Today we celebrate the feast of St. Patrick of Ireland, one of the several Catholic holidays recognized by secular society as much, if not more, than by the Catholic Church itself.
St. Patrick was by birthright a Roman citizen, born to Roman parents in Scotland. As a teenager, he was kidnapped by raiders and taken back to Ireland, where he was enslaved, forced to tend sheep. During his years of slavery, he found solace from loneliness and suffering in bondage through meditation and prayer. He also learned the language and customs of the Irish people. He later said he escaped from slavery when God told him to flee to the coast in a dream, and when he awoke and did so, he found a group of sailors there willing to take him home.
Back in Scotland, he studied for the priesthood, and after ordination returned to Ireland to aid and to preach to the very people who had enslaved him. He felt God was calling him to go back to Ireland and bring faith to the pagan tribes that lived there. His efforts were successful, and over his career he, along with a lesser known bishop named Palladius (who probably performed some of the acts now traditionally attributed to St. Patrick) converted Ireland to the Catholic faith, and in the process, brought it into the European orbit. He died on March 17, 461, having spent 40 years of his life ministering to the Irish.
A man who, as a member of a conquering race, abandoned his own home and society and returned to minister to people who had enslaved him? Sounds like someone we ought to be honoring, even 1600 years later.