January 31 - Ain't Easy Bein' Green

January 31 – Ain’t Easy Bein’ Green

Patrick was born around 390 AD. His parents were Christians living in Britain – which at the time was under Roman rule. When he was sixteen years old, he was taken as a slave and sent to work with pigs in northern Ireland. All of a sudden, he decided that he might want to take God seriously and began to pray. He escaped and headed for the coast. He caught a boat to France and then went to a monastery in the Mediterranean.

Pat’s only problem was that God wasn’t done with him in Ireland. He began having dreams about Irish children begging him to bring the Gospel. He went back to France to study more about the Gospel and in 432 returned to Ireland.

Now, this wasn’t the first time the Gospel had been in Ireland, but because of Patrick’s former life there, the people were ready to listen. This man converted most of the Irish to Christianity. He started around 300 churches and baptized 120,000 people. There are a lot of legends that surround his life in Ireland, but he had to deal with local chieftains and Druids. However, the local people always listened to him.

Patrick knew that he needed to work with things that the people knew – the shamrock was a great way to teach the Trinity. He worked with the people of the land to show them God’s love.

He lived there for 30 years, quietly bringing God to these people. Many years later, missionaries came and found that the Irish were already living lives filled with a strong faith. The priests and monks were scholars and had also been sending missionaries out into the world. They lived simple, holy lives that reached throughout Europe as they taught their faith.

The church in Ireland began without the influence of the Roman church, organizing itself around the monasteries in the country. There was no ‘church business’ other than preaching, studying and taking care of the poor. Ireland became Catholic in the 1100s and they canonized Patrick at that point.