Bishop and Patron Saint of Ireland
02/24/2019
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On
March 17, people around the world will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by parading
in green hats, sporting images of shamrocks and leprechauns – tiny, grinning, fairy men – pinned
to their lapels. Patrick’s picture will adorn greeting cards: an aged, bearded bishop in flowing robes,
grasping a bishop’s staff and glaring at a coil of snakes. The icon refers to one of Patrick’s
legendary miracles in which he is said to have prayed to banish all snakes from
Ireland. The real St. Patrick, who lived and worked in the fifth
century, never saw a snake or wore a shamrock. The practice did not become widespread until it
became associated with the avant-garde of Irish Nationalism. In fact, it wasn't
until the 19th century that the
shamrock gained popular acceptance as emerging nationalist movements adopted it
and began to wear it as an emblem for Ireland.
Here are 10 things you may not know about St. Patrick.
1.
Patrick
was not Irish
Patrick
was born around 450 A.D., just when Roman troops withdrew from Britain. His
father was a gentleman and a Christian deacon who owned a small estate in a
place called Bannavem Taburniae.
Scholars
aren’t sure where this place was – it was probably on the west coast around
Bristol, near the southern border of modern Wales and England.
2.
Patrick
was a slave
Irish
slave traders sailed the waters off that same coast, and one day they came
ashore to capture the teenage Patrick and his neighbors, to sell back in
Ireland. Patrick spent six years tending sheep in the west of Ireland.
3.
Patrick
heard voices
While
chasing sheep on the hills, Patrick prayed a hundred times a day, in all kinds
of weather. It paid off. One night a mysterious voice called to him, saying,
“Look, your ship is ready!” Patrick knew he wasn’t hearing sheep. The time was
right for his escape.
4.
Patrick
refused to ‘suck a man’s breasts’
Patrick
made his way to Ireland’s east coast and sought passage on a ship bound for
Britain. The captain, a pagan, didn’t like the look of him and demanded that
Patrick “suck his breasts,” a ritual gesture symbolizing acceptance of the
captain’s authority. Patrick refused – instead he tried to convert the crew.
For some reason, the captain still took him aboard.
5.
Patrick
had visions
One night Patrick dreamed that Satan tested his faith by
dropping an enormous rock on him. He lay crushed by its weight until dawn
broke, when he called out, “Helias! Helias!” – The name of the Greek sun god.
The rock disappeared. Patrick took it as a kind of epiphany. He later wrote:
“I believe that I was helped by Christ the Lord.”
Patrick had other peculiar visions, too. Back home at
Bannavem Taburniae, he was visited by an angel with a message from the Irish:
“We beg you, Holy Boy, to come and walk again among us.” He trained as a bishop
and went back to Ireland.
6.
Patrick
did something unmentionable
Years into his mission, someone, it seems, told a dirty
secret about Patrick to his fellow bishops. “They brought up against me after
thirty years something I had already confessed … some things I had done one day
- rather, in one hour, when I was young,” he wrote.
Patrick did not tell us what he did – worship idols? Engage
in a forbidden sexual practice? Take gifts from converts?
Whatever it was, Patrick retrospectively understood his
zealous Irish mission to be penance for his youthful sins. While he spread
Christianity around Ireland, he was often beaten, put in chains or extorted.
“Every day there is the chance that I will be killed, or surrounded, or taken
into slavery,” he complained.
7.
Patrick dueled
with druids
Two centuries after his death, Irish believers wanted more
exciting stories of Patrick’s life than the saint’s own account.
One legend (written 700 A.D.) described Patrick’s contest
with native religious leaders, the druids. The druids insulted Patrick, tried
to poison him and engaged him in magical duels – much like students of Harry
Potter’s Hogwarts – in which they competed to manipulate the weather, destroy
each other’s sacred books and survive raging fires.
When one druid dared to blaspheme the Christian God,
however, Patrick sent the druid flying into air – the man dropped to the ground
and broke his skull.
8.
