Slave to Saint: The Life & Legacy of St. Patrick

Text Michele

Watch the video of St. Patrick’s Breastplate here! 

Cutting through the noise of green beer and shamrocks lies the extraordinary life story of St. Patrick — an enslaved British teenager who found his faith in captivity, escaped through divine guidance, and later returned to Ireland as a missionary priest. Patrick’s life was marked by miraculous power, including eyewitness accounts of raising 33 people from the dead! He left us his “Lorica” or “Breastplate,” a timeless shield-of-faith prayer for spiritual protection that is still recited widely today. What if you prayed St. Patrick’s Breastplate every day for 30 days? How could it transform your life in Christ? Discover the real meaning behind today’s holiday, and share the story of St. Patrick with someone who has never heard it!

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Episode Transcript

Michele (00:00):
It's Monday, March 17th , St.
Patrick's Day, and this isToday's Kus Word.
Welcome to Today's Kus Word,your five minutes a day, five
days a week, inspiration blast.
Join me, Michele Kus, yourspiritual growth coach, every
Monday through Friday as I dropon you some piping hot freedom

(00:24):
bombs, especially on St.
Patrick's Day.
Did you like that little Irishjig?
Well, happy Monday and happy St.
Patrick's Day.
I want to start out by justgiving a shout out to my friend,
Carmen, who sent me thisamazing text message last week.
She said part of her messagesaid: your episode today is a

(00:47):
great reminder to me as a mothertrying to be patient and raise
three young women to be salt andlight in this world.
P.
S.
, I'm still trying to be saltand light too, lol.
Yes, my friend, we are alllearning how to be salt and
light in this world and I amalso raising three young women,

(01:08):
one teenager and two youngadults in college, and I know
it's not easy.
So, girl, you have my blessing.
So I want to jump into today'squicker episode and talk a
little bit about St.
Patrick.
So you may not realize this, butSt.
Patrick was actually born inBritain.

(01:30):
He's British.
He's not even Irish.
Sorry if that's a letdown, andI don't think that his real name
even was Patrick.
I think his birth name wassomething else.
But about age 16, he waskidnapped by Irish raiders and
sold into slavery in Ireland.
So that's how he ended up inIreland, and he was working as a

(01:52):
shepherd, and during hiscaptivity in slavery that's when
he turned to Christ.
He gave his life to Christ andhe had this rich, deep prayer
life, and so it's interesting,after about six years he escaped
and he was reportedly guided bya vision from God that led him

(02:15):
to a ship back to his family,but he was still connected to
Ireland.
He had a dream in which theIrish people called him back.
So St.
Patrick studied to become apriest and eventually he
returned back to Ireland, thistime not as a slave, as a

(02:36):
missionary.
So he was instrumental inspreading the faith all across
Ireland.
Many people were converted byhis ministry.
He established many churches inIreland, and so legend has it
that he used a shamrock toexplain the concept of the

(02:56):
Trinity, Father, Son and HolySpirit being three in one,
although I'm not sure if there'sany concrete evidence for that.
So that might be a legend, soyou can look that up and let me
know.
But there is a famous story ofhim driving the snakes all the
snakes out of Ireland, which isfascinating, and he died on

(03:19):
March 17th, probably in the year461.
So you know, it was quite awhile ago, and so that date,
March 17th, became St.
Patrick's Feast Day.
So that's today, and so, veryinterestingly, he is reputed as

(03:40):
having raised 33 people from thedead, and one of the most
fascinating resurrection storiesinvolves a man who had been
dead for many years, someaccounts say as many as 100
years.
So you know, imagine what thisguy looked like when he was

(04:03):
resurrected, or don't.
But here's the story.
So, as it goes, while St.
Patrick was preaching inIreland, he encountered a group
of people who doubted the powerof Christ and the power of
resurrection.
And so, to prove God's power,Patrick was led to a burial site

(04:25):
where the man had been dead forgenerations.
His body obviously was longsince decayed, and so St.
Patrick prayed, made the signof the cross and, miraculously,

(04:50):
this man was brought back tolife.
Pretty amazing and a lot morefascinating than green beer.
Okay, and one of the mostinteresting things about St.
Patrick is he wrote somethingcalled a lorica.
Loricas were common in CelticChristianity and it kind of
reflected a worldview wherespiritual warfare was very real

(05:19):
and faith acted as a literaldefense against that warfare.
So a lorica L-O-R-I-C-A is atype of prayer or hymn that
serves as like a spiritualprotection, almost like a shield
of faith.
And so St.
Patrick wrote a very famouslorica.
Sometimes it's called StPatrick's Breastplate, and what
I'm going to do is link for youin the show notes the

(05:42):
Breastplate of St.
Patrick that I made into avideo on my YouTube channel.
Watch that once or twice andlet it get inside of you.

And it starts like this (05:51):
I arise today through a mighty
strength, the invocation of theTrinity, through belief in the
threeness, through confession ofthe oneness of the Creator of
creation.

(06:13):
Imagine if you said St.
Patrick's Breastplate everymorning when you woke up for the
next 30 days.
Do you think that that wouldmake a difference in your life?
Do you think that would changethe entire atmosphere going into
your day?
I think it's worthexperimenting.

(06:33):
So watch that video, check itout, let me know what you think.
You can send me a text messageif you click down in the show
notes where it says Text Michele, you can send the show a text
message and let me know what youthink of St.
Patrick's Breastplate.

(06:54):
All right, that's what I gotfor you today.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode and, if you did, you
know what to do, raise 33 peoplefrom the dead and, when you're
done with that, share thisepisode with a friend who might
like to hear this story of St.
Patrick.
Have an awesome day and I willsee you again tomorrow.