St Patrick- Patron saint of Ireland.

Born about 389 of Romano-British Parents, he grew up on the west coast of the British Isle. His Christianity was likely part of his heritage from the Roman legionaries who settled in Britain as veterans.

In 403, age 13 or 14, he was carried off by a raiding party and enslaved in pagan Ireland. Tradition says that he was kept either in Antrim or in the forest along the coast of Mayo. In hardship and isolation, he made prayer, he tells us, the pattern of his daily life. After six years, he escaped his master and traveled, he estimated , about 200 miles to the southeastern  coast. Penniless, he persuaded the crew of a ship to take him to France where the crew landed unhappily in a desolate area. They nearly starved. But Patrick survived and managed to return to his family in Britain  But listening to what he called inner voices , he was sure the Lord destined him to return to Ireland. Shortly he returned to France, likely to Lerins, an island off the south coast of France where scholarly Egyptian monks founded a university, and then to Auxerre where he excelled in his studies.

Saint Germanus ordained Patrick a priest and later a bishop. Pope St. Celestine I, who had earlier sent a bishop to Ireland without notable success, now commissioned Patrick to go there as a missionary.

He Landed in Ireland by tradition in Ulster, not far from the place of his earlier enslavement. From there he addressed the high King Laoghaire at Tara. He was challenged strongly by angry Druid priests over whom he completely triumphed either by force of his preaching and character, or by some miracle. Cooperation of the King and the collapse of the Druid priests were so complete as to suggest some extraordinary event. In any case, he came to an understanding with the King, and later documents refer to it as Patrick's special work.

But the King's cooperation did not free Patrick from attempts on his life by frustrated opponents. He was a man of extraordinary energy and seems to have been in constant motion; and soon had many disciples assisting him. Not a few members of the royalty became Christians, giving a protection to his thousands of converts. At Crom Cruach in Leitrim, he overthrew a famous idol and built a church on this site- a sign of both his courage and the growing number of his converts.

He received a commendation from Rome, likely from Pope Leo, and in 444, the Cathedral Church of Armagh was declared the site of the Primatial see of Ireland. It quickly became a major educational center. Many of Patrick's decrees and the records of an early synod are available to us in the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis to which two bishops, Auxilius and Iserninus, attached their names as bishops in southern Ireland. From other sources, we learn of Patrick in his last years, deep in prayer. At Croagh Patrick located in Co. Mayo, it appears he enjoyed a mystical experience in which he saw something of the long term accomplishments of his labors. The records also suggest that he lived to a great old age.

Later literature attributed extraordinary gifts and miracles to Patrick, but a more reliable window on his wholesome spirituality is offered in his limited authentic writings, namely, in his confession.

In his confession. he wrote.

"And ,many gifts were proffered me, with weeping and with tears. And I displeased...against my wish, not a few of my elders; but, God being my guide, in no way did I consent or yield to them. It was not any grace to me, but God who conquereth in me, and he resisted them all, so that I came to the heathens of Ireland to preach the Gospel and bear insults from unbelievers , so as to hear the reproach of my going abroad and to endure many persecutions even unto bonds, the while that I was surrendering my liberty as a man of free condition for the profit of others. And if I should be found worthy, I am ready to given even my life for His name's sake unfalteringly and very gladly, and there I desire to spend it until I die, if only Our Lord should grant it to me"

For more information on St. Patrick and the St. Patrick's visitor centre in Downpatrck, Co. Down visit their website www.saintpatrickcentre.com