For the first three hundred years after the resurrection of Jesus, the Christian faith spread across the Mediterranean through the missionary work of the first apostles and disciples. The Christian communities at that time were generally small and often persecuted up to the time of the emperor Constantine. The spread of the Catholic faith through Europe after the conversion of Constantine, was tied to the expansion of the Roman Empire and the associated military conquest. Later the Christian faith spread through Africa, Asia, and the New World, once again associated with the expansion of commercial empires and military action from Spain, France, Portugal, and England. The explorers, merchants, conquerors, and military were usually accompanied by missionaries. As a result, many times the Christian faith was associated with the foreign conquerors and merchants. In large parts of the world, Christian faith initially grew out of obligation or imposition.
One of the few places in the whole of history where the faith was planted without force was in Ireland. The evangelization of Ireland was carried out by monks in small monastic communities spread throughout rural areas of Ireland. St Patrick is at the center of that evangelization process in Ireland. St Patrick was born in Scotland in the fifth century and was shipped off as a slave to Ireland. He gains his freedom and returns to Scotland. Then he returns to Ireland as a missionary to share his faith with the people who had held him as a slave. Mercy and forgiveness characterize his writings and even though we tend be more interested in the miracle stories and myths surrounding his life, surely those same virtues characterized his personal life and preaching. St. Patrick left behind the security of his European life and European Roman church. His writings, prayers, preaching, and lifestyle became Irish. Just look at his prayer “The Breastplate of St. Patrick”. Here is a small part of that prayer:
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 when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
That is a prayer of a man who feels completely surrounded by God’s love and who is completely confident in God’s love acting in his life. Gospel mercy, love, and forgiveness expressed in Celtic form. This is a slave who through the love of God learned to fall in love with his captors. He learned to truly love those who should have been his enemies.
People could see in St. Patrick a life centered on God. They saw a zeal and courage to share and announce his experience of God. They saw forgiveness and love in action. There were no armies, no guns, no threats, no laws, no imposition, no torture, no condemnation, no judging, no negation of the local culture, and no cultural imposition. There was just the one man and the small Christian monastic communities openly living out the Gospel.
I am a fifth-generation son of Irish immigrants. Michael Mahardy was born in County Longford in 1799 and migrated to the USA 20 years later with his wife and his brother who of course was named Patrick. He worshiped in third Catholic church built in the State of New York, Historic Old St John’s Church in Utica, NY which, at the time, was an all-day trip of about 17 miles from his farm north of Utica. He was instrumental in building the first Catholic church in Newport. He died at the age of 52 in 1851. My brother found his tomb in the cemetery on Irish Hill. His wife, Bridgit, left this inscribed on his tomb stone:
HERE LAYS MY DEAR HUSBAND, MY TRUE FAITHFUL FRIEND
MAY GLORY PURSUE HIM WHEN NIGHT HAS AN END
HID NOW HE IS QUITE
MAY HIS CHILDREN COME KNEEL AT HIS TOMB
AND LET LOOSE A TEAR
What a testimony of family faith!
St. Patrick lived out the Gospel we heard today. Jesus’ demand that we go out into deep water calls us to abandon our usual, safe, rational, routine way of life. He calls us all to be missionaries, evangelizers to all around us. Everything that we do and everything that we have is a means to proclaim our faith to others. Our reason for being Church and individual Christians is to announce our faith in a credible, sensitive way. St. Patrick changed the history of Ireland by living the Gospel with no use of force. We call called to go out into deep water beyond ourselves to announce and share our faith.
Put out into deep water.
Image: CANVA CJ 15 March2026 AI generated.