The following is an exerpt from Christianpost.com
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here is a little backstory on Saint Patrick himself.
At the age of 16, Saint Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland where he became a slave to the chieftain of Ulster. One night, after six years of slavery, Saint Patrick heard a voice, "Behold, thy ship is ready." He traveled two hundred miles on foot to a place where he knew no one and had never been. He wrote in his autobiographical account, "After this I took flight, and left the man with whom I had been six years; and I came in the strength of the Lord, who directed my way for good; and I feared nothing till I arrived at the ship. And on that same day on which I arrived, the ship moved out of its place."
Patrick made his way back to Britain, found his family, and could have lived out the rest of his life in relative comfort in the land of freedom. But in 432 AD, he had another vision.
Saint Patrick went back to Ireland as a missionary. No outside religion had penetrated Ireland in a thousand years. Saint Patrick founded more than 300 churches and baptized more than 120,000 people. His ministry was so influential that he came to be known as the one who "found Ireland all heathen and left it all Christian."
Wow! I learned this about St. Patrick a few weeks ago...I never knew all of this about him (I think because in America we make this day of honor about something entirely different).We had our yearly Irish dinner of Corned Beef and Cabbage and read this as a family! We celebrated a little early this year :)
Kolson helped decorate by making a Happy St. Patrick's Day sign!
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