St. Patrick Likely we've worn green and feasted on corned beef and cabbage in honor of St. Patrick’s Feast Day (or “St. Paddy’s Day”) this week. Let's take pause to look at this most interesting 5th Century slave-turned-missionary. Patrick lived from approximately 387-460 (exact dates are not certain). He called himself a “Roman” and a “Briton,” and likely was born in Kilpatrick, Scotland, although others think his birth may be Cumberland, England, or northern Wales. His father was a high-ranking Roman and a deacon, and his grandfather a priest; his mother was a near relative of St. Martin of Tours (316 or 336-397). Patrick, however, was not much of a believer initially. When he was 16, Patrick was captured by Irish pirates along with a large number of his father’s slaves and vassals. They were all sold as slaves in Ireland, Patrick being sold to a chieftan in the present county of Antrim to be a shepherd tending flocks near today’s town of Ballymena. St. Patrick later ...