By Dave Cannon
Patrick of Ireland was an amazing man, and not because of all of the fantastic legends that folklore has attached to his name. You can put to rest all the images of leprechauns, snake-charming, and shamrocks. Out of the mists of centuries of history emerges a man the 21st century must reckon with – one whose life demands a careful hearing.
Born around AD 390, Patrick roamed the Emerald Isle about the same time the barbaric northern European tribes were hammering at the door of Rome. Because Rome summoned its legions home from the British Isles to deal with the barbarian onslaught, Irish raiders were free to sack the well-stocked towns Rome’s soldiers left unguarded. On a raid that targeted continental Europe, a young teenager named Patrick was carried away to be sold into slavery. Patrick had been raised in a Christian home but on the eve of his capture said of himself, “I did not believe in the living God, nor did I so from childhood, but lived in death and unbelief.” After being carried away to Ireland, Patrick began to think about God as he tended sheep. Recognizing his need for God, Patrick later observed, “That I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God.” It was during these years of enslavement that he tells of receiving “God’s gift … the gift so great, so salutary – to know God and to love Him.”
After six years Patrick escaped and returned home, but was unable to shake the memory of thousands in Ireland without his Savior. At about the age of 40, Patrick returned to the land of his captivity, willing to face extreme hardship “so that a great multitude and throng might be caught for God.” Sometime afterwards he warmly reflected back on these days of ministry with these words: “For I am much God’s debtor, who gave me such grace that many people were reborn in God through me.”
The man many today call St. Patrick loved God’s Word, the Bible: in fact the writings he left behind quote from the New Testament book of Romans at least 30 times! He did not view himself as naturally good, but as a sinner who lived for quite some time like all humans do, under the sentence of spiritual “death and unbelief.” He found relief from his sin in God’s “gift and pledge of immortality” to those who believe and experience the change of life God alone can give.
In all of the writings Patrick of Ireland has left behind, there is no mention of praying the rosary, dedication to Mary, purgatory, or the like. His creed echoes clearly over the centuries in this summary claim that any who read can hear if they are willing: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me!” Christ had conquered Patrick’s heart and affections. And he calls across the centuries to any who will be converted to his Christ with all their heart!
Dave Cannon is the senior pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Hollister. He can be reached at (831) 637-2909 or at [email protected].
