Saint Patrick @ MindSay 
Well today is Saint Paddy's day. Most people do not realise that Paddy was not Irish. Irish pirates kidnapped young Paddy and turned him into a slave.
And the rest of the story is below:
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Who Was the Real St. Patrick?
Deacon Keith A. Fournier
Third Millennium, LLC
CBN.com
CBN.com --He was raised in a Christian home in Britain toward the end of the fourth century. This was an age much like our own, gripped by a “culture of death” and filled with a spirit of lawlessness. Tragedy struck Patrick at sixteen years old when he was kidnapped by Irish Pirates and taken to the Emerald Isle. This was the first experience he would have of the land that he would later come to love and for which he would give himself away in tireless missionary service. Upon arrival in this plush, green, breathtaking and beautiful land, he was sold as property to a petty chieftain who put him to work with his herds of swine.
Patrick could have become embittered. In fact, the reaction would have been understandable. Instead, he became holy. When this young man recalled these traumatic events in his marvelous work “The Confession”, he perceived the tragedy not as a victim but rather as a penitent:
“I was then about sixteen years of age. I knew not the true God; and I went into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of persons, according to our deserts, because we departed away from God, and kept not His commandments, and were not obedient to our priests, who used to admonish us for our salvation”
While he was a slave, Patrick recalled his Christian upbringing and turned back to that true God of whom he wrote so eloquently. He became a pilgrim, turning his captivity into a time of spiritual growth. He learned to walk the way of love. He wrote of that time:
“Now, after I came to Ireland, tending flocks was my daily occupation; and constantly I use to pray in the daytime. Love of God and the fear of Him increased more and more, and faith grew, and the spirit was moved, so that in one day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and at night nearly as many, so that I use to stay even in the woods and on the mountain to this end. And before daybreak I use to be roused to prayer, in snow, in frost, in rain. And I felt no hurt, nor was there any sluggishness in me- as I now see because the spirit was then fervent within me”
After six years of unjust captivity, during which this pilgrim had become a mystic, Patrick escaped with the help of some friendly traders. He pledged that he would never return to Ireland. However, the God whom Patrick had fallen in love with had other plans for his life. In the middle of the night the Lord gave Patrick a vision which he recorded for posterity. Because he responded to the invitation contained in that vision, this wonderful man was used by the Living and true God to literally change the history of not only Ireland but the rest of the world:
“And there verily I saw in the night visions, a man whose name was Victorius coming as it were from Ireland with countless letters. And he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter, which was entitled “The Voice of the Irish”; and while I was reading aloud the beginning of the letter, I thought that at that very moment I heard the voice of those who lived beside the wood of Folcut, which is nigh unto the Western Sea. And thus they cried, as with one mouth: “We beseech thee , O holy youth, to come and walk once more among us.” And I was exceedingly broken in heart, and would read no further. And so I awaoke. Thanks be to God, that after very many years the Lord granted to them according to their cry”
Through much perseverance, Patrick finally returned to Ireland, now an ordained servant of the Church of that true God. His “Confession” tells of his experience of being used to transform that beautiful land into a seedbed of Christianity through his evangelization and missionary work. The Pilgrim Patrick is a model for our age and for the new evangelization that we so desperately need. We live in a new missionary age. Patrick’s progression of faith must become our own.
Patrick chose to reject “victim-hood” and self-centeredness. Instead, he embraced the way of the Cross, carrying on the redemptive mission of Jesus. He fell in love with the Lord by developing a profound and transforming interior life, a personal relationship with God. He did this through deep, constant and abiding prayer. In this way of life, the Christian way, he learned to discern the voice of the Lord in his daily life, developed the eyes of faith and responded with perseverance to the call to become a missionary. Each of us is invited to do the same.
On this day, when the entire world pauses to remember Patrick’s life and his legacy, to rightly celebrate a full and meaningful life- and to honor to a beautiful country and people who have sent missionaries to the rest of the world to carry Patrick’s work forward through the ages, let us truly honor his memory by choosing to walk in His way. Like Patrick, let us follow Jesus Christ. Let us make Patrick’s wonderful prayer, which reflects his very real life, our own. Let us march into the Third Christian Millennium called, as was this wonderful saint and hero, to proclaim, demonstrate and live the Gospel: “Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me King of my heart; Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me never to part. Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand, Christ all around me shield in strife; Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising light of my life. Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me King of my heart; Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me never to part.”
Copyright © 2005 Third Millennium, LLC.
