I have been thinking about Patrick and the Irish in the last day or so, and the way in which the darkness of the fall of the Western Roman Empire—which was taking place during Patrick’s days—did not extinguish the light of the gospel. In the midst of darkness there was light that Patrick took to Ireland and the darkness of Irish paganism could not overcome it. At the other end of the Graeco-Roman world, there was also light shining forth in the darkness. In this case it was the persecution of Armenian believers by Sapor of Persia. But out of that persecution came the translation of the Scriptures into Armenian. See the story of that translation by Mesrob Mashtots and Isaac (Sachak) the Catholicos here at http://armenianbible.org/ .
Thanks to Radagast’s Church History Project (http://radagast2.livejournal.com/).