Aryana St. Marthe
On March 17th during the fifth century a man named Maewyn Succat (aka St. Patrick) died and to this day we celebrate his life, death, and all things Irish. Although his birth and death cannot be dated, we still celebrate him. Some say he went to Ireland in 432 AD and died on March 17, 462 AD or 492 AD. St. Patrick wrote 2 letters to himself about his life and both of them survived over the years and are present to this day. These letters are known as his Confessio and the Epistola, it gave insight of what happened while he was in Ireland. St. Patrick’s teenage life was not so great. When he was 16, Patrick was kidnapped by the Irish raiders and was sold as a slave and worked as a shepard for 6 years. At this time he went through a spiritual epiphany and he started to pray up to 100 times a day. Patrick believed God could help him escape the slavery he was in. Eventually, after all that praying, in a dream a voice told him to go to a port that was 200 miles away, and get on a boat that was waiting for him to leave. The crew didn’t want to let him on at first. Patrick started to pray for them to change their minds, and before the prayer was even over, the Captain changed his mind and said he could come on board. They eventually landed on some island 3 days after being at sea, on the island they wandered around for 28 days without food or water. The crew members asked him to pray and later on that day they came across some boar. They feasted for 2 days then began to go back out on sea. During Patrick’s life he had a lot of visions, one of them was seeing a man named Victoricus (some believed him to be Saint Vitricius - bishop of Rouen) giving him a letter that came from the people of Ireland, begging him to come back and teach the Christianity religion to them. This was just a request Patrick could not deny. When he came back he was welcomed with hostility from the locals. Now people have wondered if Patrick was really a saint or if he was just a criminal because in his Confessio he wrote about a trial he was waiting for. According to Ali Isaac, writer of the Irish Central, the article states, “It’s not clear exactly what happened, but it is thought that the writing of the Epistola resulted in Patrick writing his Confessio, perhaps whilst awaiting the outcome of his trial.” Reading this made me confused because he helped a lot of Irish people convert to Christianity and he’s writing about a trial. What was he being tried for? Who was going against him? Why did this person have a problem with him? What did Patrick do so wrong? Many questions that need answers. In the end St. Patrick helped a lot of people with the religion that he found, Christianity, and he also had a life that no one else knew about. To read more about this you can go to this website: https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/saint-patrick-saintly-criminal
1 Comment
4/26/2022 07:53:37 am
I liked when you said "patrick's life was not so great"
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