Did you know...
St. Patrick was kidnapped from a wealthy, comfortable life in London by a band of Irish pirates when he was just 16 years old. He served as a slave in Ireland for six years after which he escaped back to England. Back home and comfortable again, he received an education and ministerial training. At the age of 48, Patrick had a dream that his captors were calling out to him "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us." He felt God was calling him to share the Gospel with the Irish Celts. He appealed for support from the British Church and was ordained a Bishop, appointed to Ireland as history's first missionary bishop. "Tradition tells us that he arrived in Ireland with a modest entourage of priests, seminarians, and others, in A.D. 432."
"What had Patrick and his people achieved in his twenty-eight-year mission to the "barbarian" Irish Celts? The question cannot be answered with mathematical precision, but estimates are possible. We believe there were some Christians, perhaps Christian slaves or traders and their families, already living in Ireland by A.D. 432, but there was no indigenous Irish Christian movement before Patrick. Patrick and his people launched a movement. They baptized "many thousands" of people, probably tens of thousands. Tirechan refers, usually by name, to at least fifty-five churches that Patrick's team planted essentially in the one province of Connacht. The tradition has Patrick engaging in substantial ministry in northern, central, and eastern Ireland, with some forays beyond. An ancient document called the "Annals of the Four Masters" reports that Patrick's mission planted about 700 churches, and that Patrick ordained perhaps 1000 priests. Within his lifetime, 30 to 40 (or more) of Ireland's 150 tribes became substantially Christian....Patrick's achievement included social dimensions. He was the first man to speak and crusade against slavery. Within his lifetime, or soon after, "the Irish slave trade came to a halt, and other forms of violence, such as murder and intertribal warfare decreased," and his communities modeled the Christian way of faithfulness, generosity, and peace to all the Irish."
Quotes from "The Celtic Way of Evangelism" by George C. Hunter III
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