Day 10: St. Patrick, Patron of Engineers

You thought Patrick was only the patron saint of Ireland?  Turns out our Irish patron has some other tricks up his sleeve.  Here's to all of the engineers I know.

Lived from about 400 to 493
Hometown: ???  Probably England
Feast Day: March 17th

Patrick was born in England and at the age of 16 was taken by pirates off to Ireland where he was sold into slavery as a shepherd.  He would often be praying among the flock.  After six years he escaped and returned to Britain.  Having had a spiritual conversion in slavery, he studied in France to become a priest and eventually became a bishop at the age of 43.  He then had a vision of the children of Ireland reaching out to him, and saw this as a sign to do mission work in Ireland.  He went to the nation where no one had before taught the faith, and had success in converting many and even obtaining protection of kings.  He founded the entire church in Ireland, even though he also suffered opposition from the pagans in the land as well as the clergy from England because of the way he did his mission work.  Why is he the patron saint of Engineers?  Because he is known to have literally built churches in Ireland, teaching the Irish to build their arches using lime mortar instead of usual dry masonry, and introducing other Roman technology to the Irish. 
For more information:


www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1325

St. Patrick, your cleverness and intelligence caused you to think like an engineer, outside of the box, and teach the Irish in new and different ways that missionaries didn't usually do.  May we all think outside the box like you do and find solutions to whatever situations we may find ourselves in.