About The Real St. Patrick

Concerning old St. Patrick. I am one Protestant minister who loves old St. Patrick. He was one of the mightiest men of God of his age. When they tell you about him banishing the snakes of Ireland, you believe it. They went by the power of God.

He died in the year 465 after Christ. By that time, the Roman Catholic church had begun to spread over the world, and she was corralling the faith of men and bringing them in subjection to the church. Ireland was a long piece from Rome, consequently St. Patrick had a chance to go on in the faith of God. He prayed for the sick and anointed them, and they were healed. But the church changed that practice for the sacrament of Extreme Unction, where the priest comes and bows by the dying man and gives him a wafer and lets him die!

This is what happens when faith goes out of men's souls. St. Patrick refused to conform to the formula of the church, and he continued to pray the prayer of faith. He was called to account and was tried for his life. On his way he encouraged his soul by such exclamations as, "Christ within me, Christ above me, Christ beneath me, Christ before me, Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand, Christ in the eyes of everyone who sees me, Christ in the soul of everyone who knows me," and with such exclamations he continued on his way.

As he went along the road, an old widow was distressed because her cow and two pigs had been stricken with some strange disease. Old St. Patrick turned off the road long enough to heal the cow and the pigs, and then he went on his way, declaring "Christ within me, Christ around me, Christ above me, Christ beneath me," etc.

And this is the story of the snakes. One day he came where a father had just been bitten by a poisonous snake, with his weeping wife and children standing around. And as he stood there his heart rose in God. When presently, somebody called his attention to the snake that had bitten the man, lying on the grass nearby. And going after the thing of hell, he damned it and all its tribe forever, and they went from Ireland to this day.

Two years ago, they invited me in Spokane to give a St. Patrick's address, and I gave such an address as they had never listened to in their life before. I told them of the real St. Patrick.