St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 25-26. St Patrick had a dream in which it was told to him that he would leave captivity and sail away to freedom. He followed the commands of his dream visitor, and so escaped from slavery.

  9.  St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 28. His return home was not a direct journey from Ireland back to Britain. Rather it seems that he travelled to Gaul, and then possibly to Italy before finally returning home to Britain. Perhaps on these adventures, he came into contact with the monasteries and religious figures which would later lead him back to Gaul for clerical study.

  10.  St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 28.

  11.  John Bagnell Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York: Book of the Month, 1905/1999), 47.

  12.  John Bagnell Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York: Book of the Month, 1905/1999), 49.

  13.  John Bagnell Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York: Book of the Month, 1905/1999), 59.

  14.  St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 34.

  15.  John Bagnell Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York: Book of the Month, 1905/1999), 212.

  16.  John Bagnell Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York: Book of the Month, 1905/1999), 213.

  17.  John Bagnell Bury, The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History (New York: Book of the Month, 1905/1999), 212-213.

  18.  St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 38.

  19.  St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 38.

  20.  St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 23.

  21.  St. Patrick, Confession, trans. Ludwig Bieler, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe (New York: Newman Press, 1953), 37.

  22.  St. Matt 21:12-13.

Luke Constantineau
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