“The man who raises dead people”- remembering St. Patrick

While many will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with parades and green beer, relatively few know how this missionary bishop to the Emerald Isle worked supernatural signs and wonders as a matter of course.

It’s been said that St. Patrick (c. 389-c. 461) performed a thousand miracles. Legend says he drove the snakes out of Ireland. One thing is for certain. He brought Heaven to an island overrun in pagan darkness and won over a whole people group to Christ.

St. Patrick was known as “The man who raises dead people”–as many as 39 (and a horse!),  of which 33 are mentioned in this one place (bold-text added):

“For the blind and the lame, the deaf and the dumb, the palsied, the lunatic, the leprous, the epileptic, all who labored under any disease, did he in the Name of the Holy Trinity restore unto the power of their limbs and unto entire health; and in these good deeds was he daily practiced. Thirty and three dead men, some of whom had been many years buried, did this great reviver raise from the dead, as above we have more fully recorded.” (“The Life and Acts of St. Patrick” translated from the original Latin of Jocelin, Cistercian monk of Furnes of the 12th century, by Edmund L. Swift, Esq., Dublin, 1809.)

Okay, let’s make sure we understand this. Patrick not only healed the sick and lame, he raised 33 dead people back to life, including some who had been buried for years. I’ll drink to that!

Here’s one account of two women being raised from the dead after being buried.

“One day St. Patrick came to a place called Fearta. On the side of the hill two women had buried. Patrick ordered the earth removed; in the Name of Christ, he raised them up. The two proclaimed that their idols were vain and that Christ was the true God. Along with the women, many bystanders were baptized. As the ancient writer observes, Patrick not only revived these two from a double death (both temporal and eternal death), but by this miracle he gave spiritual resurrection to many other souls.”

St. Patrick himself personally attested to these miracles:

“And let those who will, laugh and scorn–I shall not be silent; nor shall I hide the signs and wonders which the Lord has shown me many years before they came to pass, as He knows everything even before the times of the world.”

“The Lord hath given to me, though humble, the power of working miracles among a barbarous people, such as are not recorded to have been worked by the great Apostles; inasmuch as, in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I have raised from the dead bodies that have been buried many years….”

– Quotes from his  “Letters” (Confessions and Letter to Coroticus)

Here is a remarkable account of how St. Patrick won Dublin to Christ. We see him operating in the prophetic, along with raising the king’s two children from the dead, including Princess Dublina, who the city would be named after (bold-type added):

“When Patrick came to Dublina he prophesied how great that small village would someday become. He also caused a fountain to spring up there. It happened that in the region nearby, the young son of the king lay dead in his chamber. The sorrow over his death was compounded when it was learned that his sister, who had gone to bathe in the neighboring river, had drowned in midstream. Her body was finally found resting on the riverbed, and was laid out beside that of her brother. Tombs were prepared for both according to pagan custom.

At this sorrowful time the rumor spread that Patrick of Ardmachia (Armagh), who in the Name of the Unknown God had raised many that were dead, had arrived in the village.  The king, Alphimus, promised that he, his nobles, and the whole “city” would be baptized into the new faith if his two children were restored.  Patrick, seeing the opportunity for a great gain of souls, raised them both to life.

By the physical resurrection of the prince and princess, the spiritual resurrection of the whole area from the darkness of paganism and idolatry was accomplished. And the temporary resurrection of bodies (that is, until they died again) gave a promise of eternal life in Heaven and of the resurrection of the body on Judgment Day.

After the raising of this royal brother and sister, churches were built and tributes appointed to Patrick as their patron, that is, as the first Archbishop (or Bishop) of Ardmachia. It is reputedly from the revived Princess Dublina that the present great city of Dublin got its name.”

All these stories and many more can be read in an article here.

Patrick’s supernatural evangelism of Ireland reminds me of Paul’s statement to the Corinthian church (bold-type added):

“And my speech and my preaching were not
with persuasive words of human wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
that your faith should not be
in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Cor.2:4-5 NKJV)

As we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, may his life be an inspiration for us to stop being “average Christians” and start being “normal Christians.”  After all, Jesus said we will do what He did and even greater works (John 14:12).

Beannachtaí na Féile Páraic oraibh!
(“St. Patrick’s Day blessings upon you!” in Gaelic)