Their story
Patrick tells his own story in two short Latin writings, the Confession and the Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus. He was born in Roman Britain, probably in the 5th century, the son of a deacon named Calpornius. At sixteen he was seized by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave. For six years he herded animals, and he says he prayed up to a hundred times a day.
A voice in a dream told him a ship was ready. He escaped, walked some 200 miles to the coast, and found passage home. Later he dreamed of a man named Victoricus bringing letters from Ireland, with the voices of the Irish crying, “We beg you, holy youth, come and walk among us again.” He was ordained and returned as a bishop. He baptized thousands, ordained clergy, and faced danger and arrest, and complained of being looked down on for his poor Latin.
The stories of shamrocks, banished snakes and contests with druids come from later lives and are legend. His own words are humble: he calls himself “Patrick, a sinner, very unlearned.” He died on March 17, the traditional date, probably in the later 5th century. People follow him because he went back, freely and for love, to the very people who had enslaved him.
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