By Joyell Nevins – CFFM Blogger
An Irish shepherd who lived in the 3-400s A.D. and a Persian Queen who was in a palace at least 400 years before Christ – what do these two people possibly have in common?
They both were victims of circumstances they didn’t ask for, transplanted into a hostile environment, and yet they became perfectly positioned by the Lord to literally save a nation.
“For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14 (ESV)
I am speaking of Esther of the Bible and Maewyn Succat, known to the world as St. Patrick. Both have holidays celebrated in their name this past month, and both of their stories call us to live with courage and trust in a God of deliverance.
Part One of this series will look at St. Patrick, celebrated on the day of his death, March 17. His life is a story of grace and bravery, humility and forgiveness, and victory through impossible odds.
A Stranger in a Strange Land
Maewyn wasn’t even from Ireland. He was actually born in the late 300s in Britain, which at that time was part of the Roman Empire.
He was kidnapped by Irish pirates when he was 16 years old. They brought him back to Ireland, outside the Roman Empire, and sold him as a slave. Think of Joseph’s predicament of the rainbow colored dreamcoat, just without the brothers.
As a slave, Maewyn’s main job was a shepherd for a local Druid chieftain. A solitary job, a lowly job. And that’s where God met him – or rather, he finally met God.
“But after I reached Ireland, I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in day I said from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night like a number;
besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.” (from Core Christianity and Maewyn’s autobiographical The Confession of St. Patrick)
Time to Return Home
Maewyn labored in obscurity without pay for six years. Then one night, he heard a voice in his dreams saying, “Soon you will depart for your home country…behold, your ship is ready.” The very next morning, he ran away and traveled almost 200 miles to the coast.
That ship that was ready wasn’t easy to be found, though! At first, the ship’s captain refused to allow him on board without payment. Maewyn turned and walked away, starting to pray, then some sailors called out to him that the captain had changed his mind!
The journey back to Britain on the ship is a story all in itself about the Lord’s protection and Maewyn’s courage. But, we’ll fast forward to years later when he has another life-altering dream.
“And it shall come to pass afterward [after God rescued His people from captivity] that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28 ESV
In that dream, a man that Maewyn had met while he was in Ireland was carrying a large stack of letters. The man handed one to Maewyn with the title “The Voice of the Irish.”
As Maewyn starts to read from the letter, he wrote that he really did hear ‘the voice of the Irish’ – men and women beside the “Forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and they were crying as if with one voice: ‘we beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.’”
Image from Medieval History Professor Chrissy Senecal of Weird History Stories
But who was Maewyn? He had worked as an Irish shepherd and slave, not trained in some seminary.
However, the Lord shows throughout history that He sees not as man sees – man looks on outward appearances, but the Lord looks on the heart (I Samuel 16:7).
It took 12 more years of prayer and training and working with a monastery in France, but finally, Maewyn was ready to return to the land of his kidnappers. Pope Celestine gave him the Latin name Patritius, which we say as Patrick, meaning “the father of His people.”
As theologian and Bible teacher Andrew Menkis put it, “It testifies to the power of God’s love that Patrick could go to the Irish – to the land of his enslavers – without bitterness, truly desiring their salvation.”
Have you experienced that love that transcends borders and melts hearts?
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 NKJV
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 NKJV
A Heart for the Nation
Along with that love, Patrick showed an unwavering commitment and deep connection to his Lord. He wrote, “Who am I, Lord? Or rather, what is my calling? That you appeared to me in so great a divine quality, so that today among the barbarians I might constantly exalt and magnify your name in whatever place I should be, and not only in good fortune, but even in affliction?
Whatever befalls me, be it good or bad, I would accept it equally, and give thanks always to God who revealed to me that I might trust in him, implicitly and forever, and who will encourage me so that, ignorant, and in the last days, I may dare to undertake so devout and so wonderful a work; so that I might imitate one of those whom, once, long ago, the Lord already pre-ordained to be heralds of his Gospel to witness to all peoples to the ends of the earth.”
Patrick echoes a similar sentiment to the apostle Paul, who also went back not to his accusers, but to the people he terrorized, to bring the good news of Jesus Christ.
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV
Image by Conger Design
Patrick and his Lord succeeded! Even though he wasn’t the first person to witness Christ in the country of Ireland, he was the first to do so with a knowledge of the people, the customs, and the language. And why did he know that? Because people operating with evil intent had ripped him away from his own home country and kept him as a slave.
“As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this – to preserve the lives of many people [Joseph to his brethren when he was able to save them from starvation].” Genesis 50:20 BSB
Patrick brought the truth and light of Jesus to a nation steeped in Druidism. He met with kings and high priests, and he talked with commoners and peasants – even his former slave master!
For 20 years, Patrick traveled through Ireland, baptizing people in the name of Jesus and establishing both churches and schools. It is estimated he baptized about 10,000 people and planted 300 churches – and remember, this was long before vehicular transportation or social media!
May you be inspired by Patrick’s example to not be held back by your circumstances or seeming inadequacies, but instead, trust in our big God to work big things through you to take care of His people!
Part Two will look at another person, this time a Jewish woman, who was also put in seemingly impossible circumstances, and yet brought light to a nation.
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