The British Church of Patrick's time was also intimately connected with the Roman Empire. Missionaries from the continent followed the development of Roman towns, travelling over the system of good Roman roads. This was an urban Church with bishops establishing their centers in these Roman towns. The great ecumenical councils, beginning with that in Nicea in 325, doctrinally solidified a developing and common faith throughout this Church.

As Ireland had not come under the Roman Empire, it was for the most part unnoticed and untended by the developing Church. There were some Irish Christians, mostly on the eastern and southeastern coast. Many of these were probably British slaves who had been taken into captivity by the Irish. There is a record of a Bishop Palladius being sent to Ireland before Patrick. But the mission of Patrick was unique. There had been, up to this time, no other organized or concerted missionary effort to convert any pagan peoples beyond the confines of the Roman Empire. Patrick's efforts to do this, in fact, were criticized as being a useless project. His call had come to him in a personal vision. Although it must have been validated by some ecclesiastical superior, it was a cause of jealousy and ridicule on the part of other churchmen. The more we see Patrick in the setting of his time, the more we must admire his courage, vision and faith. But we also see that his path brought him pain and suffering. Acclaimed as a great hero in ensuing centuries, he himself felt nothing of the sort in his own time.

Patrick, then, is an intensely human person and not a plaster saint to admire from afar. He offers us a Christian vision of life honed out of his own experience and trials. He offers us a challenge to live our own Christian life today in changing and turbulent times. He comforts us when we are criticized and ridiculed. He gives to us the Celtic vision of the intimate presence of God in creation, in the Church, in people and in Scripture. He is a model for us, giving us an example to follow as we struggle to live authentically our own Christian lives in our own difficult times.

So at last I came here to the Irish to preach the gospel... ...After many persecutions even to the point of chains. Now I was able to hand over the freedom of my birth for the benefit of others. And should I prove worthy, I am ready and willing to give my own life, without hesitation for his name. There would I be glad to pour out my soul even to the point of death, if the Lord would so grant it me, because I am so much in God's debt...

For he gave me such great grace, that many people through me were reborn to God and afterward confirmed and brought to perfection... ...They are those whom the Lord has chosen from the ends of the earth... ...I have not cheated a single one of them, nor would I dream of such a thing, for God and for the sake of his church, lest I should stir up persecution for them and all of us, or for fear that the name of the Lord should be blasphemed because of me.... ...As every day arrives, I expect either sudden death or deception or being taken back as a slave or some such other misfortune. But fear none of these... ....Whoever comes across this writing and takes the trouble to read it through, namely the writing of Patrick, a sinner who, though he was never taught, wrote it down in Ireland... ...This is my Confession before I Come to die.

The Spirit comes to support the failings in our prayer, for we not know how we should pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself asks for us, with so many groans that may not be described. And once more it is written, "The Lord himself is our advocate who asks on our behalf" ..