The Later Eastern Han Dynasty extended sections of the Great Wall of China along its Mongolian border around 220 AD.
This made it harder for the Huns to attack into China, so they turned westward, attacking and displacing tribes throughout Central Asia.
These tribes migrated further west, overrunning the western borders of the Roman Empire:
Visigoths,
Ostrogoths,
Franks,
Anglos,
Saxons,
Alemanni,
Thuringians,
Rugians,
Jutes,
Picts,
Burgundians,
Lombards,
Alans, and
Vandals.
Rome had to withdraw its Legions from other areas of the Empire, such as Britain, in order to place them along the Roman border.
This left Britain, which had been a Roman territory since the time of Julius Caesar, unprotected.
Marauding bands and lawless mobs raided Britain's unprotected Roman settlements, and carried away thousands to sell into slavery in Ireland.
Ireland was ruled by the bloodthirsty, superstitious pagan Druids.
Thomas Cahill wrote in How the Irish Saved Civilization (Random House, 1995):
"Romans, in their first encounters with these exposed, insane warriors, were shocked and frightened ... They were howling and, it seemed, possessed by demons, so outrageous was their strength ... featuring all the terrors of hell itself."
The Druids, from whom Halloween originated, believed that the trees and hills were inhabited by good and evil spirits which had to be appeased.
Cahill continued:
"(Druids) sacrificed prisoners of war to the war gods and newborns to the harvest gods.
Believing that the human head was the seat of the soul, the displayed proudly the heads of their enemies in their temples and on their palisades; they even hung them from their belts as ornaments, used them as footballs in victory celebrations, and were fond of employing skull tops as ceremonial drinking bowls.
They also sculpted heads -- both shrunken, decapitated heads."
Patrick's British name at birth was Sucat, but his Latin name was "Patricius," meaning "Nobleman." Around 405 A.D., at the age of 16 years old, while working of his father's farm near the sea, 50 currachs (longboats) filled with raiders weaved their way toward the shore.
Mary Cagney, author of the article "Patrick The Saint" (Christian History, Issue 60), wrote:
"With no Roman army to protect them (Roman legions had long since deserted Britain to protect Rome from barbarian invasions), Patricius and his town were unprepared for attack.
The Irish warriors, wearing helmets and armed with spears, descended on the pebble beach.
The braying war horns struck terror into Patricius' heart, and he started to run toward town.
The warriors quickly demolished the village, and as Patricius darted among the burning houses and screaming women, he was caught. The barbarians dragged him aboard a boat bound for the east coast of Ireland."
For six years Patrick herded animals for a Druid chieftain. He later wrote in his life's story, called The Confession of Saint Patrick:
"But after I came to Ireland -- every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed -- the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened.
And my spirit was moved so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountains; and I used to get up for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain ...
... There the Lord opened the sense of my unbelief that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God who ... comforted me as would a father his son."
Then Patrick had a dream, as he wrote:
"One night I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me: `It is well that you fast, soon you will go to your own country.'
And again ... a voice saying to me: `See, your ship is ready.' And it was not near, but at a distance of perhaps two hundred miles ... Then I took to flight ... I went in the strength of God who directed my way ... until I came to that ship."
Saint Patrick - His Amazing Life from Tragedy to Triumph (Book & DVD)
Patrick eventually made his way back to Britain and was reunited with what was left of his family.
Then, when he was about 40 years old, he had another dream calling him back to Ireland as a missionary.
In his Confession, Patrick wrote:
"In the depth of the night, I saw a man named Victoricus coming as if from Ireland, with innumerable letters, and he gave me one and while I was reading I thought I heard the voice of those near the western sea call out:
'Please, holy boy, come and walk among us again.'
Their cry pierced my very heart, and I could read no more, and so I awoke."
Patrick returned to Ireland.
He confronted the Druids, converted chieftains, and used the three-leaf clover to teach the Trinity.
The Druids tried to ambush and kill Patrick nearly a dozen times:
"Daily I expect murder, fraud or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of Heaven ...
The merciful God often freed me from slavery and from twelve dangers in which my life was at stake-not to mention numerous plots ...
God is my witness, who knows all things even before they come to pass, as He used to forewarn even me ... of many things by a divine message ...
