23 March 2025

Unlike others, St. Patrick has left behind some of his own writings. One major document is his Confessio or Confession. It’s an autobiography celebrating his faith and his ministry. He gives some interesting background. His father was called Calpurnius, a Roman official, a deacon  in the  church whose father had been a presbyter.

When he was sixteen, Patrick was kidnapped  by raiders and taken to Ireland and sold into slavery. For six years, he worked as a herdsman in East Antrim. During this time, he was converted . He eventually escaped and possibly returned to Britain. He was reunited with his family.

His call came in a dream. A man called Victoricus came from Ireland with countless letters. He gave one of them to Patrick. It was called ‘The Voice of the Irish’. He read it. ‘We  beg you, holy boy, to come and walk with us again.’

‘Towards Ireland I did not stir of my own accord,’ he writes, ‘until I was almost worn out. But this was all to my good since thus I was amended by the Lord. He fitted me to become something which was quite beyond my grasp.’

And so began his thirty year ministry in Ireland – converting the heathen, establishing churches, teaching, preaching and travelling from one place to the next sharing the  good news convincingly and effectively.  His Confession was written near the end of his life.

He was amazed at what had happened. He saw it not as his work but the work of God within him which had borne fruit. ‘I, Patrick, a sinner, am the most ignorant and of least account among the faithful, despised by many … I owe it to God’s grace that so many people should through me be born again to him.’