St. Patrick Lorica Prayer Pillowcase

• Feast Day: March 17th
• Patron of: Engineers, Ireland & Nigeria
• Britain, Ireland 385 - 461

Courageous St. Patrick's ancient, faith-affirming Lorica prayer is printed here with a portrait of the beloved Irish saint showing him as both an enslaved shepherd lad and the bishop he became. The richly detailed portrait help us remember that no matter our station in life, or our circumstances, we can choose to surrender our will to God.

The Lorica of Saint Patrick, also known as the Breastplate of St. Patrick, is a wonderful affirmation of faith for Catholics! We can pray it to energize our spirits, for encouragement to be bold in living our faith and, like St. Patrick himself, to make the choice to seek God’s hand every day. The St. Patrick's Lorica Prayer Pillowcase is an encouraging gift of faith, and a must have for Irish families!

Ironically, the patron saint of Ireland wasn’t Irish at all! Patrick was enjoying an entitled life as the son of ruling-class Romans in Britain before being introduced to Ireland. It wasn’t a friendly introduction: he arrived there as a kidnap victim of pirates. Spending one’s teenage years enslaved as a sheepherder in a desolate land sounds awfully bleak and lonely. Not for Patrick! He was too busy talking to God to be lonely: “In a single day I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night nearly the same,” Patrick wrote.

After six years of captivity Patrick acted on a dream in which God encouraged him to flee, and hitched a ride home with sailors. But another dream soon had him on the move again, this time headed for the priesthood. In this dream Patrick heard the voices of the pagan Irish people he’d learned to love begging him to return to their country and preach Christianity. It was Bishop Patrick who returned to Ireland to spread the Good News and help the people overcome slavery, intertribal warfare, and the human sacrifice of the Druids.