“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV)
Maewyn Succat was born into a wealthy English family late in the 4th Century. When he was 16-years-old, Irish raiders attacked his family’s estate and kidnapped him. They carried him back to Ireland where he was sold into slavery. Maewyn was forced to work as a shepherd of sheep and his master was a high priest in Druidism, a pagan religion.
During his six years of enslavement, Maewyn had dreams and visions from the Lord, convincing him to surrender his life to Him. In one dream, the Lord told him it was time to leave Ireland and return to England. Soon after, he escaped his captors, convinced some sailors to take him aboard their ship, and after an arduous journey of three days at sea and another month traversing 200 miles on land, he finally returned to his homeland.
As a result of his conversion, Maewyn sought to gain a religious education and training for the priesthood, and so moved to Auxerre, France. Upon entry into the priesthood, Maewyn took the name Patrick. In the midst of his training, Patrick had another dream. In this one, the Lord told him to go back to the land of his enslavement to take the Gospel—back to Ireland. And so he did.
In A.D. 431, Pope St. Celestine I consecrated Patrick as “Bishop to the Irish” and sent him to proclaim the “Good News of the Gospel” to the pagans. And in the power of the Holy Spirit, Patrick spent the remainder of his life, around 40 years, loving the Irish and showing them a better way, a life devoted not to worthless idolatry but to serving the living God. Historians credit him as the impetus for the transformation of a whole culture from pagan to Christian.
Saint Patrick, as he has been known for centuries, lived out the command of Jesus to go and make disciples. On the day of his namesake, when most of the focus is on wearing green, parades, and drinking beer, let us remember the man whose love for the Lord took him back to the land where he was enslaved to set his captors free. Now that is something to celebrate and perhaps, in some smaller measure, to emulate in our own lives.
© Jim Musser 2014
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