Maewyn Succat’s spiritual legacy is both ironic and inspirational. Born to a Christian family around A.D. 380 on the banks of the Clyde in Scotland, he was kidnapped by a gang of ruffians, smuggled to Ireland, and sold as a slave to a cattle and swine herder.
At the time of his capture, Succat was unconvinced about following Jesus. By the time he was 15, the troubled boy was given to the worldly pleasures of lust, hate, and deceit, and he ignored the teachings of his father, a respected church leader. Succat believed this selfishness doomed him, albeit temporarily. He wrote later, “It was according to our deserts, because we drew back from God and kept not His precepts.”
But during his six years of harsh captivity, wearing rags for clothing and with minimal shelter from pounding rains and frigid nights, Succat soon gave his life to God. During long evenings of endless hunger and immense suffering, he would hear the voice of his mother and father urging him to follow Jesus. Finally, he began to listen rather than just hear them. And at last, he realized there was something more to life than just himself.
Gazing into the starry heavens, Succat said to God on the evening of his conversion, “I will arise, and go to my Father." Soon after, he escaped and at last returned to his homeland, ready to follow heaven’s call. Invigorated by his new devotion, Succat found and joined a church whose voice in history is unfortunately, though not surprisingly, silent to the general public.
Against the grain of the day’s religious teachings, the Celtic Church not only kept the Sabbath as holy, they followed God’s health laws and practiced baptism by immersion. They believed God’s law was paramount, and they gave their allegiance to Christ alone. In short, they believed there was no difference between obeying the law and ultimate morality — faithfully obeying God’s Word was the ultimate sign of their love and devotion.
Succat quickly rose in the ranks of this church, fighting against the onset of paganism from the outlying Briton isles and Europe. Sometime in his late twenties, he began to dream of the green island he once regretfully called home. He dreamed of how the heathens there suffered under economic and spiritual poverty — and eventually he believed God was calling him to return to Erin, which once held him prisoner, to set it free with His Word. The faithful convert followed without hesitation.
Succat Returns to the Emerald Island
The conversion of the island is both baffling and miraculous. Succat led a band of likeminded believers across the isle, establishing churches that would glorify the kingdom of God by expressing their faith through obedience to the Decalogue. Queen Margaret wrote about this and other “peculiar” practices of the growing Celtic Church, complaining '”They are accustomed … to neglect reverence for [Sundays].”
Though the major religious leaders of the day threatened, cajoled, and attempted to otherwise provoke allegiance to their doctrines, Succat’s church continually turned these temptations away. Because of his strict adherence to God’s desires, Succat is believed to be directly responsible for the establishment of more than 350 churches and the conversion of 120,000 converts.
In the centuries to follow, Succat’s legacy as a faithful Sabbath-keeper would quickly be shrouded with half-truths and mysticism due to the eventual overthrow of the Celtic Church. (The victors always write history.) Indeed, the ire of all of Europe eventually besieged the tiny, peculiar island until it capitulated and adopted more culturally acceptable norms under force.
Succat is still revered and celebrated as few others — he is as much a cultural icon today as he was when he conquered a nation for Christ. Sadly, the truth behind his powerful work is twisted, but that doesn’t mean the truth can’t be told. It’s a lesson we should not forget: Ireland prospered in peace for centuries as it obeyed God’s commands by Succat’s lead. After it incorporated unholy doctrines and practices, it fell into despair and was subjugated by oppression and cruelty.
An Amazing Fact: If you haven’t guessed it yet, Succat is better known by the name Patrick of Ireland — or even more familiarly, St. Patrick.
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