Saint Patrick’s Day is about far more than parades, green beer, and [even] shamrock shakes. March 17 is a holy day for the Church as we celebrate the righteous life of Saint Patrick of Ireland (385 – March 17, 461), a key figure in the early Church. Here are seventeen breathtaking quotes translated into English from Saint Patrick’s perhaps most well-known written work, his remarkable Confessio, courtesy of the Irish website “Saint Patrick’s Confessio: Read What St. Patrick Actually Wrote in His Own Words.” Enjoy the equally striking artwork of the saint, as well as Celtic crosses and the Irish countryside… not to mention a few fun memes (which we are sure Saint Patrick would appreciate).
1.) “So I turned with all my heart to the Lord my God, and he looked down on my lowliness and had mercy on my youthful ignorance. He guarded me before I knew him, and before I came to wisdom and could distinguish between good and evil. He protected me and consoled me as a father does for his son.” (Confessio, 2)
2.) “This is how we can repay such blessings, when our lives change and we come to know God, to praise and bear witness to his great wonders before every nation under heaven.” (Confessio, 3)
3.) “Let every tongue confess that Jesus Christ, in whom we believe and whom we await to come back to us in the near future, is Lord and God.” (Confessio, 4)
4.) “This is the one we acknowledge and adore – one God in a Trinity of the sacred name.” (Confessio, 4)
5.) “That is why I must shout aloud in return to the Lord for such great good deeds of his, here and now and forever, which the human mind cannot measure.” (Confessio, 12)
6.) “In the knowledge of this faith in the Trinity, and without letting the dangers prevent it, it is right to make known the gift of God and his eternal consolation. It is right to spread abroad the name of God faithfully and without fear, so that even after my death I may leave something of value to the many thousands of my brothers and sisters – the children whom I baptized in the Lord.” (Confessio, 14)
7.) “I didn’t deserve at all that the Lord would grant such great grace, after hardships and troubles, after captivity, and after so many years among that people. It was something which, when I was young, I never hoped for or even thought of.” (Confessio, 15)
8.) “More and more the love of God increased, and my sense of awe before God.” (Confessio, 16)
9.) “It was in the strength of God that I went – God who turned the direction of my life to good.” (Confessio, 17)
10.) “For that reason, I give thanks to the one who strengthened me in all things, so that he would not impede me in the course I had undertaken and from the works also which I had learned from Christ my Lord.” (Confessio, 30)
11.) “So I will never stop giving thanks to my God, who kept me faithful in the time of my temptation. I can today with confidence offer my soul to Christ my Lord as a living victim. He is the one who defended me in all my difficulties. I can say: Who am I, Lord, or what is my calling, that you have worked with me with such divine presence? This is how I come to praise and magnify your name among the nations all the time, wherever I am, not only in good times but in the difficult times too.” (Confessio, 34)
12.) “If I be worthy, I am ready even to give up my life most willingly here and now for his name.” (Confessio, 37)
13.) “I am greatly in debt to God. He gave me such great grace, that through me, many people should be born again in God and brought to full life. Also, that clerics should be ordained everywhere for this people who have lately come to believe, and who the Lord has taken from the ends of the earth.” (Confessio, 38)
14.) “How has this happened in Ireland? Never before did they know of God except to serve idols and unclean things. But now, they have become the people of the Lord, and are called children of God.” (Confessio, 41)
15.) “So I want to give thanks to God without ceasing.” (Confessio, 46)
16.) “Perhaps, however, when I baptized so many thousands of people, did I hope to receive even the smallest payment? If so, tell me, and I will return it to you. Or when the Lord ordained clerics everywhere through my poor efforts, and I gave this service to them for free, if I asked them to pay even for the cost of my shoes – tell it against me, and I will return it to you and more.” (Confessio, 50)
