Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us And Saint Patrick

Stand In The Gap With Us And  Saint Patrick 3/17/2024 By the time St. Patrick became a young to middle teenager (14-16) he was kidnapped by pirates who sold him into slavery in Ireland. St. Patrick was taken to modern day Dalriada as a slave tending sheep which in a real way, became a source of strength for him. He was able to identify with young King David as he remembered the stories of the bible coming to life. In The Confession, St. Patrick wrote: "The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same. I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain." "I saw, in a nocturnal vision, a man named Victoricus coming as if from Ireland, with a large parcel of letters, one of which he handed to me. On reading the beginning of it, I found it contained these words: 'The voice of the Irish;' and while reading it I thought I heard, at the same moment, the voice of a multitude of persons near the Wood of Foclut, which is near the western sea; and they cried out, as if with one voice, 'We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and henceforth walk amongst us. ' And I was greatly affected in my heart, and could read no longer; and then I awoke." Not knowing the story of St. Victoricus, it is extremely interesting that the man in the dream was St. Victoricus , who suffered martyrdom at Amiens, A.D. 286. Despite the Pagan influence, young St. Patrick clung to Christ and was strengthened by his Catholic Faith and the vision. Because of the people of Irish being held on the bondage of Paganism, St. Patrick began to see himself a missionary to these peoples.