Patrick
made God promise
Another legend from around the same time tells how Patrick
fasted for 40 days atop a mountain, weeping, throwing things, and refusing to
descend until an angel came on God’s behalf to grant the saint’s outrageous
demands. These included the following: Patrick would redeem more souls from
hell than any other saint; Patrick, rather than God, would judge Irish sinners
at the end of time; and the English would never rule Ireland.
We know how that last one worked out. Perhaps God will keep
the other two promises.
9.
Patrick
never mentioned a shamrock
None of the early Patrician stories featured the shamrock –
or Irish seamróg – which is a word for common clover, a small plant with three
leaves. Yet children in Catholic schools still learn that Patrick used a
shamrock as a symbol of the Christian Trinity when he preached to the heathen
Irish.
The shamrock connection was first mentioned in print by an English visitor to Ireland in 1684, who
wrote that on Saint Patrick’s feast day, “the vulgar superstitiously wear
shamroges, 3 leav’d grass, which they likewise eat (they say) to cause a sweet
breath.” The Englishman also noted that “very few of the zealous are found
sober at night.”
10.
Patrick
did not drive the snakes out of Ireland
As for the miraculous snake-charming attributed to Patrick,
it could not have happened because there were no snakes in
pre-modern Ireland. Reptiles never made it across the land bridge that
prehistorically linked the island to the European continent.
Most likely, the miracle was plagiarized from some other saint’s life and eventually added to Patrick’s repertoire.
Party-goers on March 17 need not worry about ancient
historical details, though. Whatever the truth of Patrick’s mission, he became
one of the three patrons of Ireland, along with Sts. Brigit {was venerated
by the people as a goddess of fertility} and Columba– the
latter two were born in Ireland.
From
Patrick’s own writings and early account of his career there are many interesting
details about the life of this patron saint of Ireland.
When you hear that someone in history is
called a “Patron
Saint”, you may be wondering as I once did, what in the world is a “Patron Saint”?
Well wonder no more for here is the definition of “Patron Saint”:
A patron saint, patroness saint, patron
hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism
or Eastern
Orthodoxy, is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft,
activity, class, clan, family or person.
In the definition we can identify that
this is a FALSE
RELIGIOUS teaching when we put it to the test of the Word of God.
My little
children (believers, dear ones), I am writing you these things so that you will
not sin and violate God’s law. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate
[who will intercede for us] with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous [the
upright, the just One, who conforms to the Father’s will in every way—purpose,
thought, and action]. 1 John 2:1
Jesus said to
him, “I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
John
14:6
‘As you can see from reading these two scriptures this “practice” of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is considered idolatry. The Roman Catholics, the Angelical and the Eastern Orthodox “Religions” are therefore held accountable to God for creating this along with many other man-made holidays that have absolutely nothing to do with the edification of God, because these holidays focus on the sinful man.
Life
Patrick was born in Britain of a Romanized family. At age 16 he was torn by Irish raiders from the villa of his father, Calpurnius, a deacon and minor local official, and carried into slavery in Ireland. He spent six bleak years there as a herdsman, during which he turned with fervour to his faith. Upon dreaming that the ship in which he was to escape was ready, he fled his master and found passage to Britain. There he came near to starvation and suffered a second brief captivity before he was reunited with his family. Thereafter, he may have paid a short visit to the Continent.The best known passage in the Confessio tells of a dream, after his return to Britain, in which one Victoricus delivered him a letter, headed “The Voice of the Irish.” As he read it, he seemed to hear a certain company of Irish beseeching him to walk once more among them. “Deeply moved,” he says, “I could read no more.” Nevertheless, because of the shortcomings of his education, he was reluctant for a long time to respond to the call. Even on the eve of reembarkation for Ireland he was beset by doubts of his fitness for the task. Once in the field, however, his hesitations vanished. Utterly confident in the Lord, he journeyed far and wide, baptizing and confirming with untiring zeal. In diplomatic fashion he brought gifts to a kinglet here and a lawgiver there but accepted none from any. On at least one occasion, he was cast into chains. On another, he addressed with lyrical pathos a last farewell to his converts who had been slain or kidnapped by the soldiers of Coroticus.
