Below are photographs of the altar in St Patrick's Church Donabate which tell the story of St Patrick.

St Patrick (c. 385-c.461 A.D.)

Patrick was the son of Calpurnius who was a prominent official in a town called Bannavan Taburniae (somewhere in an area from the Firth of Clyde to the Severn estuary) in Britain. His father was also a deacon and the son of Potitus who was a priest. We know very little about Patrick's childhood. But according to Edmund Grace S.J. ("The Story of St Patrick" Irish Messenger Publication 1988), there is one reference to an incident that happened to him when he was fourteen. Patrick does not tell us what happened but it happened within the space of an hour and it weighed heavily on his conscience in later years. "The impression we get of Patrick during those early years is of a lively but easy going youth with perhaps a single, carefully-guarded secret" (Edmund Grace).

Patrick was abducted from England at the age of sixteen and brought as a slave to Ireland. It is said that as a boy he pray one hundred times a day and as much at night as well. It is obvious from his writings that he had a profound relationship with God. He had a very deep awareness of the presence of God in his life even in the midst of tragedy. In a sense God was his only friend as he sat alone on a mountain top, far from his homeland. The picture below shows Patrick minding the sheep as a youth on the Antrim Hillsides.

The above shows St Patrick returning back to Ireland as a Bishop. After he escaped from Ireland (after six years there), he later felt called to be a priest and was subsequently consecrated Bishop and settled in France. It is said that he had a dream in which he saw and heard the people of Ireland calling him back to help them. He returned at the age of sixty but initially he did not get a good welcome. In fact as he tried to land at Wicklow, the people threw stones and he had to go further up the East Coast.

Soon St Patrick began to influence the people and they were drawn to him. It is said that he used the Shamrock to teach about the Trinity..three persons yet one God. He started in Ulster and despite much opposition from the Druids (Priests of the Druid religion) and from the King, many were brought to the Christian faith. Patrick died at Saul on Strongford Lough where he had built his first church.

The feast of St Patrick is celebrated on the 17 March each year and St Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland. To learn more about St Patrick read his "Confessions" which has been republished many times.

Picture of St Patrick. For detailed information on St Patrick visit the St Patrick's Centre in Downpatrick.