The stories of St. Patrick are wild, fanciful and mostly unsubstantiated. As with the lives of many early saints, the lore compared to the actual lives lived may well be very distant cousins. But that doesn’t mean the tales can’t be received as inspired with truth. There is often poetic veracity embedded in dubious tales. The very fruition of these legends over time gives witness to humanity’s relentless struggle through darkness toward light, from ignorance to understanding, from cursedness to blessedness. The stories tell of heroic, counter-intuitive deeds and selfless love, and show us how profoundly the way of Christ has penetrated into culture like an invisible, raising yeast.
What we know of Patrick’s life comes from two surviving documents written by the Saint himself. We learn that he was born in Britain, likely in the early 5th century, to Christian heritage. His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest. But by his own admission Patrick was not an active believer in his youth. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was captured by raiders who took him back to Ireland where he was enslaved for six years and made to work as a shepherd boy. This disorienting experience of abrupt dislocation and enslavement suppled his heart toward prayer and eventually led to his conversion to Christianity.
See more at: http://blog.stevebell.com/2015/03/feast-of-st-patrick/
SHOULD WE CELEBRATES SAINTS PAST - Malcolm Guite
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