Post #6471

Freed for the third time from slavery and entered the ecclesiastical state, he applied himself for a long time to the study of the Holy Scriptures. After having traveled through France, Italy and the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea with great effort, he was divinely called to the salvation of the Irish, and having the faculty of preaching the Gospel by the blessed Pope Celestine I and consecrated bishop in Rome in 420, he left for Ireland around 432. He carried out his action mainly in Northern Ireland. In this mission it is astonishing how many evils, tribulations, hardships and obstacles this apostolic man had to overcome. But with the help of divine goodness, that land, for the former worshiper of idols, very soon, for the preaching of Patrick, gave such fruits as to be later called the island of the Saints. He regenerated many peoples in sacred baptismal waters; he ordained many bishops and clerics; he gave rules to virgins and widows wishing to live continents. By authority of the Roman Pontiff he established the metropolitan church of Armagh of the whole island, and enriched it with relics of saints brought from Rome. God thus favored him with heavenly visions, the gift of prophecy, and great miracles and portents, that Patrick's fame spread everywhere. In spite of the daily concern of the churches, he never diverted his tireless spirit from prayer. It is said that he used to recite the entire Psalter every day, together with the Canticles and Hymns and two hundred prayers, to worship God on his knees three hundred times a day, and at each canonical hour make the sign of the cross a hundred times. He divided the night into three parts, and the first he employed in reciting a hundred Psalms and making two hundred genuflections; the second he spent in the recitation of the other fifty Psalms, immersed in cold water and with his heart, with his eyes and hands raised to heaven; the third then consecrated it to a light rest on the floor. A great lover of humility, he never ceased to work with his own hands, like the Apostles. Finally, worn out by so many continuous cares for the Church, illustrious in word and deed, reached an extreme old age and comforted with the divine mysteries, he fell asleep in the Lord, and was buried in Down, in Ultonia (Ulster), in the V century of the Christian era (March 17, 461). For the merits of this saint, famous for his austerities, let’s ask God for the grace to perform the penances that he commanded us in this holy time.