I like to tell St. Patrick that he is the most famous non-Irishman ever to be associated with Ireland! As the breviary tells, he was “born in Great Britain”. He was brought under duress to Ireland as a teenager where he lived for around 6 years. Later in life he chose freely to return and minister to the Irish people. He died at Down in Northern Ireland (which today is part of the United Kingdom, not the Republic of Ireland, though you can choose either a British or Irish passport if you live there).
I have been thinking about the parallels between the forced removal of St. Patrick from his home as a young man and the plight of so many displaced Ukrainian refugees.
St. Patrick understands the pain of being left with no option but to leave home and home country behind. Evacuation to a very different country, a very different and scary new world. He understands the agony of leaving family behind, and perhaps not getting to say goodbye to everyone you love before having to leave. Being scared, anxious and worried for loved ones left behind to fight daily battles you no longer know the details of.
Not knowing what the future will hold. Leaving behind the graves of loved ones, mementos, belongings and wondering if one’s own death and burial will ultimately happen far from home. Wondering if one will ever return home, if things will ever be the same. Wondering why.
Suffering, in St. Patrick’s words, “the cost of homeland and family…….taunts….many persecutions….losing my birthright of freedom”.
"How did so great and salutary a gift come to me, the gift of knowing and loving God, though at the cost of homeland and family? I came to the Irish peoples to preach the Gospel and endure the taunts of unbelievers, putting up with reproaches about my earthly pilgrimage, suffering many persecutions, even bondage, and losing my birthright of freedom for the benefit of others. If I am worthy, I am ready also to give up my life, without hesitation and most willingly for his name. I want to spend myself in that country, even in death". Confessions of St. Patrick
My prayer has been that in the big and small detachments in life, the goodbyes, the agonizing separations, the searing distance from those we love, as experienced by all of us but particularly acutely by those fleeing Ukraine right now, that we can still recognize the Gift, the One who descended from the perfection of heaven, who was exiled here on earth and who calls us to keep our eyes fixed on our true homeland, Heaven, where this pain will end and there will be no goodbyes and we will experience to perfection “the gift of knowing (really knowing) and loving (really loving) God” and one another.
St. Patrick, pray for us and for the people of Ukraine.
-Sr. Miriam O'Callaghan, T.O.R.
