Ned Bustard is the author of a new children’s book, Saint Patrick the Forgiver: The History and Legends of Ireland's Bishop (InterVarsity, 2023). We talked about the book, the life of St. Patrick, and the conversion of Ireland. The day after the interview, during his Ash Wednesday homily, Pope Francis said, “the Gospel is not an idea, the Gospel is not an ideology: the Gospel is a proclamation that touches your heart and makes you change your heart.” That’s exactly what St Patrick showed by returning to pagan Ireland where he’d been a slave for six years. When a slave, he had been a shepherd. Now free, he became the shepherd of a nation.

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