Patrick was born in Roman Britain between 385 and 392, to a Christian family. At the age of 15 or 16 he was kidnapped by Irish pirates who took him with them to Northern Ireland. He was sold as a slave to a druid chieftan named Milchu and told to tend the sheep. In his Confession, he wrote, “Love for God and His fear grew in me, and so faith. In a single day I recited one hundred prayers, and at night almost as many. I prayed in the woods and mountains, even before the dawn. Neither the snow, nor the ice, nor the rain seemed to touch me."
 
When he was twenty he escaped after having a dream in which he was told to leave Ireland by traveling to the coast. There he found some sailors who took him back to Britain and was reunited with his family.
 
A few years after returning home, Patrick saw a vision he described in his memoir:"I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland. His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. I read the heading: 'The Voice of the Irish.' As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment that I heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea-and they cried out, as with one voice: 'We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.'"
The vision prompted his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained a priest and later a bishop and sent to take the Gospel to Ireland.
 
Patrick arrived in Ireland and traveled to the north and west, where the faith had never been preached. He obtained the protection of local kings and began the task of converting the pagans. Since Patrick was a man of action, with little inclination toward learning, he would often use everyday objects to explain the Faith. 
 
Patrick often found himself faced with countless difficulties. Once, a chief tried to kill him, and for sixty days he was imprisoned. Despite these tribulations, Patrick persisted for nearly forty years in his missionary work, converting thousands of Irish, introducing monastic life, and establishing the episcopal see in Armagh. After years of living in poverty, traveling and enduring much suffering he died March 17, 461 at Saul, where he had built the first Irish church.
 
This print is part of the "Happy Saint" collection by Anna Morelli.
 
The image is professionally printed, hand-signed by the artist, and comes enclosed in a plastic sleeve to ensure protection.