I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a presbyter, of the settlement of Bannaven Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our presbyters who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.
Patrick’s story opens with a teen of sixteen. He lived in a land where Christianity existed. Look at his family and you would assume Patrick lived a nice Christian life. His father was a deacon; and his grandfather appears to have been a priest.
But reading his words, I believe Patrick lived in a society where Christianity had slid from faith to just words and acts. Patrick admits he knew of the true God, but he did not personally know this God. I gather, in the area where he lived, this was true of the majority of people.
Patrick gets swept up in some type of raid. Thousands of his country men and women are also captured. The people of the land had abandoned faith in Christ, not for a new god or some new wave faith, they left God out of neglect.
Patrick believes the disaster which fell upon his people and their being taken as slaves is a result of their turning their back on God. He sees a comparison between his people being scattered and their not living for Christ.
Made me think of the prophecies associated with Israel.
Amos 9:8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
Today, I think Christians of America often sound like the Christians of Patrick’s villages.
“for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our presbyters who used to remind us of our salvation.”
I know from my own experience of slipping away that you do not have to make active decisions. Sometimes it results from wanting something you know is outside God’s will. In a past decade, I
I look forward to studying what Patrick discovered. I think the first thing is that we are not Christian because our ancestors believed. Christianity is not genetic.
Fourth Day Adventures 