How did St. Patrick do it?

[phil8888]

I was just reading the biography of St. Patrick about how he went to pagan Ireland and converted so many. My question is “how did he do it?” Obviously the Holy Spirit is at work. But what techniques did he use? It’s just utterly amazing. He goes to a pagan country, and basically converts them all.

Like I’ll be reading the description and it’ll say he stayed with a druid chieftan, and he told the chieftan about God’s redemption and the chieftan and his family became followers of Christ.

It wasn’t done through military or anything.

Maybe the only answer is the Holy Spirit was at work to help St. Patrick, but I want to hear what people have to say. Obviously it’s not just him. Francis Xavier, St. Paul, etc. etc. Do we have records of how they actually did it?

I mean, it seems like normally you might dialogue with people all the time, but even after decades few if any people convert.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Madaglan]

Luck :shamrock2:

 

[phil8888]

Luck :shamrock2:

hehe

 

[catharina]

I was just reading the biography of St. Patrick about how he went to pagan Ireland and converted so many. My question is “how did he do it?” Obviously the Holy Spirit is at work. But what techniques did he use? It’s just utterly amazing. He goes to a pagan country, and basically converts them all.

Like I’ll be reading the description and it’ll say he stayed with a druid chieftan, and he told the chieftan about God’s redemption and the chieftan and his family became followers of Christ.

It wasn’t done through military or anything.

Maybe the only answer is the Holy Spirit was at work to help St. Patrick, but I want to hear what people have to say. Obviously it’s not just him. Francis Xavier, St. Paul, etc. etc. Do we have records of how they actually did it?

I mean, it seems like normally you might dialogue with people all the time, but even after decades few if any people convert.

What are your thoughts?

Certainly it was God, His grace, His leading - but Patrick had an extra edge.
He had been “owned” by the Irish for his late teen and early adult years.
As a boy in Britain, he was kidnapped, taken to Ireland and enslaved.
He lived and worked there for years before his escape.
He had an actual knowledge of the Irish pagans and their ways.
That must have been a great help to him.

Also he clearly knew his own Faith
compared to the Irish pagan ways.

 

[odhiambo]

I was just reading the biography of St. Patrick about how he went to pagan Ireland and converted so many. My question is “how did he do it?” Obviously the Holy Spirit is at work. But what techniques did he use? It’s just utterly amazing. He goes to a pagan country, and basically converts them all.

Like I’ll be reading the description and it’ll say he stayed with a druid chieftan, and he told the chieftan about God’s redemption and the chieftan and his family became followers of Christ.

It wasn’t done through military or anything.

Maybe the only answer is the Holy Spirit was at work to help St. Patrick, but I want to hear what people have to say. Obviously it’s not just him. Francis Xavier, St. Paul, etc. etc. Do we have records of how they actually did it?

I mean, it seems like normally you might dialogue with people all the time, but even after decades few if any people convert.

What are your thoughts?

On the thread “Saint of the day and Feast days” #988 link given, I have posted something on Saint Patrick. Here is an excerpt from the same and gives insight into some of the methods he used. Obviously the Holy Spirit, as you rightly mentioned, was with him all the way!

“Patrick chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish, and used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity.”

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=494322&page=66