Succat Patricus

Succat Patricus was born around 360AD at Dumbarton, Scotland. His father, Calpurnius, was a Roman civil officer, and a deacon in a Baptist church, who had been converted to Christ while on a business trip to Rome. In spite of being reared in a godly home, Succat was a wild and unruly youth, and at the age of seventeen, while working on his father's farm, he and several others were seized and carried away captive by a band of pirates. He was stripped of all he had, and was sold into slavery on an island country. Even his name was changed. It was during this dark period of his life that he remembered the Christian upbringing and bible teaching he had as a lad from his godly father, and was converted to Christ. At the age of twenty five, he escaped his captors and returned to his home in Scotland, only to find that his father had passed. He answered the call to the ministry, and set out on a missionary journey that took him right back to the island country that was the land of his captivity for eight years, to preach to his captors. In doing so he demonstrated the love only God could put in a man's heart for lost souls, and became the most famous Baptist missionary to that land in all recorded history. His writings still exist, and from them we know of his doctrine, faith, and practice, and that he held to the belief that the scriptures alone were the sole rule of all matters of faith and practice. He started well over 300 independent churches during his ministry and ordained as many pastors, and some of those churches still remained as late as 1635.

It was well after his death, some 1400 years in fact, that the most tragic event surrounding him transpired, when he was taken captive again. And just as before, his captors took away his identity. Perhaps you are more familiar with his "new" name? For this great missionary, Succat Patricus, in his post-mortem captivity, was renamed Patrick, and today is commonly known as St. Patrick of Ireland, and the greatest Baptist missionary in the history of Ireland is once again a captive. Only now you know the rest of the story.