Saint Patrick

Patrick, born in Britain, was a Romanized man who was taken into slavery by Irish raiders at the age of 16. He spent six years as a herdsman before fleeing to Britain and eventually returning to Britain. His best-known passage in the Confessio tells of a dream where he received a letter from Victoricus, "The Voice of the Irish," and was asked to walk among them again. Despite his initial hesitation, Patrick was determined to follow the call and journeyed far and wide, baptizing and confirming with untiring zeal.

Patrick lived in constant danger of martyrdom, but he was humble-minded and continued to thank God for choosing him as the instrument for many who worshipped "idols and unclean things" to become "the people of God." His writings reflect a truth and simplicity of the rarest quality, mirroring the moral and spiritual greatness of the man.

It is uncertain when Patrick was born, but there are indications that his missionary career occurred within the second half of the 5th century. The Coroticus letter mentions the Franks as still "heathen," suggesting that the letter must have been written between 451, the date generally accepted as that of the Franks' irruption into Gaul as far as the Somme River, and 496, when they were baptized en masse.

Patrick is honored in Ireland through pilgrimages to sites believed to hold an association with him. One such pilgrimage is the annual pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick, a mountain in County Mayo, Ireland, on the last Sunday of July, known as Reek Sunday. According to hagiography, Patrick spent 40 days and nights fasting on the mountain, then banished all snakes, demons, and practitioners of magic into a lake at the base of the mountain, known as Log na nDeamhan (Demon's Hollow).

Another pilgrimage site is St. Patrick's Purgatory, located on Station Island in Lough Derg, County Donegal. Patrick was inspired to convince doubters among his converts of the proof of a Christian afterlife by looking into a cave on the island. A monastic community settled on an adjacent island, and an Augustinian priory was founded on Station Island in the 12th or 13th century. In the 16th century, the tradition of undergoing a three-day pilgrimage on the island began, demanding three days of sleepless fasting and constant prayer while going barefoot on the island's stony landscape.