Saint Patty’s Day is for the pagans.
You might say it that way, and then carefully wash your Christian hands of all the carousing and empty revelry that makes all things Irish into an excuse for a godless spring party. But you might say the same thing, and mean it not as a call to circle the wagons, but to charge the hill.
Deep beneath much of what the day has become is the inspiring mission of Patrick pioneering the gospel among an unreached people, despite the frowning face of the church establishment. Saint Patrick’s Day, in its truest meaning, is not about avoiding the lost, but taking them the gospel. It turns out Saint Patty’s Day really is for the pagans.
The Gospel to the Irish
The March 17 feast day (declared in the early 17th century) remembers Patrick as the one who led the fifth-century Christian mission to Ireland. Unlike Britain, the Emerald Isle lay beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire. The Irish were considered uncivilized barbarians, and many thought their illiteracy and volatile emotions put them outside the reach of the gospel.
But Patrick knew better. In a strange and beautiful providence, he had spent six years among them as a captive, learned their language, and developed a heart for them. Like Joseph sold into slavery to one day save Egypt and his brothers, God sent Patrick into slavery to ready Ireland for a coming salvation.
Read more at http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/remember-saint-patrick
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PATRICK spent most of his time in the North East part of Ireland – the Province of Ulster.
Patrick by his own addmission deeply loved God’s Word and I am convinced if he were here to-day would outwardly reject 99% of what is done in his name.
His body lies at rest in the cemetery of the Episcopal Cathedral in the town of DOWNPATRICK- some 30 miles from the capitol city of Belfast.
How do I know this? I was born and raised thru my college years within 20 miles of Downpatrick.