Careful to deal fairly with the non-Christian Irish, he nevertheless lived in constant danger of martyrdom. The evocation of such incidents of what he called his “laborious episcopate” was his reply to a charge, to his great grief endorsed by his ecclesiastical superiors in Britain, that he had originally sought office for the sake of office. In point of fact, he was a most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshiped “idols and unclean things” had become “the people of God.”
The phenomenal success of Patrick’s mission is not, however, the full measure of his personality. Since his writings have come to be better understood, it is increasingly recognized that, despite {their occasional incoherence, they mirror a truth and simplicity of the rarest quality} “In other words it really does not matter if his words were coherent as long as they had a little truth in them”. Not since St. Augustine of Hippo had any religious diarist bared his inmost soul as Patrick did in his writings. As D.A. Binchy, the most austerely critical of Patrician (i.e., of Patrick) scholars, put it, “The moral and spiritual greatness of the man shines through every stumbling sentence of his ‘rustic’ Latin.”
It is not possible to say with any assurance when Patrick was born. There are, however, a number of pointers to his missionary career having lain within the second half of the 5th century. In the Coroticus letter, his mention of the Franks as still “heathen” indicates that the letter must have been written between 451, the date generally accepted as that of the Franks’ irruption into Gaul as far as the Somme River, and 496, when they were baptized en masse. Patrick, who speaks of himself as having evangelized heathen Ireland, is not to be confused with Palladius, sent by Pope Celestine I in 431 as “first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.”
Legends
Before the end of the 7th century, Patrick had become a legendary figure, and the legends have continued to grow. One of these would have it that he drove the snakes of Ireland into the sea to their destruction. Patrick himself wrote that he raised people from the dead, and a 12th-century hagiography places this number at 33 men, some of whom are said to have been deceased for many years. He also reportedly prayed for the provision of food for hungry sailors traveling by land through a desolate area, and a herd of swine miraculously appeared. Another legend, probably the most popular, is that of the shamrock, which has him explain the concept of the Holy Trinity, three persons in one God, to an unbeliever by showing him the three-leaved plant with one stalk. Traditionally, Irishmen have worn shamrocks, the national flower of Ireland, in their lapels on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.
Here again in this last paragraph we
find more proof pointing to the FALSE TEACHINGS of the Roman Catholic Church.
First of all Patrick DID NOT RAISE 33 people from the dead and most certainly
NOT ONES who had been dead for years. If he did, it meant he was using a form
of black magic which the Bible says NOT to be involved with. Then there is this
unusual word most people have probably never heard of “hagiography”. Let me enlighten
you on this word hagiography which is rooted deep in the Theology of the Roman
Catholic Church.
Hagiography, the body of literature describing the
lives and veneration of the Christian
saints. The literature of hagiography
embraces acts of the martyrs (i.e., accounts of their trials and
deaths); biographies of saintly monks, bishops, princes, or virgins; and
accounts of miracles connected with saints’ tombs, relics, icons, or statues.
Here we can take another word used by
the Roman Catholics a lot when they are talking about all their saints; veneration.
Veneration -
1.
Great respect; reverence. "The traditional veneration of
saints"
2.
Reverence, respect, worship, adoration, homage, exaltation, adulation,
glorification, extolment, idolization,
devotion; Honor, esteem, regard, high regard, praise; Respectfulness, worshipfulness, obeisance, submission, deference,
awe; Rare laudation, magnification "in
parts of India the snake is an object of veneration"
So here we have just
read two words from the Roman Catholic vernacular that actually point in the
direction of IDOLATRY. It is so hard it seems for people to grasp the concept that
JESUS CHRIST BELIEVERS could also be IDOLATORS. Once you start celebrating a day of revelry of a holiday
that is man-made you have given yourself the title of Idolator.
