St. Patrick – A Man of God Worth Honoring

The Tuesday feature of the Worldly Saints is all about reading. The post is meant to share some of my reflections from the latest book or magazine article or blog post I have or am reading. At times, I may post a book blurb (a wannabe book review) or recommend books to be read by others.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s a day for many to wear green, eat potatoes, go to a parade and get drunk. In many ways, it is just another holiday to most people or another excuse to wear green, eat and drink something that is not normally a part of their regular schedules.

But what is this holiday really about? And just who was St. Patrick? Is he worth commemorating? Is he worth celebrating?

I believe he is, according to a number of things I have read about him in recent years.

St. Patrick was born in A.D. 385 in Britain and died at the age of 76 in A.D. 461. Contrary to legend, St. Patrick never drove out all the snakes in Ireland (although, he would be my hero if he did) and he never depicted the trinity by using a shamrock.

St. Patrick was the son of a Christian priest, but as a young child, St. Patrick didn’t seem to be interested in spiritual things at all. He didn’t really adopt his parents Christian faith at this time. When he turned 16, he was kidnapped by Irish brigands and sold into slavery for the next 6 years in Northern Ireland. As a slave, he became a sheepherder (a good Irish vocation).

It was during this difficult time that St. Patrick began to consider the Lord. Daily, he would seek the Lord in prayer – sometimes up to 100x per day! At some point during this sheepherding servitude, he believed the Lord spoke to him and told him to return home. He did and was received back into the home of his parents as a new convert of Jesus Christ.

At the age of 45, he was ordained as a priest and 2 years later, he returned to the land of his servitude (in Ireland) to take the Gospel to this country. He went back to those who had captured and enslaved Him and told them about another kind of slavery – the slavery of sin and the Savior who redeems us! He prayed at one time that God would “never allow me to be separated from the people whom You have won.”

St. Patrick, according to church historians, is credited to leading countless thousands of Irishmen to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now that you know a little bit more about St. Patrick, do you feel like going out and dressing up like a leprechaun and eating a few potatoes? Or do you feel like getting on your knees and asking the Lord for more men like St. Patrick?