Aunt Murphy's Legacy: A True St. Patrick's Tale
Hey Reader
Happy Wednesday! St. Patrick's Day is just one week away, and around here, that means something a little more than green food and four leaf clovers.
LIFE
My great aunt, who we called Aunt Murphy, had Irish heritage, and every year without fail, her favorite holiday was St. Patrick’s Day. She didn’t love it for the parades or the shamrock shakes, but rather because of the actual history: the man, the mission, and the Gospel that was carried across the sea to an island that had never heard it.
Aunt Murphy went to be with the Lord several years ago, and I think about her this time of year more than any other. This email is my small way of doing what she always did: sharing the true story of St. Patrick.
THE REAL STORY OF ST. PATRICK
Most of what we celebrate on March 17th has very little to do with the man himself. Patrick was not Irish by birth. He was a teenager living in Roman Britain when Irish raiders captured him and brought him to Ireland as a slave. For six years he worked in isolation, tending livestock on the Irish hillside, far from everything and everyone he had ever known.
It was in that loneliness that Patrick encountered God in a profound and life-changing way. He later wrote that he prayed constantly, sometimes a hundred prayers in a single day, and that his faith became the anchor of his survival. After six years, he escaped and made his way back to Britain, where he was eventually reunited with his family.
That’s not where his story ends, however!
Patrick received a vision, a call he described as hearing the voices of the Irish people pleading with him to come back. Not as a slave this time, but as a messenger. He returned to the very island that had taken everything from him, and he spent the rest of his life bringing the Gospel to the Irish people.
By the time of his death, he had traveled the length of Ireland, planted churches, ordained leaders, and reached a people who had never before heard the name of Christ. He went back: to his mission field, the hard place, the place he probably never wanted to see again. And Ireland was never the same!
That is the story Murphy wanted us to know. That is the story worth telling your children next week.
HOMESCHOOL
Here is one of the greatest gifts of homeschooling that we sometimes forget to use: the freedom to let a single story become base for every subject in a unit study!
A holiday like St. Patrick's Day is not just a fun theme for a bulletin board, but rather a doorway into a rich, multi-disciplinary unit study that can bring every major subject to life in a single week. Here are some ideas for what that can look like in practice:
History is the natural starting point. You can walk your students through the fall of the Roman Empire, the context of fifth century Britain, the landscape of early Celtic Ireland, and the spread of Christianity through the ancient world. Patrick's story is not just personal history — it is world history.
Writing comes alive when your students are given a compelling subject. Have your student write a first-person journal entry from Patrick's perspective during his years of captivity. What did he feel? What did he pray? What did he hope for? Narrative writing rooted in real history produces some of the most meaningful student work you will ever read.
Grammar and language arts can be woven in naturally. Use excerpts from Patrick's own writing, particularly his autobiographical "Confessio," as a mentor text for studying sentence structure, voice, and vocabulary in context. Reading the words of a real historical figure makes grammar feel purposeful instead of tedious.
Literature opens up when students begin researching Celtic folklore, Irish mythology, and the oral tradition that Patrick stepped into. You could compare and contrast the worldview of Celtic paganism with the message Patrick brought. This is critical thinking and literary analysis happening in the same conversation.
Science connects through the natural world Patrick inhabited. Study the ecosystems of the Irish countryside, the agriculture of fifth century farming, or even the biology of the shamrock itself, which is something Patrick famously used to explain the Trinity. It becomes nature study and theology all in one lesson.
Math can enter through mapmaking and geography. Have your student calculate the distance Patrick traveled, estimate travel times by foot or by sea using historical data, or create a timeline to scale of the major events of his life and ministry. Math in context is math that sticks.
This is what a unit study does. It takes one story and lets it become the thread that connects everything. Your student is not doing six disconnected subjects — they are learning how the world is interconnected, and how one life, faithfully lived, can touch all of it.
I wanted to make this as easy as possible for you to actually use this week, so I put together a free St. Patrick's Day unit study you can download and hand to your student right now. It covers all the subjects above with ready-to-use prompts, activities, and discussion questions — everything you need to make this story come alive in your homeschool without spending hours of your own prep time pulling it together. The beautiful thing about unit studies is that you can make them your own, exchanging or adding in your own prompts, lesson focus, or additional disciplines. Don’t like my study guide? Use it as a launch to create your own!
[LINK: Download the Free St. Patrick Unit Study]
You do not need anything extra or fancy: Just the story, this guide, and a willingness to follow the thread wherever it leads.
GRACE
Patrick went back to the place that took away his freedom.
That is the part of the story I keep returning to. He had every reason not to go back. He had survived something devastating, escaped against the odds, and had been reunited with the people who loved him. Nobody would have blamed him for staying home!
But he heard a call, and in an act of inspiring obedience, he went.
Jesus gave His disciples that same kind of call before He ascended to heaven. In Matthew 28:19-20, He said:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” Matthew 28:19-20 ESV
Go. Make disciples. Of all nations. It is one of the most expansive commands ever spoken, and it is easy to read it and feel the weight of the "all nations" part, and to think that obedience to the Great Commission requires a passport, a missions organization, or a one-way ticket somewhere far away.
But then there is Acts 1:8, where Jesus phrases it a little differently:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”” Acts 1:8 ESV
Jesus says Jerusalem first. Then Judea. Then Samaria. THEN the ends of the earth.
I believe this passage is telling us to start where we are. We can share the Gospel with the people right in front of us. Our neighborhoods, our streets, the families we see at the park and the grocery store and the soccer field. The Great Commission does not begin overseas. It begins in our Jerusalem, which, for most of us, is our own front door!
Patrick's mission field was a place he had suffered. It was not glamorous or convenient or safe. But he went anyway, because the call was clear and the need was real.
Your call may not look like crossing an ocean. It may look like knowing your neighbors' names, inviting someone to your table, or even sharing your faith with other family members that may not know the Lord like you do. You call could be teaching your kids that the Gospel is not just something we believe privately, but that it is something we carry into every ordinary moment of our lives.
Your home is a mission field. Your street is a mission field. Your homeschool is a mission field, where you are shaping the next generation of people who will carry the Gospel into their own Jerusalems someday.
In honor of Aunt Murphy — tell your kids the real story this week. Download the unit study, light a candle, pull up a chair, and let St. Patrick's Day mean something this year.
And if you use it, I would love to hear how it goes. Hit reply and tell me which subject your kids connected with most!
You are raising world-changers, right there in your living room. 💛
See you soon,
Mrs. Holman
