Almighty God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.
Patrick was the son of a deacon and grandson of a priest, born about 390 in southwest Britain somewhere between the Severn and the Clyde rivers. Sometime early in the 5th century A.D. the future St. Patrick was kidnapped from his home on the west coast of England by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland at the age of 15 or 16.
Almost everything known about him comes from his own writings: an autobiography called the Confession: Lettre a Coroticus in which he denounces the slave trade and rebukes the British chieftain Coroticus for taking part in it, and the Lorica (a poem of disputed authorship), a work that has been called part prayer, part anthem, and part incantation.
It begins: "I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity."
Until his captivity Patrick had, by his own account, cared nothing for God, but now he turned to God for help. After six years in captivity, he escaped or was freed and returned home to England by persuading some sailors to take him onto their ship. In a dream, he received his "call" to preach the Gospel and spent the next 15 years or so in a monastery preparing for missionary work.
Around 435, Patrick was commissioned to go to Ireland as a bishop and missionary. Patrick didn't bring Christianity to Ireland, but he was instrumental in bringing an organized church into existence on the island. He made his headquarters at Armagh in northern Irelan, where he built a school and had the protection of the local monarch. From this base he made extensive missionary journeys, with considerable success.
Shamrocks
Shamrocks are traditionally associated with St. Patrick’s Day because Patrick used the three leaves of the plant to explain the Trinity: one leaf for the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit.
The word shamrock comes from the Irish word "seamrog" meaning "little clover".
The white clover plant, trifolium repens, is generally considered to be synonymous with shamrocks. The four-leaf version of the white clover is commonly associated with luck or good fortune.
It has been estimated that there are some 10,000 regular three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover.
According to legend, the leaves of a four-leaf clover represent Hope, Faith, Love and Luck.