“We intended this sculpture to capture a man as he might have been. St. Patrick was born in the 4th century, and most writings about him are as much legend as fact. What we do know is that, as a young man, St. Patrick was a self-described atheist, captured in England at 16 and brought to Ireland as an enslaved person for 6 years. It was during this time as a slave shepherd that he came to faith and received his mission. In his own book 'Confessio ', he writes of his escaped captivity and why he was drawn back to Ireland to speak against slavery. He did this as a Bishop, largely by incorporating local pagan beliefs into his teachings and through great feats of engineering: building schools, churches, and bridges. He was never canonized by any church and therefore not a figure of prayer. These facts led us to create a figure of how he may have been, not an object of worship, but a man addressing the people, driven by his faith with a message of equality."