Satan has done a marvelous job of deceiving generations of
mankind through FALSE RELIGIONS and let us not forget the Church he has established as a Counterfeit
Church to lead billions away from God. His Church has become the largest Church
in the World by using half truths from Scripture to make is seem they are the “true
Christian” Church when they have been the pagan worshiping, false Church of
light from its inception. The Roman Catholic Church has hailed itself as the first
church established in the First Century AD from the teachings of the
Apostle Peter whom they call St. Peter. Curious they would claim to be the
church that established itself from the one who denied Christ and was hung
upside down by Nero, because he felt unworthy to hang like Jesus. So you can
see from the early establishment of Christianity on the earth following Jesus
and the Apostles Satan went to town to establish a church that would bring into
itself all the pagan ways of this world becoming the WHORE of BABYLON found in Revelation
17:5; And
on her forehead a name was written, a mystery: “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER
OF PROSTITUTES (false religions, heresies) AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE
EARTH.”
And no wonder, since Satan himself
masquerades as an angel of light. So it is no
great surprise if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness,
but their end will correspond with their deeds. 2
Corinthians 11:14-15
Mark
7:6-8 tells us exactly how God feels about His children keeping the
traditions of mankind.
He replied, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites
(play-actors, pretenders), as it is written [in Scripture],‘These people honor Me with
their lips, But
their heart is far from Me. ‘They
worship Me in vain [their worship is meaningless
and worthless, a pretense], Teaching the precepts of men as doctrines [giving their traditions equal weight with the Scriptures].’You disregard and neglect the
commandment of God, and cling [faithfully] to the tradition of men.”
We learn from reading
Colossians
2:8 God’s warning about the musings of mankind.
See
to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception
[pseudo-intellectual babble], according to the tradition [and musings] of mere
men, following the elementary principles of this world, rather than following
[the truth—the teachings of] Christ.
I will teach people the TRUTH until the day my Heavenly
Father calls me home taking the last breath out of me. If the TRUTH offends
you, I am not sorry and will not apologize for teaching you that truth. The one
thing I love more than anything about TRUTH is this; ONCE you know the TRUTH
you CANNOT UNLEARN the TRUTH. Therefore it becomes a MORAL DECISION as to
whether you will continue believing the lies, even spreading the lies that will
put people into Spiritual Bondage.
By the POWER of the Name of JESUS, I command the forces of
darkness in heavenly places that are binding the children of God with the lies
brought on them by their “RELIGION”. I command you to set them free and I
command you to return to the lake of fire from whence you came. Thank you JESUS
for the POWER to set the captives free through your NAME… AMEN and AMEN!!!
People I am telling you today it is time if you are a
believer and follower of Christ Jesus, to quit flirting with the enemy of God,
Satan along with his demonic forces. It is time you stand up against the lies from your
friends, lies from the pulpits, and the lies Satan whispers in your ear telling
you everything is alright. As long as you continue to let Satan or anyone for
that matter keep whispering in your ear about success and fame, oh wait almost
forgot, and that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow you truly will NEVER
find happiness or success in your life.
Don’t get caught up in every man-made holiday that comes
along. Take time to research the holiday to see if it has anything to do with
God or with pagan practices. If it claims to be of God yet incorporates pagan
religions it is NOT of GOD, it is of SATAN trying to deceive you so he can TRAP
YOU once you start celebrating.
4 Things to take away from today’s devotion:
1.
Leprechauns DO NOT EXIST
2.
There is NOT A POT OF GOLD at the end of the Rainbow
3.
St. Patrick’s Day is a celebration by Roman Catholic’s that
IDOLIZES a man NOT GOD
4.
God will dispose of everyone who chooses to worship idols
and false gods
Obey the WORD of GOD and stay as far away from these kinds
of holidays as possible.
“So come out from
among unbelievers and be separate,” says the Lord, “And do not touch what is
unclean; And I will
graciously receive you and welcome you [with favor],
And I will be a Father to you, And you will be My sons and daughters,” Says the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:17-18
And I will be a Father to you, And you will be My sons and daughters,” Says the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:17-18
Examples
of people SELLING OUT to THE PAGAN TRADITIONS:
You may not like what I have to say but
I have to be obedient to the LORD my GOD in HEAVEN when HE directs me to write
about something that is displeasing to HIM.
I do pray you will become a more
informed follower of Christ Jesus so you will be able to discern FALSE
RELIGIONS, FALSE TEACHERS, and PAGAN based HOLIDAYS.
In Christ Jesus Service forever,
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