Patrick d'Irlande
vers 385-461 5th century Feast day: March 17
Prayer learned in captivity, and the forgiveness that goes back toward those who wounded.
Who was Patrick d'Irlande?
A Romano-British teenager kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland, he tended herds for six years and learned to pray in the solitude of the hills. After escaping, and later becoming a bishop, he chose to return to the people who had enslaved him to bring them the Gospel. His Confession, written at the end of his life, is the account of a man astonished at what God had made of him.
In their own words
I was like a stone lying in the deep mire; and he who is mighty came and, in his mercy, lifted me up.
In a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night, even while I was staying in the woods and on the mountain.
Where did this gift come from, so great, so health-giving: to know God and to love him, even at the cost of leaving homeland and family?