Patrick (ca. 385-461) may be regarded as a saint in the Catholic church but the opening line of his autobiography, Confession, reveals how he viewed himself, “My name is Patrick. I am a sinner.” Born along the coast of England, Patrick (or Patricius, his Latin name) was captured by pirates as a teenager who sold him to Irish slaveholders. He worked under harsh conditions as a herdsman for six years, yet the time spent in captivity awakened his soul to God. He wrote in his autobiography, “So I am first of all a simple country person, and the least of all the faithful and utterly despised by many. I was about sixteen years of age and did not know the true God when I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people…It was there that the Lord opened up my awareness to my lack of faith. I recognized my failings and turned to the Lord with all my heart, who looked down on my lowliness and had mercy on my youthful ignorance…Hence I cannot be silent about such great blessings and grace that the Lord so kindly bestowed on me in the land of my captivity.”
Christ appeared to Patrick in a dream and told him a ship was ready to take him to England. He trekked two hundred miles to the coast, negotiated his way onto a cargo vessel and arrived safely home. But then he had a second dream, this time a summons to return to Ireland, the place of his former captivity, to preach the gospel.
In Celtic Christianity, a popular type of prayer is known as the lorica (“breastplate”), a prayer recited for protection. While the following breastplate prayer is often attributed to Patrick, it likely originated in the eighth century, yet it expresses Patrick’s manner of praying and the Celtic Christian spirituality that bears his influence. The beginning segment is an ideal morning prayer: