Welcome to Breakpoint, daily look and an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth

for the Colson Center on John Stone Street. Of the thousands of green-clad parade goers, marchers, and

partiers, few know about St. Patrick, the man for whom today's holiday is named. Even fewer still

know of the man beyond the legend, who supposedly drove the snakes out of

Ireland, and certainly possessed an indomitable faith in Jesus Christ. Back in 2006, Chuck Colson

told St. Patrick's story, here on Breakpoint and a commentary. Here's Chuck Colson. Patrick was born in

Roman Britain to a middle-class family about 390 AD.

When Patrick was a teenager, marauding Irish raiders attacked his home.

Patrick was captured, taken to Ireland, and sold to an Irish king, who put him to work as a shepherd.

In his excellent book, How the Irish Saves Civilization, Thomas Cahill describes the life Patrick lived.

Cahill writes, the work of such slave shepherds was

bitterly isolated, months at a time spent alone in the hills. Patrick had been raised in a Christian home,

but he didn't really believe in God. But now, hungry, lonely, frightened, and bitterly cold,

Patrick began seeking out a relationship with his heavenly father. As he wrote in his

confessions, I would pray constantly during the daylight hours, and the love of God surrounded me more

and more. Six years after his capture, God spoke to Patrick in a dream, saying, your hungas are

rewarded. You are going home. Look, your ship is ready. What a startling command. If he obeyed,

Patrick would become a fugitive slave, constantly in danger of capture and punishment.

But he did obey, and God protected him. The young slave walked nearly 200 miles to the Irish

coast, and there he boarded a waiting ship and traveled back to Britain and his family.

But as you might expect, Patrick was a different person now,

and the restless young man could not settle back into his old life.

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