Blessed Feast of St. Patrick! We hope you and your family enjoy the day and celebrate with some time together. You can share his story while you color the printable below.
THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK OF IRELAND:
Saint Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland was born around 385, the son of Calpurnius, a Roman tax collector. When Patrick was sixteen, he was taken captive by pirates. He was brought to Ireland and sold as a slave, and was put to work as a herder of pigs. He prayed during his solitude on the mountain, and lived this way for six years. He had two visions. The first told him he would return to his home. The second told him his ship was ready. Setting off on foot, Patrick walked two hundred miles to the coast. There he succeeded in boarding a ship, and returned to his parents in Britain.
Some time later, he went to Gaul and studied for the priesthood and was eventually made a bishop. He was entrusted with the mission to Ireland.
Saint Patrick founded many churches and monasteries across Ireland, but the conversion of the Irish people was no easy task. There was much hostility, and he was assaulted several times. He faced danger, and insults, and he was reproached for being a foreigner and a former slave. Despite many obstacles, he remained faithful to his calling, and he baptized many people into Christ.
Saint Patrick is often depicted holding a shamrock, which he used the shamrock to illustrate the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Its three leaves growing out of a single stem helped him to explain the concept of one God in three Persons.
Saint Patrick died on March 17, 461. No one knows the place where Saint Patrick is buried. Saint Columba of Iona (June 9) says that the Holy Spirit revealed to him that Patrick was buried at Saul, the site of his first church. A granite slab was placed at his traditional grave site in Downpatrick in 1899.
Blessed feast!