Deacon Keith Fournier is a married Roman Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia who also serves the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy with permission. He is a human rights lawyer and public policy advocate. Deacon Fournier is a graduate of the Franciscan University of Steubenville (BA), the John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University(MTS), and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law(JD). He also holds honorary Doctorates in Humane letters and Divinity (LLD,DD).
He is the Senior Editor and Correspondent for Catholic Online and a contributing Editor for Traditional Catholic Reports and Reflections. Deacon Fournier has written hundreds of articles on faith and life and eight books.
Long active in efforts to bring Christians together, Fournier is well known in the broad Christian community. Having recently turned fifty, he has dedicated the “second half of life” to making the teachings of Pope John Paul II known to the world.
History Channel's Saint Patrick
Kids' Domain -- more than just Saint Patrick
And my personal favorite which addresses the question of St. Patrick being Italian.
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I'm starting to think about Spring Break. I haven't been back the Kansas way since Christmas. We're talking about visiting. I'd like to stay one night in Kansas City and to make some stops along the way because I think a 13 month old will not be happy riding 8 hours in the car and I want to check out some things along the way. This has the potential to be a real "family" vacation.
And now, because I got up early, I must retire during the beloved child's nap time. Thank heaven for part time and afternoon naps.
His history fascinates me. It is amazing to see what God will do with one person who has let themself be used by Him. Sure, Patrick, born Maewyn Succat, wasn't the only Christian in Ireland, but he was one who gave his all to share the Good News to those who lived there. In addition, he did it sensibly, letting the Irish BE Irish, and not insisting they be anything other than themselves in order to accept Jesus Christ.
Later, of course, the Irishness of the Irish Church caused issues...which is upsetting, for the Irish Christians were awesome...with Rome, but for a while, there, to be a Christian in Ireland meant something different and special than anywhere else in the world. Missionaries, in joy and/or in sacrifice, left the Green Island to share the Gospel with others over the waters. It was a huge deal.
The beginnings are credited to this fellow who was kidnapped as a teenager. Here is his story. You may find more information all over the place, but I got this here.
The Life of Saint Patrick - Biography
What do we know about Saint Patrick? Compared to many other saints of his time, quite a lot is known about him, mainly because we conserve two very reliable sources: his autobiography "Confessio" and his much shorter "Epistola to Coroticus".
Saint Patrick's real name was Maewyn Succat. Patricius was his baptismal name, given by Pope Celestine prior to Patrick's mission to Ireland. It is uncertain exactly when and where Maewyn Succat was born, but it is believed to have been between 385-390 A.D., in the village of Bannavem Taburniae, somewhere along the north-west coast of the Roman province of Britannia. The actual location of "Vico Bannavem Taburniae" has never been securely identified.
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At the age of 16 Maewyn Succat was kidnapped by Irish pirates, separated from his family, taken to Ireland, and sold into slavery. He learnt the language and the customs of the people who held him, and for the next six years he worked as a shepherd for a local chieftain. According to his "Confessio", it was during this period that he developed a deep faith in God: "I prayed in the woods and on the mountain. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain", he wrote.
Maewyn Succat escaped from captivity at the age of 22, after having a dream from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. He traveled many miles to the sea and there he found a ship which took him back to Britannia, where he was reunited with his family. By this time Maewyn Succat had decided that he wanted to be a priest.
The determined Briton went to Gaul to begin his studies for the priesthood under the guidance of Saint Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, who ordained him in 417. Patrick spent about 15 years as a disciple of Germanus. During all this time, he felt a calling to return as a missionary to Ireland. At last, in 432, Pope Celestine gave Maewyn Succat the baptismal name of "Patricius", consecrated him as Bishop, and sent him to take the Gospel to Ireland.
Patricius arrived in Ireland in the winter of 433 and made his base at Armagh. Local chieftain Dichu, his first converted patron, gifted a large barn for a church sanctuary: "Saul" became the first church dedicated by Saint Patrick in Ireland.
Over the next 30 years Patrick and his disciples traveled extensively throughout Ireland, preaching, converting, baptising, and building churches and monasteries all over the island. Patrick did not condemn the Celtic beliefs of the Irish but he assimilated their practices into a totally Christian spirituality -their sacred wells became Holy Wells dedicated to the saints, their druidic oak groves became Christian chapels for the Eucharist, etc. Patrick was also very successful in winning the local chieftains to the Faith which, in turn, made it easier for their subjects to embrace Christianity.
Patrick died on March 17, 461, after almost 30 years of intense evangelisation in Ireland, where he consecrated some 350 Irish Bishops to follow his ways. It is believed that he was buried at Saul, where he had built his first church. It is commonly agreed that Patrick and his disciples converted almost the entire population of Ireland to Christianity during his lifetime.