Saint Patrick

Let anyone laugh and taunt if he so wishes. I am not keeping silent, nor am I hiding the signs and wonders that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they happened, who knew everything, even before the beginning of time.

I see that already in this present world I am exalted above measure by the Lord. And I was not worthy nor such a one as that he should grant this to me, since I know most surely that poverty and affliction become me better than delights and riches.

The Lord is greater than all: I have said enough.

He that offereth sacrifice of the goods of the poor is as one that sacrificeth the son in the presence of his father.

I partly know why I have not led a perfect life like other believers. But I avow to my Lord, and I do not lie, that from the time when I first knew him, the love of God and the fear of him has grown in me from my youth so that I have, by the power of God, always till now kept the faith.

I only seek in my old age to perfect that which I had not before thoroughly learned in my youth, because my sins were a hindrance to me.

The Lord discovered to me a sense of my unbelief that, though late, I should remember my transgressions and that I should be converted with my whole heart to the Lord my God.

I have had the good fortune through my God that I should never abandon his people whom I have acquired in the extremities of the earth.

The most High approveth not the gifts of the wicked.

I have vowed to my God to teach the heathen, though I be despised by some.

If I be worthy, I live for my God to teach the heathen, even though they may despise me.

Daily I expect to be murdered or betrayed or reduced to slavery if the occasion arises. But I fear nothing, because of the promises of heaven.

He [God] watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.

I am Patrick, a sinner, most uncultivated and least of all the faithful and despised in the eyes of many.

If I have any worth, it is to live my life for God.

I was freeborn according to the flesh; I am born of a father who was a decurion, but I sold my noble rank - I blush not to state it, nor am I sorry - for the profit of others. In short, I am a slave in Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of the eternal life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I most certainly believe that it is the gift of God that I am what I am. And so I dwell amongst barbarians, a proselyte and an exile, for the love of God.

Before I was humiliated I was like a stone that lies in deep mud, and he who is mighty came and in his compassion raised me up and exalted me very high and placed me on the top of the wall.

That which I have set out in Latin is not my words but the words of God and of apostles and prophets, who of course have never lied. He who believes shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be damned. God has spoken.

I pray to God to give me perseverance and to deign that I be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life for my God.