Succat (more commonly known as St. Patrick, whose Feast Day is March 17)

St. Patrick (389?AD - 461?AD) is called the Apostle of Ireland, Christian prelate. His birthplace is uncertain, but it was probably in southwestern Britain. His British name was "Succat".

At 16 years of age he was carried off by Irish marauders and passed his captivity as a herdsman near the mountain Slemish in County Antrim (according to tradition) or in county Connacht.

The young herdsman saw visions in which he was urged to escape, and after six years of slavery he

did so, to the northern coast of Gaul. Ordained a priest, possibly by Saint Germanus, at Auxerre, he returned to Ireland. Sometime after 431, Patrick was appointed successor to St. Palladius, first bishop of Ireland. Patrick concentrated on the west and north of

Shamrocks in a field

Ireland, establishing his see an Armagh. Patrick's two surviving works are written in Latin and demonstrate his acquaintance with the Vulgate translation of the Bible. In one of these works, the Confessions, Patrick portrays himself as an ignorant yokel in an unequal contest with the powerful and learned adherents of Pelagianism. (Pelagianism received it name from Peagius and designates a heresy of the fifth century, which denied original sin as well as Christian grace.)

His reported use of the shamrock as an illustration of the Trinity led to its being regarded as the Irish national symbol. Patrick's famous baptismal hymn to the Trinity, "I bind unto myself today" (Lutheran Book of Worship, p188), can be used as a meditation on Lent's call to return to our baptism

In his autobiography he denounced the slave trade, perhaps from his own experience as a slave.