'I, Patrick, A Sinner ...'

Every year, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17 with parades, green clothing, Irish music and dancing, and of course, plenty of green beer. But who was the real St. Patrick? The picture that emerges is that of a profoundly humble man — and a model for a virtue necessary for one’s conversion and repentance during the season of Lent.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux defined humility as “a virtue by which man, knowing himself as he truly is, abases himself.” St. Patrick knew the truth about himself and abased himself—not by groveling to other people, but by giving all the credit for his success 
to God.

Patrick's Calling

According to current research, Patrick was probably born somewhere in England in the early fifth century. According to his Confessio (“Confession”), or autobiography, he was kidnapped by pirates at about age 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland. He worked as a shepherd for several years in harsh conditions. But prayer sustained him.

“More and more the love of God increased, and my sense of awe before God. Faith grew, and my spirit was moved, so that in one day I would pray up to one hundred times, and at night perhaps the same. … I would rise to pray before dawn in snow and ice and rain. I never felt the worse for it,” says Patrick in the Confessio.

This went on until God gave Patrick a dream, telling him to escape on a certain ship. He did so and arrived home. But a few years later, another dream would call him back to the land of his captivity.

In this vision, Patrick received countless letters from the Irish people and heard their cries: “They called out as it were with one voice: ‘We beg you, holy boy, to come and walk again among us,’” he recalls in the Confessio.

He studied to become a bishop, then spent the rest of his life granting the request of the Irish people.

Reliance on God

Patrick gave all the credit for his work to God. Writing about himself, he acknowledges his limitations, but demonstrates great trust that “with God, all things are possible” (Matt 19:26).

Patrick “was painfully aware of his own educational shortcomings and his lack of expertise in Latin,” said Philip Freeman, professor of humanities at Pepperdine University and author of The World of St. Patrick and St. Patrick of Ireland.

Patrick also acknowledges his own sinfulness, introducing himself in the Confessio as “a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers.” He believed his enslavement was a punishment for not keeping God’s commandments. But he also saw suffering as a tool God used to “straighten me out,” in Patrick’s own words.

Patrick allowed God to make up for these shortcomings. “He learned to rely on the grace of God in a way that is hard for most 
of us to imagine,” said Freeman.

Of course, this reliance on God came about through constant conversation with God in prayer—100 times per day and night, as he says in the Confessio.

"I think this was the secret to Patrick: this continual prayer, many times … like arrows going up, as opposed to big, long prayer times. This gave him humility,” said Fr. Neil Xavier O’Donoghue, translator of St. Patrick: His Confession and Other Works and lecturer at the Pontifical University at St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland.

Standing for Truth

Sometimes, Christians mistakenly think humility requires passivity or even making ourselves seem worse than we are. This is not Patrick’s example.

Father O’Donoghue explained the Confessio is not a confession of guilt, but Patrick’s defense of himself against false charges. “He was a saint who knew himself,” said Fr. O’Donoghue, echoing St. Bernard’s definition of humility.

Even more importantly, Patrick was zealous in defending others. Father O’Donoghue cited the example of another work by Patrick, the Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, in which the saint chastises a British Christian who captured Irish Christians and took them as slaves. Patrick corrects him with forceful words, even calling the soldiers of Coroticus “fellow-citizens of demons, because of their evil works.”

Freeman also mentioned that St. Patrick was devoted to helping the enslaved and abused women of Ireland. This “surely earned him much abuse from those in power in Ireland,” said Freeman, but Patrick stayed the course.

For Patrick, humility meant knowing when to stay silent and when to speak up. “He’s well able to say the truth, but he came to reserve that for what needs to be said; he’s well able to fight, but it’s not everything that he fights about,” said Fr. O’Donoghue.

A Model to Follow

How can one grow in the kind of humility St. Patrick modeled?

Father O’Donoghue recommends getting to know St. Patrick as a real person, particularly by reading his Confessio. “It is a window into his soul, and we can see a very real person with real struggles and real problems,” he said. “That can allow us to approach him and ask for his intercession.”

The priest also shared that he is not opposed to the parties and parades that celebrate St. Patrick, as long as we also see the real person of St. Patrick beneath it all.

“I think that sometimes we make the saints too far away, too different from us, too strong, too powerful. And to see that they are real people who are able to lean on God, I think this is a big help for us, and can allow us to really approach them properly,” said Fr. O’Donoghue.

Saint Patrick would be the first to say that he is not so much stronger or more powerful than we are. But God is. Patrick ends his Confessio by saying that “whatever little [he] did or made known to please God... was a gift of God.”

Patrick, the Servant Leader

“Servant leadership” is a bit of a buzzword, but it originates from a profound concept: people follow a leader who serves their best interest rather than his own, be he CEO or bishop.

Saint Patrick’s servant leadership started quite literally with forced servitude. But he voluntarily served the same people again later, giving up a life of luxury and wealth to do so.

“He worked there [in Ireland] for decades, using up whatever resources he had left, and refused to leave when things got tough,” said Philip Freeman of Pepperdine University.

Freeman also stressed that Patrick’s sacrifice extended beyond wealth. “He was dedicated to giving his all to spread the gospel, even if it meant his own death,” he said.

“I can’t imagine a pastor more devoted to his mission than Patrick,” said Freeman.