3 Powerful Truths St. Patrick Teaches Us About Suffering

For years, I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day like most of the world—with clovers, corned beef, and a green outfit to keep from getting pinched. But the real story of St. Patrick is so much more than luck and leprechauns. This story shows powerful truths St. Patrick teaches us about suffering and how God redeems it in ways we’d never imagine.

The real St. Patrick

Fun fact: St. Patrick wasn’t Irish. He was actually born in Roman Britain in the mid-400’s, in the area of Wales. He grew up on a farm and though his father was a deacon and his grandfather a priest, Patrick was a self-confessed unbeliever.

When he was 16, Irish pirates landed on the British coast. They raided his farm while the rest of his family was away and took young Patrick captive. “In the slavery business, no tribe was fiercer or more feared than the Irish,” ​notes historian Thomas Cahill​. Sailing back to Ireland, they sold Patrick as a slave and for six years, he tended sheep, virtually forgotten in remote Northern Ireland. Completely isolated and suffering, he prayed a hundred times a day, and was converted to Christ.

At 22, Patrick escaped and walked 200 miles to the sea. Making his way through France and across Britain, he finally found his way home. Once reunited with his family, though, Patrick felt God’s strong call to return to the very place he’d been enslaved. It was a missionary call to bring the gospel to the tribes of Ireland, immersed in pagan, Celtic worship without Christ.

Patrick returned to Ireland and immediately faced the hostile Celts. Despite numerous, serious threats to his life, Patrick continued to share the gospel, planting churches across the whole of Ireland. By his death 33 years later, it’s said that almost the entire island had converted to Christianity.

3 powerful truths St. Patrick teaches us about suffering

1. God uses suffering for our good.

If we got what we wanted, we’d order a mountaintop life that goes from peak to blessed peak. But God does so much in valleys of suffering. Suffering is often the catalyst to see God in ways we never would otherwise, to let go of things of this world, and to set our affection on God. In the crucible of suffering, Patrick turned to God for the first time. Held captive and isolated for years, Patrick became absolutely dependent on God, a dependence that carried him when he returned to share the gospel with fierce Celtic tribes.

2. God brings purpose out of suffering.

When we walk through profound suffering, it gives us a clear vision for what matters and what doesn’t. When my heart shattered after Dan’s sudden death, I found God not just walking me through grief, but reshaping my heart. I had a deep compassion for others’ pain and a desire to share God’s help and hope.

After escaping, Patrick could easily have lived out the rest of his days back in his safe, Welsh farmhouse. But he chose to return to Ireland, to share God’s mercy he’d found there with people who didn’t yet know it. Like Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers, Patrick could look at his captors and declare, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20, NIV)

3. God uses suffering for his glory.

It’s one thing to follow God when life is going well. But when life falls apart and we’re able to say, “Lord this hurts. I don’t understand why this happened but I trust you in this,” it glorifies God. (e.g. John 17:1-2) Suffering speaks, a friend said to me in my deep grief after Dan died. She meant that when we walk through sorrow—the diagnosis comes or the layoff happens or life has upended—the world is able to see our authentic faith in a living God who meets our needs and cares for us.

Patrick of Ireland was changed through suffering and he in turn changed the world. The seeds of gospel hope he found in the unbearable pain of captivity grew into a passion to see all of Ireland know that same gospel hope. This ancient Breastplate Prayer of St. Patrick is comfort for any modern saint in suffering:

I arise today Through God’s strength to pilot me: God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me, God’s host to secure me…

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise… May thy salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.

(Find the full prayer here.)