Who Was the Real St. Patrick?
Did St. Patrick really bring Christianity to Ireland?
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Transcript
St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland during the 5th century.
St. Patrick was born in Britain to a Romanized family.
When Patrick was 16, his father’s villa was attacked by Irish raiders, who carried Patrick into enslavement in Ireland.
He spent six years working there as a herdsman before escaping back to Britain.
While in Britain, St. Patrick wrote that he had a dream in which Irish people begged him to return to them.
Though he was reluctant to go back to Ireland, he viewed the dream as a calling from God.
He spent years traveling through Ireland, converting and baptizing people into Christianity wherever he went.
By the end of the 7th century, St. Patrick had become a figure of legend.
He was said to have driven all the snakes out of Ireland, summoned food for the hungry, and even raised the dead.
A legend of St. Patrick explaining the Holy Trinity by way of a shamrock resulted in the tradition of wearing a shamrock in one’s lapel on St. Patrick’s feast day, March 17.
"I live for my God to teach unbelievers, if I am worthy, even if some people hate me." — St. Patrick
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