Saturday, March 17, 2012

St. Patrick's Day Honors St. Patrick - 10 Fun Facts (Christian, Kidnapped, Ireland, Trinity, Downspatrick)

  1. St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the fourth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family.

  2. His father and grandfather were deacons in the Christian church.

  3. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave.

  4. He was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain.

  5. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest.

  6. In 432, he again said that he was called back to Ireland, though as a bishop, to Christianise the Irish from their native polytheism.

  7. He used a shamrock to explain the Christian doctrine of the Trinity (God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were three parts of the same divinity) to the Irish people.

  8. After nearly thirty years of evangelism, he died on 17 March 461.

  9. According to tradition, he was buried at Downpatrick.

  10. Although there were other more successful missions to Ireland from Rome, Patrick endured as the principal champion of Irish Christianity and is held in esteem in the Irish church.
St. Patrick depicted in a stained glass
window at St. Benin's Church, Ireland.

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