SAINT PATRICK'S STORY

St. Patrick was a Christian missionary given major credit for the conversion of Ireland from paganism. So many legends surround his life that the truth is not easily found.

SAINT PATRICK PATRON SAINT OF IRELAND

Around the year 400, Patrick was born in Scotland. When he was yet a boy the High King of Ireland swept across the sea and captured his village. Patrick was taken to Ireland, sold as a slave, and sent to herd sheep and swine. There in northeast Ireland, in his solitude and suffering, Patrick discovered the one true God and he pledged his life.

Years later and now a young man, Patrick had a vision and escaped and struggled home to his family. After years of religious study to become a priest and missionary, Patrick dreamed of returning to Ireland; often hearing in his dreams the voice of the Irish, "crying to thee,come hither and walk with us once more". Eventually Pope Celestine fulfilled his wish and commissioned him as bishop to preach the gospel to the Celtic people. Patrick came as the rising sun to the eastern shore of Ireland, and commenced an incredible mission across Ireland of preaching and baptizing, ordaining priests and bishops, erecting churches and establishing places of learning and worship, though such heroic feats in primitive time were not without difficulty and danger.

One legend tells of Patrick lighting the Easter bonfire on the hill of Slane -- on the night when it was forbidden to kindle any other fire in Ireland before the high king's own fire blazed. Seeing Patrick's torch, the king sent a warband to kill the saint and douse the blaze. The fire, however, could not be quenched. Patrick, with his companions, passed through the warriors in the guise of a herd of deer and came safely to Tara, where he defeated the royal druids in a contest of miracle working. Many in the king's court bowed down and were converted, and though the king himself was not one of them, he did honor Patrick with the right to preach freely.

Another legendary account is told of Patrick and his companions arriving at sunrise at the royal center of ancient paganism where they discovered the two daughters of the king, Eithne the Red and Fedelm the Fair. These two closely questioned Patrick about God, to which he recited the Holy Creed. Desiring to see the Christ, they asked to be baptised. Upon receiving the sacrament, the girls died on the spot and were buried there.

One final tale has Patrick coming to a neolithic tomb thought to be a "giant's grave." To satisfy his companions' curiosity, Patrick raised from the dead of the tomb the pagan giant, baptised him, and returned him to his grave.

In time, Patrick and his missionaries converted the island to Christianity. Praying and fasting atop what is now Croagh Patrick, the saint extracted from God Himself the promise that the Irish would hold fast to the faith until the end of time, and that on the day of doom, "I, Patrick, shall be judge of the men of Erin."

Upon his death, several communities contended for the honor of this burial. Tradition has it that the body of Patrick, wrapped in its shroud, was placed upon a cart drawn by two white oxen. The beasts were unreined and wandered to Downpatrick where, it is said, now lies the remains of the Saint, his gravestone a granite boulder marked with a cross and simply inscribed: PATRIC. Supposedly at his passing, the sun would not set, but shone in the sky for twelve days and nights; refusing to make a new day without him. Today, a stained-glass window in Saint Patrick's Cathedral Dublin reflects the saint's own summary confession:

I AM GREATLY A DEBTOR TO GOD

WHO HATH VOUCHSAFED ME SUCH GREAT GRACE

THAT MANY PEOPLE BY MY MEANS

SHOULD BE BORN AGAIN TO GOD.

AD387 ST. PATRICK APOSTLE OF IRELAND 465AD