The Real Saint Patrick

Patrick was a real person who didn’t drink green beer or kiss the Blarney Stone. He didn’t believe in leprechauns or play the accordion, as far as we know.

We should know about him today because he’s a real Christian hero. He was a man of action who obeyed God against overwhelming odds. He was a missionary saint who carried God’s love to a violent pagan culture.

Patrick lived 400 years after New Testament times. We have two surviving documents written by Patrick. One is his CONFESSION – 62 paragraphs that outline of his life.

He was born in western Scotland or England, into a Christian family. But he says, “I did not, indeed, know the true God.”

At 15 he was kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Ireland. He was put to work as a shepherd, and in desperation began to seek after Christ.

He writes, “More and more did the love of God, and my… faith increase, …so that [I said] …up to a hundred prayers [a day], and in the night a like number; …I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, [and] in rain…” He says, “…the Spirit was burning in me at that time.”

After six years, Patrick escaped from Ireland, and returned to his family. One night in a vision he heard “The Voice of the Irish” calling to him: “…holy youth, …come and… walk again among us.” He tells us of three other visions by which he was convinced that God was calling him to take the gospel to the Irish people.

Patrick spent 20 years preparing for his Irish mission. He became a priest, and later, a bishop.

About the year 432, he returned to Ireland with a small band of workers. (Perhaps these were the original Irish Rovers.) He was already in his late 40s. (That gives hope to some of us who find our life’s purpose after our youth is gone.)

The religion of the early Irish involved many gods and human sacrifice.

One of my Top 25 books is HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION. In it, Thomas Cahill says, “It would be an understatement to assert that the Irish gods were not the friendliest of figures. …there are few idols that we have retrieved from barrow or bog that would not give a child nightmares and an adult the willies. …Archaeological finds… serve…to underscore the monstrousness of the Celtic [gods]…” (p.126)

Cahill writes, “Patrick declared that [human] sacrifices were no longer needed. Christ had died once for all. [Perhaps] he quoted Paul, his model, who… recited…the oldest Christian hymn of which we have record:

(It goes like this) “…[Jesus] was obedient to death… upon a cross. / …therefore God has raised him up And… given him the Name-Which-is-above-all-names, That at the name of Jesus all / In heaven high shall bow the knee / And all the earth and depths / And every tongue of men proclaim / That Jesus Christ is Lord… to the glory of the Father.”

Cahill continues: “Yes, the Irish would have said, here is a story that answers our deepest needs – and answers them in a way so good that we could never have dared dream of it. We can put away our knives and abandon our altars. These are no longer required. The God of the Three Faces has given us His own Son, and we are washed clean in the blood of this lamb. God does not hate us; he loves us [!] … It is our lives, not our deaths, that this God wants.” (pp.141-142)

For thirty years, Patrick told the story of Jesus at every opportunity. There were threats and attacks, and occasionally he was imprisoned. But thousands of the Irish people trusted in Jesus Christ. And Patrick and his team baptized thousands of these converted Celts. They set a course which turned the life and culture of Ireland upside down within a generation or two.

I said earlier that Patrick is one of the great missionary saints. He took the Great Commission of Jesus seriously. We need to take Jesus seriously as well.

He said, “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…” (Matt. 28:19-20)

In this world of 6.6 billion people, there are still over 6,800 Unreached People Groups without an indigenous Christian church in their culture. As followers of Jesus, we are commanded to “make disciples of all nations”. We can pray, or we can give, or we can go. What are you doing to obey this command of our Lord?