In light of the recent holiday celebrating the life of the Catholic saint, St. Patrick, I thought I might try to shed a little light on the origins on this holiday since it sometimes seems that many people misunderstand the purpose of this holy day. The following story talks about how St. Patrick's life earned him respect after his life and how we have come to celebrate his life by setting aside this particular day in March to recognize his extraordinary accomplishments. St. Patrick was a former slave who, by the grace of God alone, was able to return to the place of his slavery, the land of his enemies and have the courage to share the gospel to the people who enslaved him in Ireland. He was actually captured in England during a raid on his hometown in England, was taken to Ireland and was sold into slavery. A druid priest was going to buy him for a sacrifice to the pagan gods but Patrick was saved by a sheep owner who kept him in slavery as a shepherd for several years but, by many accounts, treated him well. Patrick had a dream one night after a long night in the fields that talked about how "his ship was coming" that would carry him home. Patrick felt this was a vision from God and wanted to leave his job to search for the ship but his master wouldn't let him leave. He escaped and returned to England on the ship depicted in his dream. Years later, after finding some of his family and studying the Christian faith to become a priest, he had another dream of the people of Ireland crying out to him to return to Ireland. Believing this was another message from God, He left for Ireland soon after having the dream. He was able to find the courage to return to Ireland after being enslaved there. Upon arrival in Ireland by boat, he and a few other priests began travelling across the country, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ despite persecution from those of the Druid faith. I know that this might be a pretty random subject to blog about, but I just thought that people might want to know why they were wearing green (or orange for catholics) on St. Patrick's Day. The holiday is not just about Ireland, leprechauns, four leaf clovers, pots of gold, good luck or maybe even getting a day off from school, but serves to annually remind us of the strong faith and heartfelt compassion of one man to start a revival that spread throughout an entire nation.
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