So it is St. Patrick’s Day and Spring is supposed to be a week away. I’ve been complaining about this weather since before Thanksgiving and the more I look at stuff like this the more upset I get . This is Marvin Mosolf’s farm driveway. Marvin has graced these pages before – see Mar 31, 2012.
I don’t know how big Marvin’s truck is but it is big and this is a lot of snow. A lot of that is going to be around on your 81sr birthday Marvin.
So for those who thought I was joking about the snow here it is. It’s pretty bad in Northern Minnesota too so……..here is some stuff on St. Patrick.
Patrick, apostle of Ireland, was born in England circa 385. His father, Calphurnius, was a deacon from a Roman family of high social standing. His mother, Conchessa, was a close relative of the great patron St. Martin of Tours (Martin Luther’s name sake) Patrick’s grandfather, Pontius, was also a member of the clergy. Surprisingly, Patrick himself was not raised with a strong emphasis on religion. Education was not particularly stressed during his childhood either. Later in life, this would become a source of embarrassment for St. Patrick, who in the early 440s, would write in his Confessio, “I blush and fear exceedingly to reveal my lack of education.”
When Patrick was 16 years old, he was captured by Irish pirates. They brought him to Ireland where he was sold into slavery in Dalriada. There, his job was to tend sheep. Patrick’s master, Milchu, was a high priest of Druidism, a Pagan sect that ruled religious influence over Ireland at the time.
St. Patrick came to view his enslavement as God’s test of his faith. During his six years of captivity, he became deeply devoted to Christianity through constant prayer. In a vision, he saw the children of Pagan Ireland reaching out their hands to him. With this, he grew increasingly determined to free the Irish from Druidism by converting them to Christianity and he did.
