Patrick was sixteen years old when Irish raiders tore him from his comfortable life in Roman Britain. The son of a deacon and grandson of a priest, he had grown up Christian in name but, by his own admission, had not known the true God. Captivity in Ireland would change everything.
In his Confessio, written near the end of his life, Patrick described his spiritual state before capture: "I did not know the true God, and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, as we deserved, because we had gone away from God and did not keep his commandments."
Faith Through Suffering and Captivity
For six years, Patrick tended sheep on an Irish hillside, exposed to rain, snow, and bitter cold. But in that crucible of suffering, faith ignited. "It was there that the Lord opened up my awareness of my lack of faith," he wrote. "Even though it came about late, I recognized my failings."
His prayer life became extraordinary: "More and more the love of God increased, and my sense of awe before God. Faith grew, and my spirit was moved, so that in one day I would pray up to one hundred times, and at night perhaps the same. I even remained in the woods and on the mountain, and I would rise to pray before dawn in snow and ice and rain. I never felt the worse for it, and I never felt lazy—as I realize now, the spirit was burning in me at that time."
Freedom and the Divine Vision
After six years, Patrick received a vision telling him a ship was waiting to take him home. He escaped, traveling two hundred miles to the coast, where he found passage to Britain. He was eventually reunited with his family, who begged him never to leave again.
But the Irish haunted his dreams. In a vision, a man named Victoricus brought letters from Ireland, and Patrick heard "the voice of the Irish" calling: "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us."
God's Call to Return
Patrick could not refuse. Despite the protests of family and the criticism of church authorities who questioned his education and qualifications, he returned to Ireland as a missionary. The slave came back to set his captors free—not from Rome, but from paganism.
His testimony remains: "Again and again I briefly put before you the words of my confession. I testify in truth and in great joy of heart before God and his holy angels that I never had any other reason for returning to that nation from which I had earlier escaped, except the gospel and God's promises."
