Patrick (386-461), bishop (Optional memorial)

March 17

Born in Great Britain, St. Patrick was the son of a Roman official. When he was 16, he and some of his father’s slaves were kidnapped by Irish raiders and sold into slavery in Ireland. In time, Patrick escaped and spent a number of years in France, where he studied for the priesthood and eventually became a bishop.

In 432, he returned to Ireland as a missionary, a task he saw as a gift in spite of its difficulty. “How did so great and salutary a gift come to me, though at the cost of homeland and family? I came to the Irish people to preach the Gospel and endure the taunts of unbelievers, putting up with reproaches about my earthly pilgrimage, suffering persecutions, even bondage, and losing my birthright of freedom for the benefit of others.”

Making himself one with the people and learning their language and customs, St. Patrick’s efforts to evangelize Ireland were wonderfully successful. Using his gifts in the service of the Church, he himself became a gift to the Church in Europe in later centuries as the faith which he planted bore fruit in the lives of Irish missionaries.

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