saint patrick

Patrick was born in 380 AD in Britain. As a teenager, he was kidnapped by wild Irish traders and brought to Northern Ireland as a slave.  It was this hardship that brought him to consider his own sins and his need for a Savior.  He writes in his Confession, “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 my youth and ignorance.” And then, echoing Psalm 139 he wrote, “God watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguish between good and evil… He protected me.”

The  hard times in his life and the loneliness of his slavery brought him to  face his own sin and cry out for a Father. As the Lord forgave him of his sins, Patrick then forgave his captors. This is what is behind his return to Ireland as a missionary. He was ordained in 432 AD and went  back to the “scene of the crime” to bring Christ to the pagans and  brutal warlords of Ireland. This is the power of the gospel. First it saves, and then it sends.

Today, we speak about a personal relationship with Jesus. The famous prayer of Saint Patrick, known as the Lorica, or the Breastplate of Saint Patrick, gives us a powerful image of what it means to have a true personal relationship with Jesus. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my  left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me. 

We also learn from Saint Patrick that no society is too far gone to be  saved. While the Irish culture was dead set against the gospel, Patrick  loved the people. He worked among the slave traders … the very people who  had captured him decades before. Because of Christ’s work in his life, he didn’t hate the culture he was trying to reach.  He loved it. He used  his own money to bribe local leaders to allow him passage throughout  the country because everything was about the gospel.  Getting the gospel out into the lives and hearts of people was his first desire. 

All this took place while the Roman Empire was collapsing. Ireland was the end of  the world and most people had written off this area as one of the least  inhabitable portions of the earth. But Patrick believed these people were worth saving. The next years of Patrick’s ministry saw the conversion of over 100,000 Christians and the establishment of over 300 churches. From this seedbed of the Gospel, other missionaries  carried the Gospel to England and the Word of God advanced. Remarkably, when the Roman missionary Bishop Augustine arrived at Canterbury in 597AD, he found evidence of the church already there. The Gospel had already come there…from the north…from the work of Patrick centuries before.

When we reflect on the life and legacy of Saint Patrick, may we be inspired to fully surrender ourselves to God that He may make us more like Christ and use us to further His Kingdom right here in Lexington.