"YOU'RE RETURNING TO THE PEOPLE WHO KIDNAPPED YOU TO WITNESS TO THEM?" - A LOOK AT ST. PATRICK OF IRELAND

Stained-glass window of St. Patrick from Saint Patrick Catholic Church, Junction City, Ohio

 Ladies and gentlemen, let's picture this scenario. A young man tells his parents he's leaving to be a missionary. Not just that, but he's not expecting to return. Add to that the fact this young man had been kidnapped by foreigners and served as a slave for six years before escaping and returning home. One last thing - the region he's going to as a missionary is the place he was held captive.

Let the above be your picture of the gentleman whose day is celebrated on March 17th. 

Bryan Litfin added two historical figures when he released the second edition of Getting To Know The Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction. One, Ephrem the Syrian (who we looked at a few days ago) represented Christianity's expansion eastward; the westward move is represented by Patrick of Ireland.

Patrick is one of those people we have to really study to distinguish the reality from legend. He didn't make the job easy by leaving only two writings (his autobiography and a letter to a tyrant claiming to be a Christian). But here are a couple of things to keep in mind (besides what I mentioned in the first paragraph):

1. He learned how to adapt his evangelism to the region he was in. Paul set the model of going to urban areas and preaching the gospel. Patrick may have done it if there were large urban areas in Ireland. There wasn't, so Patrick's witnessing had to be revised to reach a more rural, agricultural environment. And he succeeded.
2. The British Isles and beyond were impacted by those Patrick converted. One of those was Columba, who came to Iona, Scotland. (True, it's fiction, but a novel that deals with Columba which I highly recommend is The Keeper Of The Stone by Donna Fletcher Crow - click here for my review of that book.) 

Patrick is the final church father Litfin dealt with. I'll wrap up this series with tomorrow's blog.

By the way, I chose to use a font called "Irish Grover" for today's blog.

REVIEW OF KEEPER OF THE STONE BY DONNA FLETCHER CROW

 

Yes, I deliberately timed this review to be posted around the time of Reformation Day/All Saints Day (respectively this Sunday and Monday). After all, I often hear people talk about celebrating Christmas all year long - why not celebrate Reformation Day and All Saints Day all year long? (Of course, I'm trying to figure out what celebrating Groundhog's day all year long would look like.)

The Keeper of the Stone: Of Saints and Chieftains is Epoch One of the Celtic Cross Series.  In it, Donna Fletcher Crow does an excellent job of telling history in story form, where you keep your attention throughout. 

You can call The Celtic Cross a re-release of her previous books, The Fields of Bannockburn and The Banks of the Boyne, dividing these historical stories into a set of ten books (the former being a four part look at Scottish history, and the latter being six dealing with Ireland). In this new version, she also adds a story of three contemporary young people in modern times.

The beginning and ending of the book take place in current times. The rest of this book jumps back to the 500's and looks at Saint Columba. Personally, I thought the transition could be smoother between present and past - the present story occupies only the first couple of chapters and the final one, with the rest a millenium and a half ago.

The major part of the story focuses on Columba, and I found his story inspiring, especially with him wrestling with his past sins. It deals well with the conflict missionaries faced in the 500's - and in the 2000's, as well as any other time following Pentecost - struggling against the native religious beliefs of a society. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip into the past and getting to know some history. Which, considering how strong a story-teller Donna Fletcher Crow is, doesn't surprise me at all. 

I'm looking forward to reading on in the series. The ending doesn't have the resolution I'm used to in Crow's series (such as the Monastery Murders, Lord Danvers Investigates, and the Elizabeth and Richard Literary Suspense series, all of which also are good at looking into the past). So I'm not just interested in learning about what will happen to the characters, but also in learning more about the history of Scotland and Ireland.

I did receive a copy of this book for my unbiased review.