All Ye Lands Chapter 6 page 142,
The Irish Missionaries
One great center from which many missionary
monks came was a land that had never been
conquered by Rome.
That land was Ireland, a great island west
of Britain.
Ireland received the Catholic faith from a
man with the Latin name of Patricius - whom
we remember today as Saint Patrick.
Born to a Christian family in Britain in the
300s, Patrick was kidnapped at age 16 by Irish
pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland.
Though for the next six years he lived the
hard life of a shepherd, Patrick's Christian
faith grew deeper and deeper.
At last, he escaped and returned home to Britain.
There, however, he received a vision calling
him to return to Ireland to preach the Gospel.
For the next 14 years, he dedicated himself
to his studies, especially in the Faith and
the Scriptures.
He then returned to Ireland as a missionary
and a bishop.
The Romans had never conquered Ireland, but
St Patrick won it for the Church.
His simple preaching and his love for the
Irish people won them over to Christ.
Patrick's use of the shamrock to describe
the Holy Trinity led to the three -leafed
clover becoming the national symbol of Ireland.
St Patrick's preaching and teaching made Ireland
Catholic.
It was not long before monasteries dotted
the island, and from these monasteries went
fourth missionary monks who spread the Gospel
in northern and southern Britain and even
into Gaul.
By the 6th Century, Irish monks were traveling
throughout western Europe, converting pagans
and preserving whatever could be saved of
Roman civilization.
Irish or “Gaelic” Monasteries were founded
in Gaul, and the lands that became Switzerland,
Belgium, and Italy.
These monks in the monasteries followed a
very strict way of life and prayer.
Life in Irish monasteries was similar to life
in the monasteries of the East.
But at the same time the Irish monasteries
were spreading throughout western Europe,
a new and truly western-style of monastic
life was coming to be in Italy.
The founder of this new style of monastic
life was one of the most important men in
the history of the Catholic Church.
His name was Benedict of Nursia.
