 Around the year 400 AD, Saint Patrick was born in Wales. When he was still a boy, an Irish chieftain called Niall of the Nine Hostages, swept across the sea and captured his village. Saint Patrick was taken to Ireland, sold as a slave, and sent to herd sheep and swine.
There in northeast Ireland , in his solitude and suffering, Saint Patrick discovered God. Years later, Saint Patrick dreamed a vision, and following that vision, he escaped and struggled home to his family. After years of religious study to become a priest and missionary, Saint Patrick dreamed of returning to Ireland; often hearing in his dreams the voice of the Irish, "crying to thee, come hither and walk with us once more".
Eventually Pope Celestine fulfilled his wish and commissioned him as bishop to preach the gospel to the Celtic people. Saint Patrick came as the rising sun to the eastern shore of Ireland, and commenced an incredible mission across Ireland of preaching and baptizing, ordaining priests and bishops, erecting churches and establishing places of learning and worship, though such heroic feats in primitive times were not without difficulty and danger.
Saint Patrick found that the pagan Irish had great difficulty comprehending the doctrine of the Trinity, until he gave them a natural example by holding up a shamrock to show the three leaves combined to make a single plant. The Irish understood at once, and the shamrock became the symbol of the land.
One legend tells of Saint Patrick lighting the Easter bonfire on the hill of Slane -- on the night when it was forbidden to kindle any other fire in Ireland before the high king's own fire blazed from the royal ramparts of Tara. Seeing Saint Patrick's torch, the king sent a war band to kill the saint and douse the blaze, but the fire could not be quenched; and Saint Patrick with his companions passed through the warriors in the guise of a herd of deer and came safely to Tara, where he defeated the royal druids in a contest of miracle-working. Many in the king's court bowed down and were converted, and though the king himself was not one of them, he did honor Saint Patrick with the right to preach freely.
Another account is told of Saint Patrick and his companions arriving at sunrise at the royal center of ancient paganism where they discovered the two daughters of the king, Eithne the Red and Fedelm the Fair. These two closely questioned Saint Patrick about God, to which he recited the Holy Creed. Desiring to see the Christ, they asked to be baptized. Upon receiving the sacrament, the girls died on the spot and were buried there.
The most famous legend about Saint Patrick is that he miraculously drove snakes and all venomous beasts from the island by banging a drum, and did this so well that to touch Irish soil is instant death for any such creature. Even Irish wood has a virtue against poison, so that it is reported of King's College, Cambridge, that "being built of Irish wood, no spider doth ever come near it."
One final tale has Saint Patrick coming to a neolithic tomb thought to be a "giant's grave". To satisfy his companions' curiosity, Saint Patrick raised from the dead of the tomb the pagan giant, baptized him, and returned him to his grave.
In time, Saint Patrick and his missionaries converted most of the island to Christianity. Praying and fasting atop what is now Croagh Patrick, the saint extracted from God Himself the promise that the Irish would hold fast to the faith until the end of time, and that on the day of doom, "I, Saint Patrick, shall be judge of the men of Erin."
Upon his death, several communities contended for the honor of this burial. Tradition has it that the body of Saint Patrick, wrapped in its shroud, was placed upon a cart drawn by two white oxen. The beasts were unreined and wandered to Downpatrick where, it is said, now lies the remains of the Saint, his gravestone a granite boulder marked with a cross and simply inscribed: PATRIC. Supposedly at his passing, the sun would not set, but shone in the sky for twelve days and nights; refusing to make a new day without him.
Today, a stained-glass window in Saint Patrick's Cathedral Dublin reflects the saint's own summary confession:
"I am greatly a debtor to God who hath vouchsafed me such great grace that many people by my means should be born again to God."
Saint Patrick died on March 17th circa 465 AD. This is why March 17th is celebrated as Saint Patrick's Day. Its emphasis in Ireland is a holy religious time with appropriate praying, singing and dance. The first North American celebration was held in Boston in 1737 by the Irish Charitable Society, and later in Philadelphia and New York by the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
In the archives of the Ancient Order rests a book by one John D. Crimmins, 1902, entitled: "Saint Patrick's Day: Its celebration in New York and other American places, 1737-1845. How the anniversary was observed by representative Irish organizations and the toasts proposed". Another source states that on March 17, 1762, a group of Irish-born soldiers, en route to the local tavern of renown to honor their patron saint, staged the first parade in colonial New York, complete with marching bands and colorful banners. Bystanders and passers-by joined the promenade, singing Irish ballads and dancing down the cobblestones. The event being so joyful was repeated yearly.
Saint Patrick - Life and Legend
Ireland's patron saint, St Patrick is widely celebrated by Irish people throughout the world on his feast day 17th March. But what about St Patrick himself and what does he mean to the Irish?
