Saint Patrick, March 17th

Patrick lived about 400 years after Jesus. As a teenager, he was a slave in Ireland. While he was a slave he learned to pray and to love God. Eventually he escaped and went home to his family where he studied to become a priest. He lived in France for many years, but he felt had to go back to Ireland as a missionary to bring the word of God to the Irish people. As Patrick spread Christianity throughout Ireland legends grew about him:

One legend is that he drove the snakes out of Ireland; Another is that he used a shamrock (a three-leafed clover) to teach the Irish about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In our church window, Patrick is standing on a shamrock.

Patrick baptized hundreds of people every day. He would come to a place, a crowd would gather, and when he told them about the true God, the people would cry out from all sides that they wanted to become Christians. Then they would move to the nearest water to be baptized. One day, when Patrick had finished preaching, Aengus, a Prince, was longing with all his heart to become a Christian. The crowd surrounded the two because Aengus was such an important person. Patrick got out his book and began to look for the place of the baptismal rite but his bishop’s crozier (the shepherd’s staff he is holding in our window) got in the way. He stuck his crosier into the ground so he could use both hands on the book -- and accidentally put it through the foot of poor Aengus! Patrick didn’t notice what he had done. The prince never cried out. When he discovered what he had done he asked Aengus why he didn’t speak up. Aengus said that he thought having a spike driven through his foot was part of the ceremony. He said, “Christ, shed His blood for me, and I am glad to suffer a little pain at baptism to be like Our Lord."

Activity

• Look for the stained glass window of John Chrysostom in our church.
• Print a picture of the Saint Patrick Window  that you can color.
• What do you believe in that you cannot see?
• Choose a picture from St. George's online coloring book.

To print the picture you will need The Adobe Acrobat Reader -- available free at the Adobe web site. Please consult the Adobe Acrobat page for system requirements and other technical information.