... I came to the people of Ireland to preach the Gospel, and to suffer insult from the unbelievers ...
I am prepared to give even my life without hesitation and most gladly for His name, and it is there that I wish to spend it until I die."
Encyclopedia Britannica stated that Patrick challenged: "royal authority by lighting the Paschal fire on the hill Slane on the night of Easter Eve. It chanced to be the occasion of a pagan festival at Tara, during which no fire might be kindled until the royal fire had been lit."
As Patrick's fire on the hill of Slane illuminated the countryside, King Loigaire (King Leary) is said to have exclaimed:
"If we do not extinguish this flame it will sweep over all Ireland."
Mary Cagney, in "Patrick the Saint" (Christianity Today, Issue 60), wrote:
"Predictably, Patrick faced the most opposition from the Druids, who practiced magic ... and advised Irish kings.
Biographies of the saint are replete with stories of Druids who 'wished to kill holy Patrick' ...
One biographer from the late 600's, Muirchu', described Patrick challenging Druids to contests at Tara ...
... The custom was that whoever lit a fire before the king on that night of the year (Easter's eve) would be put to death.
Patrick lit the paschal fire before the king on the hill of Slane.
The people saw Patrick's fire throughout the plain, and the king ordered 27 chariots to go and seize Patrick ...
Seeing that the impious heathen were about to attack him, Patrick rose and said clearly and loudly,
'May God come up to scatter his enemies, and may those who hate him flee from his face.'
By this disaster, caused by Patrick's curse in the king's presence because of the king's order, seven times seven men fell ... And the king driven by fear, came and bent his knees before the holy man.'"
Many miraculous acts were attributed to Patrick.
The Life and Acts of Saint Patrick was compiled by a 12th century Cistercian Monk of Furnes named Jocelin.
A popular translation of was done by Edmund L. Swift, Esq., Dublin, in 1809, with elucidations of David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory.
The Life and Acts of Saint Patrick contains chapters such as:
Chapter 68: Of his Journey, & of his manifold Miracles;
Chapter 69: the Sick Man cured;
Chapter 71 The Dead are raised up; the King & the People are converted;
This made it harder for the Huns to attack into China, so they turned westward, attacking and displacing tribes throughout Central Asia.
These tribes migrated further west, overrunning the western borders of the Roman Empire:
Visigoths,
Ostrogoths,
Franks,
Anglos,
Saxons,
Alemanni,
Thuringians,
Rugians,
Jutes,
Picts,
Burgundians,
Lombards,
Alans, and
Vandals.
Rome had to withdraw its Legions from other areas of the Empire, such as Britain, in order to place them along the Roman border.
This left Britain, which had been a Roman territory since the time of Julius Caesar, unprotected.
Marauding bands and lawless mobs raided Britain's unprotected Roman settlements, and carried away thousands to sell into slavery in Ireland.
Ireland was ruled by the bloodthirsty, superstitious pagan Druids.
Thomas Cahill wrote in How the Irish Saved Civilization (Random House, 1995):
"Romans, in their first encounters with these exposed, insane warriors, were shocked and frightened ... They were howling and, it seemed, possessed by demons, so outrageous was their strength ... featuring all the terrors of hell itself."
The Druids, from whom Halloween originated, believed that the trees and hills were inhabited by good and evil spirits which had to be appeased.
Cahill continued:
"(Druids) sacrificed prisoners of war to the war gods and newborns to the harvest gods.
Believing that the human head was the seat of the soul, the displayed proudly the heads of their enemies in their temples and on their palisades; they even hung them from their belts as ornaments, used them as footballs in victory celebrations, and were fond of employing skull tops as ceremonial drinking bowls.
They also sculpted heads -- both shrunken, decapitated heads."
Patrick's British name at birth was Sucat, but his Latin name was "Patricius," meaning "Nobleman." Around 405 A.D., at the age of 16 years old, while working of his father's farm near the sea, 50 currachs (longboats) filled with raiders weaved their way toward the shore.
Mary Cagney, author of the article "Patrick The Saint" (Christian History, Issue 60), wrote:
"With no Roman army to protect them (Roman legions had long since deserted Britain to protect Rome from barbarian invasions), Patricius and his town were unprepared for attack.
