St. Patrick's Day
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St Patrick was born about
385 A.D. Where he is originally from is undetermined, but it is thought to be either
Scotland or what is now Wales and his real name was Maewyn. His family belonged to the
Roman Catholic Church but by his own admission he was covetous, licentious, materialistic,
and generally heathen. Somewhere between the ages of fourteen and sixteen he, along with
hundreds of other young men and women, were captured by Irish marauders and sold as slaves
back in Ireland. While serving as a slave he turned toward God and realized the importance
of having God in his life. In writing about this period of slavery he wrote: "The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same." "I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain." After six years, he eventually was able to escape and he went to Gaul to study at a monastery. Here he developed a great desire to convert others to Christianity. At the time Ireland was very much into witchcraft [not surprising that this is where Halloween has its origins]. He felt a great desire to return to Ireland and help the people turn away from these practices. Sometime before he left, he took on the name of Patrick. He was very successful at converting people to Christianity which angered many Druid priests (these priests had previously held the country tight in their religion of black magic and the occult.) At least a dozen times these priests had Patrick arrested and imprisoned. Each time he was able to escape. Over a period of about 30 - 40 years, he was able to travel to nearly all of Ireland and was the catalyst that turned a very pagan country into a Christian country. Ireland later came to be called "Isle of Saints." His converts were from all social classes -- from Princes to slaves. He did use the shamrock as an object lesson to teach about the Godhead. But I like the version that I read. Rather than the idea of the trinity (three people in one being) as most other churches believe. The account I read said that St. Patrick struggled to teach that the God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were separate and distinct yet the Godhead was as the stem that united them in unity of purpose. He may really have taught that they were one being, but I liked this version and I believe it may be true because in those early days of the Catholic church, the idea of the trinity was not yet that strong of an idea. The green comes from Ireland being called the Emerald Isle. I like to think of green because of the same reason for green at Christmas. That Christ lives still and is not dead. Below is something he is supposed to have written that I liked:
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