{"id":3538,"date":"2012-03-16T12:05:57","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T17:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=3538"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:33:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:33:35","slug":"the-story-of-st-patrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2012\/03\/16\/the-story-of-st-patrick\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of St. Patrick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I am posting this story of St. Patrick on March 16, the day before St. Patrick\u2019s Day. I\u2019ll leave it up through the 17th as a tribute to the real St. Patrick, a man whose name is familiar but whose amazing story is not well known.<\/p>\n

In my youth, St. Patrick\u2019s Day was most of all a day to wear green. Be caught without green and you got pinched by your friends, maybe even your teacher. (That was a long time ago, when teachers got away such things without being sued.) To my youthful self, St. Patrick seemed to be the patron saint of greenness and pinching. And if he was ever pictured, he looked suspiciously like a leprechaun.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On March 17, 1982, I found myself in New Haven, Connecticut. (Yes, a Harvard man in Yale territory, I confess.) Little did I know that I had wandered into one of the oldest and most enthusiastic celebrations of St. Patrick\u2019s Day in America<\/a>. All the downtown pubs sold green beer (!) for a dime. Crowds gathered for the annual parade. I was caught up in a tidal wave of humanity who were \u201cpainting the town green,\u201d if you will.<\/p>\n

At that time, I had some vague idea that there was a real St. Patrick, a Christian missionary of days gone by. Yet it was hard to find the connection between St. Patrick\u2019s Christian mission in Ireland and the mass consumption of green beer. Later, I did a bit of research to find out something about the historical St. Patrick.<\/p>\n

His story reads like an Indiana Jones-type adventure. Born and raised somewhere in Britain (yes, not Ireland; the precise location is debated), Patrick was captured by pirates in A.D. 405 when he was only sixteen years old. The kidnappers whisked him away to Ireland and sold Patrick into slavery. He spent eight years as a captive in this pagan land.<\/p>\n

During his captivity, Patrick embraced the Christian faith of his upbringing, something that had mattered little to him beforehand. In his own words, Patrick explained: \u201cAnd there 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, who had regard for my abjection, and mercy on my youth and ignorance, and watched over me before I knew Him, and before I was able to distinguish between good and evil, and guarded me, and comforted me as would a father his son\u201d (from The Confession of St. Patrick<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A stained-glass image of St. Patrick, from St. Peter\u2019s Church in Washington D.C. Photo from iStockphoto.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inspired by a dream, Patrick finally escaped from Ireland and made his way back to his home in Britain. But, in time, he sensed God\u2019s call to return to Ireland, of all places, in order to share the good news of Christ with the pagans there. Even though he feared he wasn\u2019t sufficiently learned to be a missionary, Patrick returned to Ireland, where he found unprecedented success in his evangelistic endeavors. His experience of Irish language and culture during his years as a slave enabled Patrick to communicate the Christian gospel with unusual effectiveness.<\/p>\n

Though we can\u2019t be sure when Patrick died, tradition holds that he lived into his seventies and died on March 17 in the latter half of the fifth-century A.D. In twenty-five or thirty years of evangelistic work, he led thousands of Irish pagans to Christ and was responsible for Ireland\u2019s becoming one of the most Christian nations in Europe. For this reason he is called \u201cthe apostle of the Irish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story of Patrick reminds me, in a way, of Joseph\u2019s experience in Egypt. In both cases, what kidnappers and slave masters intended for evil, God intended for good (Gen 50:20). Today, I want to celebrate, not only Patrick\u2019s example of faithfulness, but also the mystery and majesty of God\u2019s redemptive sovereignty. It\u2019s not unusual for people who have experienced some particular trauma in life to end up ministering to others who suffer that same trauma. A friend of mine, for example, who was sexually abused by her pastor when she was a teenager, now has a tenderhearted ministry to women who have experienced similar abuse. Thus, St. Patrick serves as an example of how God can work all things together for good, even things which are quite evil.<\/p>\n

It is appropriate to close this piece with an excerpt from a prayer that is attributed to Patrick. Whether he actually wrote it or not, this prayer captures the boldness of his Christian faith:<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
\nThrough the belief in the threeness,
\nThrough confession of the oneness,
\nOf the Creator of Creation.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough the strength of Christ\u2019s birth with his baptism,
\nThrough the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
\nThrough the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
\nThrough the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough the strength of the love of Cherubim,
\nIn obedience of angels,
\nIn the service of archangels,
\nIn hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
\nIn prayers of patriarchs,
\nIn predictions of prophets,
\nIn preaching of apostles,
\nIn faith of confessors,
\nIn innocence of holy virgins,
\nIn deeds of righteous men.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough the strength of heaven:
\nLight of sun,
\nRadiance of moon,
\nSplendor of fire,
\nSpeed of lightning,
\nSwiftness of wind,
\nDepth of sea,
\nStability of earth,
\nFirmness of rock.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough God\u2019s strength to pilot me:
\nGod\u2019s might to uphold me,
\nGod\u2019s wisdom to guide me,
\nGod\u2019s eye to look before me,
\nGod\u2019s ear to hear me,
\nGod\u2019s word to speak for me,
\nGod\u2019s hand to guard me,
\nGod\u2019s way to lie before me,
\nGod\u2019s shield to protect me,
\nGod\u2019s host to save me
\nFrom snares of devils,
\nFrom temptations of vices,
\nFrom everyone who shall wish me ill,
\nAfar and anear,
\nAlone and in multitude.<\/p>\n

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
\nAgainst every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
\nAgainst incantations of false prophets,
\nAgainst black laws of pagandom
\nAgainst false laws of heretics,
\nAgainst craft of idolatry,
\nAgainst spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
\nAgainst every knowledge that corrupts man\u2019s body and soul.<\/p>\n

Christ to shield me today
\nAgainst poison, against burning,
\nAgainst drowning, against wounding,
\nSo that there may come to me abundance of reward.<\/p>\n

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
\nChrist in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
\nChrist on my right, Christ on my left,
\nChrist when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
\nChrist in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
\nChrist in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
\nChrist in every eye that sees me,
\nChrist in every ear that hears me.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
\nThrough belief in the threeness,
\nThrough confession of the oneness,
\nOf the Creator of Creation.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am posting this story of St. Patrick on March 16, the day before St. Patrick\u2019s Day. I\u2019ll leave it up through the 17th as a tribute to the real St. Patrick, a man whose name is familiar but whose amazing story is not well known. In my youth, St. Patrick\u2019s Day was most of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[372],"tags":[16841,16842],"class_list":["post-3538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","tag-st-patrick","tag-st-patricks-day"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Story of St. Patrick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I am posting this story of St. Patrick on March 16, the day before St. Patrick's Day. 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