Go into any Irish town and you'll come across a cathedral, a church or a street named after St Patrick and if you're know anyone of Irish heritage, chances are they'll have a Patrick, a Pat, a Paddy a Padraic or a Patricia somewhere in the family. St Patrick is linked to Ireland's national emblems, a number of important religious sites and landmarks throughout Ireland, as well as countless folk tales. St Patrick is as much an integral figure in Irish cultural discourse as he is in the country's Christianity.
There is much debate about St Patrick's life. Much of what is known of him is taken from his own account in his Confessio and much more from legend. St Patrick was born around the 5th Century in the settlement of vico banavem taberniae, which scholars believe to be somewhere in the west of Britain, probably Wales. He was born into a Romano-British family and his father was a deacon, but at the age of sixteen he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Ireland.
Here he was slave to a Druidic chieftain, either in Dalradia, County Armagh or Fochill, County Mayo, where he herded sheep. After several years he escaped back to Britain and studied for the priesthood in France. After a vision in a dream, St Patrick set back out to Ireland on a mission to convert the pagans there to Christianity. Though he was by no means the first Christian mission he was certainly the most prevalent and to say he made the biggest impression on Ireland is an understatement.
Many places throughout Ireland are associated with the legends of St Patrick. The Hill of Slane, just outside Dublin was the stage for one of St Patrick's most dramatic tales. At the time the High King of Laoghaire held a feast during which he would light the first fire in the land at the royal centre of the Hill of Tara. Imagine the look on his face when he noticed that St Patrick had already lit one just a few mile away on Slane! Outraged he met with St Patrick to put out his fire, but it was indistinguishable, then the King's druids and St Patrick launched into a battle of miracles, bending the climate and elements at their will. Patrick won and it was here that St Patrick explained the mystery of the holy trinity with the humble shamrock, establishing the three-leafed flower as Ireland's national emblem, which is ubiquitously worn on St Patrick's Day.
St Patrick's other famous miracle, the banishment of the snakes, is supposed to have occurred following his Great Fast on the mount Croagh Patrick, outside Westport in County Mayo. St Patrick climbed the mountain where he fasted for 40 days, before expelling all the snakes from Ireland. The fact is that there were never actually any snakes in Ireland to expel, the whole episode is really symbolic of St Patrick converting the natives to Christianity and banishing the Druids whose symbol was the serpent. But it makes banishing the snakes makes a better story and to this day Croagh Patrick attracts thousands of pilgrims who make the trek 765ft to the summit on the last day of July.
Other places connected with St Patrick include Lough Derg in County Donegal, where according to legend the great saint killed a monster in the lake. There is a shrine to St Patrick on Station Island here, where pilgrims come to fast and hold vigil on the island for three days.
But perhaps the most important religious place claimed by St Patrick is Armagh. According to tradition it is here in this Ulster town, that St Patrick built a stone church around AD 445 and ordained it the most pre-eminent church in all of Ireland. Even today Armagh is the primary seat of both the Catholic and the Protestant churches in Ireland and both the their cathedrals in Armagh are named after St Patrick.
Not to far away, in Saul, County Down is another important site for St Patrick Pilgrims. It was here that St Patrick established his first church in a barn or Saul given to him by his first convert, a local chieftain called Dichu. It is said that when St Patrick died sometime around AD 490 on March 17th, his body was laid on an ox drawn cart, to be rested in the place he loved most. The cart stopped at Saul, where St Patrick's mission first started, and his last resting place is marked by a shrine in the grounds of Down Cathedral, which is built on the site of St Patrick's first church. St Patrick's final resting place is said to be shared by that of Ireland's other main saints; St Brigid and St Columba. Close to the Cathedral and well worth a visit, is the Saint Patrick Centre, an interpretive exhibition drawing from the details of St Patrick's own account in his Confessio. The centre also looks at how St Patrick's Day is celebrated throughout the world and what the day means to both sections of the community in Northern Ireland.
Throughout Ireland and indeed those other parts of the world that become Irish on 17th March, St Patrick's Day is celebrated with street parades, music, dance and Guinness; Craic agus Ceol and because of (or perhaps despite) the whole green leprechaun frenzy of it all, St Patrick's Day has become one of the biggest self marketing tools for Ireland. So as you can see, St Patrick isn't just a patron saint, but a champion of the Irish people and figurehead for Ireland, that through his life and legend has come to symbolising to people a sense of hope during oppression, struggle against adversity and hopefully; of unity or at the very least a good excuse for a party!
When planning your Ireland Vacation, consider visiting some of the places associated with Saint patrick, The Patron Saint of Ireland.
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