The Irish warriors, wearing helmets and armed with spears, descended on the pebble beach.
The braying war horns struck terror into Patricius' heart, and he started to run toward town.
The warriors quickly demolished the village, and as Patricius darted among the burning houses and screaming women, he was caught. The barbarians dragged him aboard a boat bound for the east coast of Ireland."
For six years Patrick herded animals for a Druid chieftain. He later wrote in his life's story, called The Confession of Saint Patrick:
"But after I came to Ireland -- every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed -- the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened.
And my spirit was moved so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountains; and I used to get up for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain ...
... There the Lord opened the sense of my unbelief that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God who ... comforted me as would a father his son."
Then Patrick had a dream, as he wrote:
"One night I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me: `It is well that you fast, soon you will go to your own country.'
And again ... a voice saying to me: `See, your ship is ready.' And it was not near, but at a distance of perhaps two hundred miles ... Then I took to flight ... I went in the strength of God who directed my way ... until I came to that ship."
Saint Patrick - His Amazing Life from Tragedy to Triumph (Book & DVD)
Patrick eventually made his way back to Britain and was reunited with what was left of his family.
Then, when he was about 40 years old, he had another dream calling him back to Ireland as a missionary.
In his Confession, Patrick wrote:
"In the depth of the night, I saw a man named Victoricus coming as if from Ireland, with innumerable letters, and he gave me one and while I was reading I thought I heard the voice of those near the western sea call out:
'Please, holy boy, come and walk among us again.'
Their cry pierced my very heart, and I could read no more, and so I awoke."
Patrick returned to Ireland.
He confronted the Druids, converted chieftains, and used the three-leaf clover to teach the Trinity.
The Druids tried to ambush and kill Patrick nearly a dozen times:
"Daily I expect murder, fraud or captivity, but I fear none of these things because of the promises of Heaven ...
The merciful God often freed me from slavery and from twelve dangers in which my life was at stake-not to mention numerous plots ...
God is my witness, who knows all things even before they come to pass, as He used to forewarn even me ... of many things by a divine message ...
... I came to the people of Ireland to preach the Gospel, and to suffer insult from the unbelievers ...
I am prepared to give even my life without hesitation and most gladly for His name, and it is there that I wish to spend it until I die."
Encyclopedia Britannica stated that Patrick challenged: "royal authority by lighting the Paschal fire on the hill Slane on the night of Easter Eve. It chanced to be the occasion of a pagan festival at Tara, during which no fire might be kindled until the royal fire had been lit."
As Patrick's fire on the hill of Slane illuminated the countryside, King Loigaire (King Leary) is said to have exclaimed:
"If we do not extinguish this flame it will sweep over all Ireland."
Mary Cagney, in "Patrick the Saint" (Christianity Today, Issue 60), wrote:
"Predictably, Patrick faced the most opposition from the Druids, who practiced magic ... and advised Irish kings.
Biographies of the saint are replete with stories of Druids who 'wished to kill holy Patrick' ...
One biographer from the late 600's, Muirchu', described Patrick challenging Druids to contests at Tara ...
... The custom was that whoever lit a fire before the king on that night of the year (Easter's eve) would be put to death.
Patrick lit the paschal fire before the king on the hill of Slane.
The people saw Patrick's fire throughout the plain, and the king ordered 27 chariots to go and seize Patrick ...
Seeing that the impious heathen were about to attack him, Patrick rose and said clearly and loudly,
'May God come up to scatter his enemies, and may those who hate him flee from his face.'
By this disaster, caused by Patrick's curse in the king's presence because of the king's order, seven times seven men fell ... And the king driven by fear, came and bent his knees before the holy man.'"
Many miraculous acts were attributed to Patrick.
The Life and Acts of Saint Patrick was compiled by a 12th century Cistercian Monk of Furnes named Jocelin.
A popular translation of was done by Edmund L. Swift, Esq., Dublin, in 1809, with elucidations of David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory.
The Life and Acts of Saint Patrick contains chapters such as:
Chapter 68: Of his Journey, & of his manifold Miracles;
Chapter 69: the Sick Man cured;
Chapter 71 The Dead are raised up; the King & the People are converted;