St. Patrick: The Boy Who Was Kidnapped and Became a Saint
Most kids know St. Patrick from shamrocks and the color green. The real story is a lot more interesting than that.
A Boy Stolen from Home
When Patrick was 16, pirates raided his family's home in Britain and dragged him across the sea to Ireland, where he was sold as a slave. For six years he worked as a shepherd on cold hillsides, alone, with no way to get home.
He started praying. A lot. He wrote later that he would pray a hundred times a day, and almost as many times at night. In the cold, in the rain, in the dark. He talked to God and God listened.
The Great Escape
One night Patrick heard a voice in a dream: Your ship is ready. He ran more than 200 miles to the coast and found a ship just about to leave. The sailors almost turned him away. At the last moment, they let him board.
He was free.
Going Back
Here's the part that gets me every time. After everything he survived, after finally making it home to his family, Patrick had another dream. He heard the Irish people calling to him: We beg you, holy boy, come and walk among us again.
So he went back. To the place where he'd been a slave. He spent the rest of his life there, telling people about Jesus. He baptized thousands. He built churches. He didn't hold a grudge. He loved them.
Fun Facts
- Patrick used the three-leaf shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity
- His feast day is March 17, the day he died, not the day he was born
- He wasn't Irish. He was born in Roman Britain.
- Legend says he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Scientists say there were never snakes there to begin with. Patrick knows.
Want your child to get a letter from St. Patrick? Letters from Heaven sends a hand-illustrated letter, prayer card, sticker, and saint zine to your mailbox every month.
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