About the Real St. Patrick Joyful226/ Connie

St. Patrick’s Day is a very popular holiday. But who was he and why do we celebrate his day on March 17. St. Patrick of Ireland is one of the world's most popular saints. The Apostle of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387; died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 493 * (see below) His parents were Calpurnius and Conchessa, who were Romans living in Britain in charge of the colonies. As a boy of about fourteen, he was captured during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. Ireland at this time was a land of Druids and pagans. He learned the language and practices of the people who held him. During his captivity, he turned to God in prayer. He wrote "The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same. I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain." Patrick's captivity lasted until he was twenty, when he escaped after having a dream from God in which he was told to leave Ireland by going to the coast. There he found some sailors who took him back to Britain, where he reunited with his family. He had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling out to him "We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more." He began his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained by St. Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre, whom he had studied under for years. Later, Patrick was ordained a bishop, and was sent to take the Gospel to Ireland. He arrived in Ireland March 25, 433, at Slane. One legend says that he met a chieftain of one of the tribes, who tried to kill Patrick. Patrick converted Dichu (the chieftain) after he was unable to move his arm until he became friendly to Patrick. Patrick began preaching the Gospel throughout Ireland, converting many. He and his disciples preached and converted thousands and began building churches all over the country. Kings, their families, and entire kingdoms converted to Christianity when hearing Patrick's message. Patrick by now had many disciples, among them Beningnus, Auxilius, Iserninus, and Fiaac, (all later canonized as well). Patrick preached and converted all of Ireland for years. He worked many miracles and wrote of his love for God in Confessions. He died at Saul, where he had built the first church. Why a shamrock? Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and has been associated with him and the Irish since that time. It is said that he used the 3 leaf clover to help as a visual aid. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. It is because of this that St Patrick the shamrock came to be the traditional symbol of Ireland. Patrick was a humble, pious, gentle man, whose love and total devotion to and trust in God should be a shining example to each of us. He feared nothing, not even death, so complete was his trust in God, and of the importance of his mission. Today, as a saint, Patrick stands as a symbol of the Irish, of the special love that God had for them through St. Patrick, of the unique destiny they claim, of the beloved place they will always have in God's heart. May we too remember the real St. Patrick as a true man of God living an example of God’s love for each of us. Once again God did an amazing thing. He chose a child put into slavery learned their language and their ways. Brought him out of that captivity and then made him a bishop and sent him back to change a whole nation. Although they say he drove the “snakes” out of Ireland.( Ireland doesn’t have any real snakes and likely never did) It is likely more of a parable of what he did to get rid of the Druid belief system and replaced it with Christianity to Ireland of which they have been forever thankful. Often druid chieftains would have snakes tattooed on them, and where horribly mean and evil men, so in that way he did drive the “snakes and vipers” out of Ireland and replaced it with Christianity. Thus the snakes are more figuratively driven out of Ireland than real snakes. Christ called those that were money changers Vipers and snakes they were not actually vipers and snakes but evil people. We often think of evil as being represented as snakes. Likely because: In the Bible Satan is seen in the garden of Eden as a “snake”. *some modern Historians put St. Patrick’s death at 461/2, however scholars of early Irish history, still today, tend to prefer the date of c. 493. Supporting the later date, here are some of the reasons why: the annals record that in 553 "the relics of Patrick were placed sixty years after his death in a shrine by Colum Cille" (emphasis added). That would clearly say 493 was the date. The death of Patrick's disciple Mochta is dated in the annals to 535 or 537, and the early hagiographies (biography writers of saints or venerated people) "all bring Patrick into contact with people whose obits occur at the end of the fifth century or the beginning of the sixth, So why some (not all) but some modern historians think his death was in 461/2 I can’t find their reason for this date, when most evidence suggests it was in 493 but it makes him 107/ 8 Years old which is old but not impossible. It is clear, he didn’t live to the 6th century (500’s) A.D. but no matter the year of his death all agree on this: he died on 17 March so what we know for sure is he died on March 17th thus his feast day (a day of celebration). St. Patrick (as Jesus and His disciples also did) took things that the peoples old religion used for a symbolism and turned it into a Christian symbolism, so bringing a true and real meaning to what they already knew and putting it in a way so they could understand The true God’s love for them and bringing them to Christ. It has always been done since Christ walked on the earth for He did this as well. Other than the death date, historians agree upon the remainder of what I have written here as well.© 2015 By Connie Hull

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