Hello Adland friends,
I was never quite sure this man was until I read this on St. Patrick. I hope you will find this interesting as I did. Especially since this is a day we celebrate as St. Patricks Day.
• He was born about 389 AD in a family of Celtic Christians.
· Patrick rejected his family's Christian faith and had no desire for God.
· When he was about 15 a marauding gang of pirates kidnapped him, took him to Ireland, and forced him into slavery.
· He served his Irish master as a shepherd. His education was interrupted. For the rest of his life he was self-conscious about his lack of education and eloquence.
· During his captivity he had a profound conversion experience that changed the course of his whole
life. (See excerpt from his Confession below)
· He was able to escape after six years and return to his homeland and parents.
· Then one night Patrick had a vision: I saw a man named Victorious, coming as if from Ireland, with innumerable letters; and...I read...'The voice of the Irish' and while I was reading...I heard the voice...'Please, holy boy, come and walk with us again.
· Against his parent's wishes he returned to Ireland to bring the Gospel of Christ.
· He spent some thirty years there and evangelized and baptized many thousands, some estimate over one hundred thousand. He lost count. Some two hundred churches were established. His ministry confronted and challenged pagan practices there such as infants sacrificed to harvest gods, prisoners of war sacrificed and their skulls used as ceremonial drinking bowls.
· He also spoke out unequivocally against human slavery, and some say he was the first to do so.
· Patrick often annoyed his church members in Ireland because he would return their gifts and the jewelry they wanted to give him.
· His work through his successors brought a shining light to the so called "Dark Ages."
For those of you who think St. Patrick belongs only to the Irish Catholics, you should know that Patrick himself was neither Irish nor Roman Catholic. He was a Briton by birth. And he was part of Celtic Christianity which in his day was independent from Rome. As you saw in the section above, "A Shining Light in a Dark Age," there is a sense in which Patrick really belongs to all of us... the true Church universal ~ the Body of the Bride of Christ... past, present and future!
___________________________________________
Have a great St. Patricks Day! :)
Len Berghoef