St. Patrick was born in the late Fourth Century. His Father was Calpurnius, a Briton and
a Deacon; his mother, Concess, was a Frank and a close relative of
St. Martin of Tours. At sixteen years of age, St. Patrick and many others were kidnapped from the family estate near Bannavem Taburniae
(some say this was in western Britain, others say it was in Brittany) by the seven vengeful exiled sons of a king of the Britons. This happened after Rome required that all Briton soldiers under Roman authority go to Rome to defend that city from barbarians, leaving Britain without any army or police, as recorded by St. Bede. Many acts of violence and greed were recorded at that time, which St. Bede called a terrible shame in
Britain, which had been Christian a long time.St. Patrick's father was killed; his sister disappeared.
St. Patrick was sold into slavery in Ireland. His life turned from youthful simplicity into a lesson for all of us. He was a slave, but obeyed his master. He would not depart until given leave to do so.
St. Patrick's escape from slavery was accomplished with miracles. He was visited in a dream by an angel
in the form of a bird, Victor, the conqueror, who arranged a miraculous escape. Patrick said that he needed his master's permission to go home, but his master required a ransom of gold as large as his head. The angel told Patrick to follow a boar. The boar's rooting turned up the gold which was to ransom him. The angel took him to the seacoast sixty miles in one day to meet a ship, but instead the lord of the port sold Patrick to others. Then the fee, a set of brazen cauldrons, tormented the betrayer and his family. When they were admiring the cauldrons, their hands stuck to the metal. The lord of the port repented, was forgiven by Patrick. He converted to the will of God, ransomed Patrick from the slavers, and sent Patrick home. He was baptized by Patrick later, when St. Patrick returned. St. Patrick had been a slave six years.
Patrick had a dream that he must preach the Gospel to the Irish, but Victor had told him to seek an education first. He found his education under St. Germanus of Auxerre, who lived close to the southern part of Gaul which is next to the Mediterranean sea. (St. Fiacc does not record other miracles. The town of St. Patrice near Tours in France claims that it was visited by St. Patrick in midwinter. He was tired and cold, and the frost-covered thorn tree he slept under burst into soft warm blooms above him. In December every year until the tree was destroyed the "flowers of St. Patrick" bloomed there. French archaeological and agriculture societies testified to the truth of this phenomenon into this century.)
St. Germanus took his pupil to Britain to save that country from the errors of Pelagius. (The error of Pelagius was a belief that we may attain salvation through our own efforts without God's help, as if the image of God in us were completely separated from the help of the Holy Spirit, the grace of the living God. This heresy is seen today in mistaking the Holy Spirit for the whims or emotions of the mob; "zeitgeist" instead of Holy Spirit.) St. Fiacc records the work of St. Patrick in Britain under St. Germanus to show the development of his saintly leadership, but St. Patrick, in his Confessio, does not mention this, perhaps because the focus of his life's work was in Ireland.
St. Germanus, with a group of priests that included
St. Patrick, travelled through Britain convincing people to turn to God, throwing out the false priests of Pelagius known as snakes. ============================================
Tapping me knowledge banks the mention of "seven vengeful exiled sons + Western Britain + Brittany" - is fascinating!
The Romans shipped a British tribe from their lands to Brittany!
Over 6,000 people from a territory which covered SOUTH WALES + Wiltshire + Somerset(Glastonbury) + Dorset etc
These became the 'Bretons' who to this day have never mixed with the Gaul and are fiercely independent (it all fits in)
Some Breton ex-pats reinvaded Britain nearly a thousand years later with the Normans (Normans were all of old viking stock who settled in Normandy - nothing to do with the Gauls = the Viking viciousness, plundering and cruelty that manifested during Norman conquest)
"false priests of Pelagius - known as snakes."
Patrick rid Ireland of the Snakes!
St. Germanus took his pupil to Britain to save that country from the errors of Pelagius. (The error of Pelagius was a belief that we may attain salvation through our own efforts without God's help, as if the image of God in us were completely separated from the help of the Holy Spirit, the grace of the living God. This heresy is seen today in mistaking the Holy Spirit for the whims or emotions of the mob; "zeitgeist" instead of Holy Spirit.)
http://celticchristianity.org/library/patrick.html
Topic: Bobbing for BOB (Read 2692 times)