While there is a variety of opinions on St Patrick, (where he was born and exactly when for instance) we do know that his championship of the Faith is the reason he is so celebrated.

Most know that he was captured and made a slave when he was a young man, but what some don't know is what this did FOR him:

and His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that whilst in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain; nor was there any slothfulness in me, such as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent within me.

Feckless and fearless he was sent to Ireland to bring them back into the Church. Lucky for him he knew the language and customs and so had a good idea of what awaited him. He was bound and determined to set Ireland free from their beliefs in Druidism.

To read more, go to New Advant's Site on St Patrick.