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The saints

St Patrick

Kidnapped as a teenager, enslaved in Ireland, he escaped, and then went back.

Feast: 17 March · 5th century · Britain and Ireland

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The bare, stony slope of Croagh Patrick, the holy mountain of County Mayo, Ireland, under a grey sky.

Dale Simonson, 2010. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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Ireland, early 5th century

A sixteen-year-old boy from Britain is seized by raiders and carried off to Ireland as a slave.1

For six years he tends flocks on a lonely hillside, and there he learns to pray.1

He escaped. Years later he chose to return to the people who had enslaved him.

01St Patrick

The slave who came back

Patrick escaped and made his way home, and later prepared for the priesthood.1

He returned to Ireland as a bishop and preached the Gospel across the island.1

Patrick told the story of his captivity and his prayer himself, in his Confessio.1

02St Patrick

The holy mountain

He spent forty days of fasting and prayer on the summit of the mountain now called Croagh Patrick.1

The bare, stony slope of Croagh Patrick, the holy mountain of County Mayo, Ireland, under a grey sky.
The pilgrim trail up Croagh Patrick, County Mayo. Dale Simonson, 2010. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Forgiveness is easy to talk about. Patrick spent his life on it.

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Patrick”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.