When Patrick was sixteen years old, he was taken captive in an Irish pirate raid and was sold as a slave to a herdsman in North Ireland. He escaped at age 22 and somehow found his way to Gaul, where he spent some time in a monastic school.
After returning home, he saw a vision and heard voices from the Irish coast, crying "We beseech thee, child of God, come and walk again among us." He answered the call and returned to Ireland, the country that had enslaved him for six years!
At this time, the Irish were almost wholly unevangelized. They worshiped the elements, saw evil spirits in trees and stones, and engaged in magic, even in human sacrifice which was performed by the druids.
About the year 432 A.D., Patrick gathered people around him in the open fields and preached Christ to them. His burning zeal, deep sincerity, and gentlesness of manner won peasants and nobility alike. As a result of his obedience to God's call on his life, he planted 200 churches and baptized approximately 100,000 converts.
Both Catholics and Protestants like to claim Patrick, but he was neither. He was a Celtic missionary in the British Isles before the time of either Protestants or Roman Catholics. His father was a deacon and his grandfather a Celtic priest. St. Patrick died March 17, 461.
The three leaves of the Shamrock can represent the Trinity - God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit.
You can also use the the openings in the pretzel to teach about the Trinity, too. We have all the titles shown on this page.
