If the virtue of children reflects honor on their parents, much more
justly is the name of Saint Patrick rendered illustrious by the innumerable
lights of sanctity which shone in the Church of Ireland during many ages,
and by the colonies of Saints with which it peopled many foreign countries.
The Apostle of Ireland was born in Scotland towards the close of the fourth
century, in a village which seems to be the present-day Scotch town of
Kilpatrick, between Dumbarton and Glasgow. He calls himself both a Briton
and a Roman, that is, of mixed extraction, and says his father was of a good
family named Calphurnius. Some writers call his mother Conchessa, and say
she was the niece of Saint Martin of Tours.
In his sixteenth year he was carried into captivity in Ireland by
barbarians. There he was obliged to shepherd cattle on the mountains and in
the forests, in hunger and nakedness, amid snow, rain, and ice. The young
man had recourse to God with his whole heart, in fervent prayer and fasting,
and from that time faith and the love of God acquired a constantly renewed
strength in his tender soul. After six months spent in slavery, Saint
Patrick was admonished by God in a dream to return to his own country, and
was informed that a ship was then ready to sail there. He went at once to
the seacoast, though at a great distance, and found the vessel, but he could
not obtain his passage — probably for want of money. Patrick was returning
to his hut, praying as he went, when the sailors, though pagans, called him
back and took him on board.
Some years afterwards he was again taken captive, but recovered his
liberty after two months. While he was at home with his parents, God
manifested to him, by divers visions, that He destined him for the great
work of the conversion of Ireland. His biographers say that after his second
captivity he traveled into Gaul and Italy, and saw Saint Martin, Saint
Germanus of Auxerre, and Pope Saint Celestine, and that he received his
mission and the apostolical benediction from this Pope, who died in 432. It
is certain that he spent many years in preparing himself for his sacred
calling. Great opposition was raised to his episcopal consecration and
mission, both by his own relatives and by the clergy. They made him great
offers in order to detain him among them, and endeavored to affright him by
exaggerating the dangers to which he exposed himself amid the enemies of the
Romans and Britons, who did not know God. All these temptations cast the
Saint into great perplexity; but the Lord, whose Will he consulted by
earnest prayer, supported him and he persevered in his resolution.
He therefore left his family, sold his birthright and dignity, and
consecrated his soul to God, to serve strangers and carry His name to the
ends of the earth. In this disposition he passed into Ireland, to preach the
Gospel where the worship of idols still generally reigned. He traveled over
the island, penetrating into the remotest corners, and such was the fruit of
his preaching and sufferings that he baptized an infinite number of persons.
Everywhere he ordained clergymen, induced women to live in holy widowhood
and continence, consecrated virgins to Christ, and founded monasteries, not
without many persecutions.
Saint Patrick held several councils to regulate the discipline of the
Church he had planted. Saint Bernard and the tradition of the country
testify that he fixed his metropolitan see at Armagh. He established other
bishops, as appears by the acts of a council and various other documents. He
not only converted the whole country by his preaching and wonderful
miracles, but also cultivated this vineyard with so fruitful a benediction
from heaven as to render Ireland a flourishing garden in the Church of God,
and a land of Saints. He converted and baptized the kings of Dublin and
Munster and the seven sons of the king of Connaught, with the majority of
their subjects, and before his death almost the whole island. He founded
three monasteries and filled the countryside with churches and schools of
piety and learning. He died and was buried at Down in Ulster. His body was
found there in a church of his name in 1185, and moved to another part of
the same church.
Reflection. By the instrumentality of Saint Patrick
the Faith remained for long centuries as fresh in Ireland as when it was
first planted. Ask him to obtain for you the special grace his children
receive: to prefer the loss of every earthly good to the least compromise in
matters of faith.
Source: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a
compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John
Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).
March 17th
Vatican
II
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Deception
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Third
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The
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A
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Jacinta's
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