St. Patrick
Kidnapped at sixteen. He went back on purpose.
Most people know Patrick for shamrocks and parades. Here is the part that usually gets left out. Pirates took him from his family's home when he was sixteen and sold him in Ireland, and he spent six years there watching sheep on cold hills with nobody to talk to.
He got out. He made it home. And then he had a dream where he heard the Irish calling him back, so he turned around and spent the rest of his life in the country that had taken everything from him.
That is the whole thing about Patrick. He chose the people who hurt him. Everything else is decoration.
St. Patrick facts for kids
- He wasn't Irish. He was born in Roman Britain.
- March 17 is the day he died, not the day he was born. That's true of most saints' feast days.
- He used a three-leaf shamrock to explain the Trinity
- The snakes story is a legend. There were never snakes in Ireland.
Feast day: March 17 · Patron of Ireland
St. Patrick, when something is hard, help me go back anyway.
The longer story
We wrote a whole post about St. Patrick, with more of the story than fits on one page.
St. Patrick: The Boy Who Was Kidnapped and Became a SaintWe mailed this one
St. Patrick wrote a letter to the kids on our list, and it went out with a hand-drawn prayer card, a sticker, and an 8-page zine.
See St. Patrick's letter