A Slave Who Evangelized an Entire Country
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Saint Patrick was born around the year 387. When he was a teenager, Patrick was taken captive from his native Great Britain and sold into slavery in Ireland, working in the fields as a shepherd. During his captivity, Patrick experienced extreme suffering and loneliness. He remembered the prayers his Christian family taught him, and he prayed to God throughout the day and kept a journal. One day, he had a dream during which God told him to go to the sea where a boat would be waiting to take him to freedom. Patrick escaped his captures and walked 200 miles to the sea where he found a boat that took him back to his family.
Though he was grateful to be free, Patrick felt the people of Ireland calling him to return. After he was ordained a priest and made bishop, Patrick finally returned to Ireland to bring Christ to the Irish. At the time, Ireland was a pagan country so every person he crossed paths with needed to be introduced to Christ, and Patrick did just that. He taught the mystery of the Holy Trinity, three persons in one God, through the symbol of the shamrock, which has three heart shaped leaves. As the years passed, countless people were baptized, churches and monasteries were built, Irish men were ordained priests, Irish women became religious sisters and nuns, and Catholicism spread throughout all of Ireland.
Saint Patrick’s feast day is March 17th, and he is the patron saint of Ireland and engineers.
Saint Patrick believed in the Gospel message so much that he returned to a place of great pain to introduce the Irish people to Christianity. He wrote that every day he was there he expected to be captured or killed but that did not prevent Patrick from his missionary work. Are there places in your life that you are too afraid to bring Christ? How can you, like Saint Patrick, lovingly spread Christianity to those most in need?
Use the activity sheets to talk to your children about Saint Patrick, the great evangelist. Encourage them to be evangelists in their schools, neighborhoods, and communities — bringing Christ to those who need Him most.