{"id":2612,"date":"2010-03-17T07:27:40","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T15:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=2612"},"modified":"2010-03-17T07:27:40","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T15:27:40","slug":"march-17-means-more-than-green-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2010\/03\/17\/march-17-means-more-than-green-beer","title":{"rendered":"March 17 Means More Than Green Beer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"St.<\/a>The man we call St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain around 385 as Maewyn Suc\u00adcat. Two of his orig\u00adi\u00adnal let\u00adters sur\u00advive: his Con\u00adfes\u00adsio<\/a> and his Epis\u00adto\u00adla ad Coroticum<\/a>, the lat\u00adter being notable for mak\u00ading him, in Thomas Cahill\u2019s words \u201cthe first human being in the his\u00adto\u00adry of the world to speak out unequiv\u00ado\u00adcal\u00adly against slav\u00adery\u201d (How The Irish Saved Civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion<\/i>, page 114).<\/p>\n

At 16 he was cap\u00adtured in a slave raid and tak\u00aden to Ire\u00adland where he was sold to a Druid chief\u00adtain. For the next six years Patrick labored as a shep\u00adherd. <\/p>\n

Although Patrick was raised in a Chris\u00adt\u00adian fam\u00adi\u00adly, he had not tru\u00adly believed in Jesus. His slav\u00adery gave him time to reflect on life, and as he explained, \u201cthe Lord opened my mind to an aware\u00adness of my unbe\u00adlief, in order that, even so late, I might remem\u00adber my trans\u00adgres\u00adsions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignif\u00adi\u00adcance and pitied my youth and igno\u00adrance. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even dis\u00adtin\u00adguished between good and evil, and he pro\u00adtect\u00aded me, and con\u00adsoled me as a father would his son\u201d (Con\u00adfes\u00adsio <\/em>2).<\/p>\n

Patrick\u2019s devo\u00adtion to Christ inten\u00adsi\u00adfied, \u201cMore and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spir\u00adit was moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hun\u00addred prayers, and in the night a like num\u00adber; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the moun\u00adtain and I would wake up before day\u00adlight to pray in the snow, in icy cold\u00adness, in rain, and I used to feel nei\u00adther ill nor any sloth\u00adful\u00adness, because, as I now see, the Spir\u00adit was burn\u00ading in me at that time. And it was there of course that one night in my sleep I heard a voice say\u00ading to me: \u2018You do well to fast: soon you will depart for your home coun\u00adtry.\u2019 And again, a very short time lat\u00ader, there was a voice proph\u00adesy\u00ading: \u2018Behold, your ship is ready.\u2019\u201d (Con\u00adfes\u00adsio <\/em>16\u201317).<\/p>\n

After receiv\u00ading this vision, Patrick fled 200 miles to the coast and found a ship prepar\u00ading for a sea voy\u00adage. He jour\u00adneyed back to his home\u00adland, expe\u00adri\u00adenc\u00ading mirac\u00adu\u00adlous guid\u00adance and pro\u00advi\u00adsion along the way. <\/p>\n

After liv\u00ading at home for a few years Patrick had anoth\u00ader vision, \u201cI saw a man whose name was Vic\u00adtori\u00adcus com\u00ading as it from Ire\u00adland with innu\u00admer\u00adable let\u00adters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the begin\u00adning of the let\u00adter: \u2018The Voice of the Irish\u2019, and as I was read\u00ading the begin\u00adning of the let\u00adter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the for\u00adest of Foclut which is near the west\u00adern sea, and they were cry\u00ading as if with one voice: \u2018We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.\u2019 And I was stung intense\u00adly in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke.\u201d (Con\u00adfes\u00adsio <\/em>23)<\/p>\n

So Patrick obe\u00addi\u00adent\u00adly returned to Ire\u00adland. As before, he was a slave. But this time he was a slave of Christ. His mis\u00adsion to Ire\u00adland brought fierce oppo\u00adsi\u00adtion from the Irish Druids. He faced them with great faith: \u201cDai\u00adly I expect to be mur\u00addered or betrayed or reduced to slav\u00adery if the occa\u00adsion aris\u00ades. But I fear noth\u00ading, because of the promis\u00ades of Heav\u00aden; for I have cast myself into the hands of Almighty God, who reigns every\u00adwhere.\u201d (Con\u00adfes\u00adsio <\/em>55)<\/p>\n

Even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly, tra\u00addi\u00adtion tells us, Patrick found him\u00adself debat\u00ading the Druid lead\u00aders before an Irish king. The debate was ran\u00adcorous, and at one point the Druids began attack\u00ading the doc\u00adtrine of the Trin\u00adi\u00adty. Patrick plucked a three-leaved clover and asked them whether it was one or three. The Druids had no answer, and this debate was piv\u00adotal in per\u00adsuad\u00ading the king to con\u00advert to Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty.<\/p>\n

By the end of his life, Patrick had plant\u00aded over 700 church\u00ades and trained around 1,000 min\u00adis\u00adters. One third of the tribes of Ire\u00adland became Chris\u00adt\u00adian through his min\u00adistry. He thus ranks as one of the great\u00adest mis\u00adsion\u00adar\u00adies in his\u00adto\u00adry, and became known as the one who \u201cfound Ire\u00adland all hea\u00adthen and left it all Chris\u00adt\u00adian.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to learn more, you should read his Con\u00adfes\u00adsio <\/em>\u2013 it\u2019s only 62 vers\u00ades long and is avail\u00adable many places online (at the Chris\u00adt\u00adian Clas\u00adsics Ethe\u00adre\u00adal Library<\/a>, at Robot Wis\u00addom<\/a>, and at the Catholic Infor\u00adma\u00adtion Net\u00adwork<\/a>, to pick three). <\/p>\n

And so remem\u00adber \u2013 St. Patrick\u2019s Day is about far more than green beer and pinch\u00ading peo\u00adple. It\u2019s about hon\u00ador\u00ading one of the most effec\u00adtive min\u00adis\u00adters of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The man we call St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain around 385 as Maewyn Suc\u00adcat. Two of his orig\u00adi\u00adnal let\u00adters sur\u00advive: his Con\u00adfes\u00adsio and his Epis\u00adto\u00adla ad Coroticum, the lat\u00adter being notable for mak\u00ading him, in Thomas Cahill\u2019s words \u201cthe first human being in the his\u00adto\u00adry of the world to speak out unequiv\u00ado\u00adcal\u00adly against \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cMarch 17 Means More Than Green Beer\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","category-spiritual-growth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-G8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2612"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2617,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612\/revisions\/2617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}