Do you know what March 17 is called on most of our calendars? Do you know who Saint Patrick was? Many legends have been invented about him, but he was actually a Christian who was born when Augustine was a young man—late in the 4th Century.

Patrick was probably born in the southwest of England. When he was 16 years old, some raiders from Ireland took him captive along with thousands of other people. He was sold as a slave in the north of Ireland, where he kept his master’s flocks. It was there that Patrick became a Christian.

This is how he explained it: “The Lord opened the understanding of my unbelief, that I might call my faults to remembrance and that I might turn with all my heart to the Lord my God.”¹

Soon after that, he escaped from his master and walked 200 miles to find a ship leaving Ireland. After a long, wandering journey, he finally reached home. His parents had thought he was dead, and begged him never to leave them.

However, Patrick believed he was called by God to go back to Ireland to tell people there about Christ the Lord, since most of them didn’t know Him. He studied and prepared for 20 years, and was then sent as a missionary bishop from England to Ireland in A. D. 432.

Patrick traveled from one clan to another, staying with each chieftain in turn. Everywhere he went, he preached about Jesus, baptized new believers, started churches, and taught people to read so that they could study God’s Word for themselves. He died in County Down in A. D. 461.

—Carol Wright

____________________________

For You To Do!

One of the legends made up about Patrick says that he banished all of the (1)__ (2)__ (3)__ (4)__ (5)__ (6)__ from Ireland.

1) is in ESTHER and in VASHTI

2) is in HAMAN but not in MORDECAI

3) is in MATTHEW and in MARK

4) is in MARK but not in MATTHEW

5) is in EVE and in SETH

6) is in SETH but not in EVE

HINT: 1) and 6) are the same letter