St Patrick’s Day: You may be surprised to know that no other national festival is celebrated more widely across the world.
March 17, the official festival day, coincided with the visit of a short-term worker to our church (IBF, Japan) this year. Joy Anne is a 23-year-old university student who came to Japan for a few months to assist the missionaries in IBF and another local church. She volunteered to organize a St Patrick’s Day cultural event.
It was an opportunity to share the testimony of St Patrick besides helping people learn more about this popular festival. The event was attended by a mixture of church members and non-Christians who have an ongoing interest in the church’s cultural events and English classes.
After starting with how St Patrick’s Day is celebrated across the world (most commonly by wearing or displaying the color green), Joy Anne explained why it is celebrated around the world. Due to the Potato Famine of 1845-1849, over 2 million Irish people were forced to emigrate. Most went to the U.S., but some went to Australia and Canada. They brought with them the custom of celebrating St Patrick’s Day — even to Japan!
The life of St Patrick
Here is Joy Anne’s story of why St Patrick is an inspiring figure:
“St Patrick himself isn’t actually Irish — he was an English missionary to Ireland. As a teenager, he was kidnapped in Britain and sold into slavery in Ireland (in AD 432) to herd and tend sheep.
“During his six-year captivity, he worked in extremely hard conditions, became fluent in the Irish language, and turned to God in prayer. He escaped after having a dream sent from God, in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast, where he would find a ship waiting to sail to Britain.
“He is believed to have met up with his parents in Wales, who assumed he would take up his life of privilege. But Patrick felt called by God to return to Ireland to share the Good News of Christianity. He traveled to France where he trained to become a priest and later a bishop.
“Then he returned to Ireland to bring a new way of life to a people who had once enslaved him. He constantly faced opposition and threats of violence, but through all the difficulties Patrick maintained his faith and persevered in his Irish mission. Over 40 years, he traveled throughout Ireland, preaching the Gospel and converting many. He and his disciples preached and converted thousands and began building churches all over the country.
“Patrick wasn’t the first Christian to reach Ireland; he wasn’t even the first bishop. What made Patrick successful was his determination and the courage to face whatever dangers lay ahead, as well as the compassion and forgiveness to work among a people who had brought nothing but pain to his life.”
Joy Anne also shared famous excerpts from St Patrick’s writings, which were preserved over hundreds of years. For example, from The Confession:
“For daily I expect to be murdered or betrayed or reduced to slavery if the occasion arises. But I fear nothing, because of the promises of Heaven; for I have cast myself into the hands of the Almighty God, who reigns everywhere. As the prophet says: “Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you.”