flocks. It was also during this captivity that Patrick began to reassert and renew himself spiritually through daily prayer.5
             After six years of being enslaved by Miliucc, he experienced a dream from God telling him to flee home. Patrick had this same dream on several other occasions until he escaped in 407 AD. He decided to run to the shore one night and joined a group of Irish. He worked his passage home for three days at sea and twenty-eight days across the British wilderness to his home town.6 He spent time there among his family and friends, until he received another calling from God, which directed Patrick to return to Ireland and be the Irish apostolate to a pagan culture. His parents and family begged him to stay, but God's call had been so loud to him that he knew he had to leave once again.7
             Patrick left his home of Britain and traveled to the monasteries in Gaul to receive formal religious training before he journeyed to Ireland. Patrick visited the Auxerre monetary under the direction of Saint Germanus for his training. During his time at Auxerre, he strove for personal sanctity and labored to acquire a solid priestly knowledge of scripture and law.8 In 429, the conversion of the Irish came under the consideration of Germanus. Later in 430, a second conference was held to discuss the conversion of the Irish at Auxerre, where Patrick unanimously chosen to make the journey to Ireland.9 Patrick continued his study at Auxerre and, in 432, was ordained a Bishop before setting out for Ireland later that year.10
             During the time that Patrick had been studying at Auxerre, almost all the Roman provincials were Christianized and very few pagans remained in the Empire. Ireland had been untouched by the Roman Empire before Patrick's arrival in 432 AD. The political system consisted of seven major kingdoms with petty kings under the main figurehead.11 The religious practices of the Irish still consisted...