But this is nearly 250 years later. The Roman Empire was in its last minutes, before plunging Europe into the Dark Ages. Any affluence, commercial value, or safety from being near the Romans, had been deteriorating for a long time. I can picture things being a little nutty in those days, around those parts.
There are existing two letters, written in Latin, which are universally accepted to be by the hand of Patrick. One of these letters contains a description of his life. Let's use his story.
He describes himself as being born in Roman Britain. His father was a deacon, and his grandfather, a priest. At the age of 16, he was captured and taken away to Ireland as a slave. He worked as a shepherd, as his love for God, and his prayer life grew. After six years of captivity, he one day heard a voice that said he would be going home soon. A short time later, the voice said "Your ship is waiting". Patrick escaped his master and traveled to a port 200 miles away (his words). Again, in his words, he found a ship and, after various adventures, returned home to his family in his early twenties.
A few years after his return home and, well, these are his exact words:
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".
One scholar suggests that the reference to Victoricus may refer to St. Victricius, Bishop of Rouen (France), who was the only Western bishop (at the time) who felt that the pagans should be converted.
He baptized thousands. He ordained priests to lead the new Christian communities. He is famous for his likening of the shamrock to the Mystery of The Holy Trinity.
He converted wealthy women, some becoming nuns. His followers established monasteries all over Ireland. He converted the sons of kings. He may have driven the snakes out of Ireland, but most scientists agree that there were no snakes in post ice age Ireland (spoil sports!).
In one of his letters, he seems to address a bit of a flap over money. Without any prologue, and in his own words, he explains that he gave back the money given to the church by the wealthy women (remember, many of them became nuns). He also asserts that he did not accept money for baptisms or ordaining priests. He explains that he did give gifts to chiefs and judges. He explained that he paid for sons of kings to accompany him. Whether this was for protection or a token tribal respect, we may never know. Sounds like he had a few enemies.
An interesting sidebar to this story, is that St. Patrick was never officially canonized by the Churches. In the early days of Christendom, cannonizations were a local thing, performed by local bishops in local areas. The cult of St. Patrick was well established by the time the Church had worked such things out.
St. Patrick is celebrated by both the Orthodox Catholic and Roman Catholic churches, as his times were before the Great Schism of 1054.
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