Saint Patrick

Patrick’s name wasn’t Patrick. His name was Maewyn Succat, and he was born in Roman Britain around 389, the son of Calpurnius and Conchessa, of a noble family. Exactly where, no one knows: in his Confession he writes that his father had land near a village with a name half native and half Latin, Bannhaven Taberniae, and no one has ever managed to find it on a map. At sixteen he was kidnapped by the men of the Irish king Niall and sold as a slave. He spent six years in captivity, and in those six years he learned two things that would serve him for the rest of his life: the Gaelic language and Celtic mythology. He also learned to pray. When he managed to escape and return to his family, he took holy orders: deacon in 407, then in Gaul, where Germanus of Auxerre consecrated him bishop in 420. In 431 he went back to Ireland. He went back a free man, to the place where he had been a slave, and he stayed there for the rest of his life. The island was almost entirely pagan: he was the one who made it a Christian country. He was threatened with death many times, captured, condemned, and he kept going anyway. He died at Saul on March 17, 461. Together with Columba and Brigid he is the patron of Ireland, and on March 17 the whole Irish community around the world celebrates him — which makes it perhaps the best-known saint’s feast on the planet. If your name is Patrick or Patricia, today is your name day.