Meet St. Patrick

St. Patrick was born in Wales in 385 AD, and was name Maewyn.  When he was 16, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery.  During his time as a slave, he found comfort in the word of God.  After six years, he escaped and went to Gaul, where he studied for twelve years in a monastery.  At that time, he discovered his calling was to eventually return to Ireland and convert the people to Christianity.

Before his return to Ireland, he was appointed as St. Palladius for two years.  He eventually made his way to Scotland and it was at that time he adopted his Christian name of Patrick, then was appointed as second bishop to Ireland.

Patrick’s calling to convert the Irish people to Christianity was noticed by the Celtic Druids, who arrested him several times for his work.  He escaped each time and eventually traveled the Irish country for 30 years setting up schools, churches and monasteries to help accomplish his mission of educating and converting the Irish countryside to Christianity.

Lore and legend also says that Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland with his sermon from a hilltop.  However, no snakes were ever native to Ireland and it is thought the legend grew based on his work of converting pagans to Christians, thus driving out the snakes. Some people also said he was able to raise people from the dead.

Patrick often used the three-leafed clover to explain the Trinity.  He used each leaf as a representative of how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist separately as each leaf, yet a part of the whole, as in the one stem. Because of the analogy of the shamrock, his parishioners began the tradition of wearing a shamrock.

Patrick died on March 17 in AD 461, and that date has been known ever since as St. Patrick’s Day.  St. Patrick’s Day was originally a Catholic holy day that was first celebrated in the USA, in Boston in 1737.

In recent times it has been adopted as a more secular holiday, with all sorts of legends, lore and traditions, including parades, leprechauns, and the color green, probably because of the lush green Irish countryside.