Around the year 400, Patrick was born in Scotland. When he was yet a boy, the Ard-Ri, that is, High King of Ireland, Niall of the Nine Hostages by name, swept across the sea and captured his village. Patrick was taken to Ireland, sold as a slave, and sent to herd sheep and swine.
The Serpents
The Shamrock
His Death
March 17
LINKS
           |
There
in northeast Ireland, in his solitude and suffering, Patrick discovered the
one true God, and, to this Creator God he pledged his life. Years later and
now a young man, 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, 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.
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 time were not without difficulty
and danger. Yea, such is the making of legends.
One legend tells of 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
Patrick's paschal torch, the king sent a warband to kill the saint and douse
the blaze, but the fire could not be quenched; and 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 Patrick with the right to preach
freely.
Another legendary account is told of 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 Patrick about God, to which he recited the Holy Creed. Desiring
to see the Christ, they asked to be baptised. Upon receiving the sacrament,
the girls died on the spot and were buried there.
One final tale has Patrick coming to a neolithic tomb thought to be a "giant's
grave." To satisfy his companions' curiosity, Patrick raised from the
dead of the tomb the pagan giant, baptized him, and returned him to his grave.
In time, Padraic and his missionaries converted 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, 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 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.
AD387 ST. PATRICK APOSTLE OF IRELAND 465AD
Beyond his own great accomplishments, several legends evolved around his feats.
These delightful legends of Patrick regard:
The most famous legend about St. 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."
Patrick, sent to preach the gospel to heathens, 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. Irishmen wear it in their hats on the saint's day.
When Patrick was dying on this day circa 465, he urged his friends not to lament, but rather to celebrate comfortably his exit into everlasting life. To this end his last request was that each of them take a wee drop of something to drink to ease their pain. Out of reverence for the saint, and in compliance with his last words, is supposed to have come the Irish predilection for whiskey.
.It is the death of Saint Patrick on this day, and his universal recognition as the patron saint of Ireland, that led to the celebration of March 17 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 St. Patrick and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. In the archives of the Ancient Order rests a book by one John D. Crimmins, 1902, entitled: "ST. 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 passerby’s joined the promenade, singing Irish ballads and dancing down the cobblestones. The event being so joyful was repeated yearly.
