St Patrick: A Testimony to Faith and Steadfastness

Ireland during 5th century AD was devoutly pagan. Many were Druid. At best, Druids conformed to what today we would call witchcraft and dark stuff at that. Some historians believe Druids even performed human sacrifice. It was an island that had conformed to darkness.

And yet God sent a man to them who would upend that darkness and bring many, many to faith in Jesus. That man was St Patrick.

I have found two really interesting quotes about St Patrick…

Legends about Saint Patrick abound; but truth is best served by our seeing two solid qualities in him: He was humble and he was courageous. The determination to accept suffering and success with equal indifference guided the life of God’s instrument for winning most of Ireland for Christ. ~ Franciscan Media

When he began his mission to that Celtic nation in the 5th century, it was almost entirely pagan, with spiritual matters firmly in the hands of the Druid. By the time he died, some decades later, a significant portion of its large and dispersed population was Christian. ~St Patrick’s Cathedral NYC (website)

St Patrick had been enslaved by the Irish during his teen years. In a twist of fate so often seen in the lives of believers, he would later be called in a dream to minister to those who had enslaved him – Joseph comes to mind. He would humbly lead a movement which moved people from worshiping idols and unclean things…to the Gospel. He freed them.

And you know I love the part about how he drove snakes out of Ireland. I tend to believe there is some truth to that part of the story. I think it likely that snakes represented evil people. Indeed, St Patrick struggled with persecution as do most Christians who spread the light of the Gospel into the darkness. Yet, he wrote two beautiful works which survive to this day. Here are two excerpts….

I am hated. What shall I do, Lord? I am most despised. Look, Thy sheep around me are tom to pieces and driven away, and that by those robbers, by the orders of the hostile-minded Coroticus. Far from the love of God is a man who hands over Christians to the Picts and Scots. Ravening wolves have devoured the flock of the Lord, which in Ireland was indeed growing splendidly with the greatest care; and the sons and daughters of kings were monks and virgins of Christ – I cannot count their number. Wherefore, be not pleased with the wrong done to the just; even to hell it shall not please. ~ St Patrick, Epistola ad Coroticum: Letter To Coroticus

For the sun we see rises each day for us at [his] command, but it will never reign, neither will its splendour last, but all who worship it will come wretchedly to punishment. We, on the other hand, shall not die, who believe in and worship the true sun, Christ, who will never die, no more shall he die who has done Christ’s will, but will abide for ever just as Christ abides for ever, who reigns with God the Father Almighty and with the Holy Spirit before the beginning of time and now and for ever and ever. Amen. ~ St Patrick, Confessio

And so every March 17th, we remember a man who brought the Gospel to Ireland. He, himself, claimed to be unlearned. But in the face of withering scorn, he stood and brought a nation to Christ.