Place de la Paix: Feast Day Of Saint Patrick

Quoted from History [1]:

St. Patrick Wasn't Irish

St. Patrick was born in Britain—not Ireland—to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century....

Although his father was a Christian deacon, it has been suggested that he probably took on the role because of tax incentives and there is no evidence that Patrick came from a particularly religious family.

Quoted from Roman Catholic Saints [2]:

St Patrick begins by humbly calling himself “a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many…”

Quoted from Wikipedia [3]:

According to the Confession of Saint Patrick, at the age of sixteen he was captured by a group of Irish pirates ["who were attacking his family’s estate."] [4] They took him to Ireland where he was enslaved and held captive for six years. Patrick writes in the Confession that the time he spent in captivity was critical to his spiritual development. He explains that the Lord had mercy on his youth and ignorance, and afforded him the opportunity to be forgiven his sins and convert to Christianity. While in captivity, he worked as a shepherd and strengthened his relationship with God through prayer, eventually leading him to convert to Christianity.

[Patrick tended his master’s sheep, and during that time he relates that “the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied me in my youth and ignorance. He watched over me before I knew him, and before I had enough sense to distinguish between good and evil, and He protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.”

[Patrick began to love God, praying many times a day as he tended his flock. “More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase. My spirit was moved so that in a day I said up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number. I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.”

[“Therefore, indeed, I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper, so many favors and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity. For after chastisement from God, and recognizing Him, our way to repay Him is to exalt Him and confess His wonders before every nation under heaven.”] [5]

After six years of captivity he heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home... [“You do well to fast: soon you will depart for your home country,” and a short time later, “Behold, your ship is ready.” St Patrick fled from his master and went along a route as God directed until he had travelled two hundred miles to a port where he had never been.

[St Patrick arrived just as a ship was prepared to set out, and although the men who owned the ship initially refused him passage, they later relented after St Patrick prayed to God for assistance.

[After three days they reached land, but then they journeyed for twenty-eight days through uninhabited country. When their food ran out and hunger overtook them, the steersman asked St Patrick: “Christian, you say your God is great and all-powerful, so why can you not pray for us? We may perish of hunger, for it is unlikely indeed that we shall ever see another human being.”

[St Patrick answered confidently: “Be converted by faith with all your heart to my Lord God, because nothing is impossible for Him, so that today He will send food for you on our road, until you be sated, because everywhere He abounds.” Soon a herd of swine appeared on the road before them, of which they slew many. They remained there for two nights until they were full of meat and well restored, for many of them had fainted and would otherwise have been left half-dead by the wayside. After this they gave the utmost thanks to God, and Patrick was esteemed in their eyes, and from that day on they had food abundantly. They discovered wild honey, besides, and they offered a share to Patrick, who said to them: “It is a sacrifice,” and would taste none of it.] [6]

Patrick recounts that he had a vision a few years after returning home:

I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: "The Voice of the Irish". As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us."

...

Patrick studied in Europe principally at Auxerre, but is thought to have visited the Marmoutier Abbey, Tours and to have received the tonsure at Lérins Abbey. Saint Germanus of Auxerre, a bishop of the Western Church, ordained him to the priesthood.

Acting on his vision, Patrick returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary....

...

Legend credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leafed plant, using it to illustrate the Christian teaching of three persons in one God. This story first appears in writing in 1726, though it may be older. The shamrock has since become a central symbol for Saint Patrick's Day.

In pagan Ireland, three was a significant number and the Irish had many triple deities, a fact that may have aided Patrick in his evangelisation efforts when he "held up a shamrock and discoursed on the Christian Trinity".

Quoted from Wikipedia [7]:

Saint Patrick ... was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints being Brigit of Kildare and Columba. Patrick was never formally canonised, having lived prior to the current laws of the Catholic Church in these matters. Nevertheless, he is venerated as a Saint in the Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is regarded as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland. He is also regarded as a Saint within the framework of their respective doctrine by the Anglican Communion and the Lutheran Churches.

Quoted from Roman Catholic Saints [8]:

St Patrick died on the 17th of March, 493. He awaits the day of resurrection, as he wrote in his Confession: “For the sun we see rises each day for us at His command, but it will never reign, neither will its splendor last, but all who worship it will come wretchedly to punishment. We, on the other hand, shall not die, who believe in and worship the true sun, Christ, who will never die, no more shall he die who has done Christ's will, but will abide for ever just as Christ abides forever, who reigns with God the Father Almighty and with the Holy Spirit before the beginning of time and now and forever and ever. Amen.”

Showing a photograph (obtained online - image cropped and adjusted) of a shamrock in honor of the legend crediting Saint Patrick "with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock" [9]: