By Daniel Amador
Many people believe that St. Patrick was just a saint that lived in Ireland, liked sheep, and had something to do with the three-leafed-clover and leprechauns. And though all of those are true (except for the one about leprechauns and clovers, infact, that story was told many years after his death), there is a lot more to it than that.
First of all, he was born in fifth century Britain, not Ireland. And even though his family was very religious, he was not (or, not yet), in fact, he was quite a trouble maker! Not at all a saint-like person. Then, all of a sudden, marauders sent from Ireland attacked his town, stole many things, burned many houses, and took many people captive as slaves, including Patrick himself!
When he arrived in Ireland, he became a worker at the farm of a man named Milchu. After many years of him working on the farm, Milchu trusted him enough to allow him to take care of the sheep in the pastures, which gave him a lot of time alone with God. Then, he started to have visions. One was a voice telling him he would soon return home, and another was of the same voice telling him his ship was ready and he saw a vision of the ship. The ship was very far away, but he knew it was the ship he was supposed to take. So he went to his master, and since he worked for him for many years, he asked if he could be set free, but Milchu denied him. So while Milchu was distracted, Patrick went out of the house and just walked away from the farm to freedom.
He traveled for many days through many forests, hills, and mountains until he came to a sea port where he saw the ship he had seen in one of his visions! He asked the captain if he and his crew were going to England, and he said yes, but that they would travel there after they went to France. So Patrick asked if he could go with them, but he was denied.
Then, as he walked away, the captain called him back because he had noticed that he was good with animals, so he said that if Patrick took care of the dogs he could go with them, so he agreed.
He eventually made it home and reunited with his family back in Britain. But then he had another vision, and it told him to go back to Ireland and teach the people about God, so he obeyed and went.
He taught many people about God, and even though he was almost killed a few times, and was made fun of many times, many people believed, including the king and queen. They also banished from Ireland a very influential druid priest (druids were priests that “served” the king of Ireland [and maybe other kings] and worshiped pagan gods) named Lochru when they found out that he had tried to kill Patrick! And thus concludes this true story of Saint Patrick.
What’s the moral of the story of Saint Patrick? I think it would be: Listen to God and obey his commands, and he will lead you far.