The Story of St. Patrick

By Ramona Shelton

Motlow Buzz Managing Editor

            While March of 2019 is best described as WET, March in general is most often known for one holiday - St. Patrick’s Day. Everybody knows that St. Patrick’s Day is synonymous with Irish, green, and leprechauns but the true story behind St. Patrick and the day set aside to honor him is more interesting than our watered-down traditions.

            Sorry to burst your bubble, but Patrick himself was not Irish. Shocker, I know since he is the Patron Saint of Ireland, but according to History.com, Patrick was actually born into a moderately wealthy family in modern-day England in the 5^th century AD. His family was wealthy because of his father’s position as a deacon in the local Christian church, but that does not mean they were particularly devout. Because Christianity was still finding its foundations in Britannia at that point, becoming a church leader allowed Patrick’s father to have tax breaks and incentives.

            This wealth earned Patrick’s family the attention of rouge Irish tribesman. When Patrick was 16, Irish raiders attacked his family’s home and carted him off as their prisoner. They kept him as prisoner for over six years. In his journals, he noted that he dreamed of the voice of God telling him it was time to go home but that he would return to Ireland as a missionary. It took him 15 years of study to become an ordained Christian priest, but at that point, he asked for and was granted a position in Ireland, ministering to the Christians there. This debunks a couple of long-held beliefs about Patrick. Firstly, if he was stationed there to minister to Irish Christians, that tells us he was not the one to bring Christianity to Ireland. Also, for some reason, stories about Christian missionaries in Ireland like Patrick always include miraculously converting the populace as a whole by driving the snakes out of the land. Scientists at National Geographic argue with this part, saying that there were never that many snakes in Ireland to start with. It was covered by glaciers for so long during the Ice Age that snakes had already found homes in other places.

            Regardless, Patrick was successful and popular as a minister to the Christians already in Ireland as well as serving as a missionary to bring more Irish people into the Christian fold. The vast majority of the Irish people were pagan, so Patrick did what other early church leaders did - superimposed Christian connections over their traditional pagan beliefs. For example, the Celtic cross that is still used in the region to this very day looks different than the typical Christian cross. It has a circle in the center where the two bars cross. Patrick knew the Irish pagans were sun worshippers, so he added the sun to the center of the cross. Didn’t Jesus, the Son of God, hang at the center of that cross? Therefore it is an easy jump to say sun = Son of God. Part of the Irish pagan beliefs were tied to the oral tradition of their heroes. Patrick took up those stories with a Christian spin, showing how the Christian God backed those men of legend and gave them the ability to become heroes. Talk about adding to some origin stories! Stan Lee ain’t got nothing on St. Patrick!

            Interestingly, as much as this man is revered as a saint and is truly considered to be the Patron Saint of Ireland, as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, this is a misnomer. To truly be considered a saint by the church, a person has to go through the full canonization process, including his supporters providing proof that he performed at least one miracle and being acclaimed by the church hierarchy as a saint. According to History.com, this process did not exist until several centuries after Patrick’s life, and while there are several saints who were put successfully through this process posthumously, Patrick was not one of them. However, the Catholic Church does acknowledge the fact that Patrick attained sainthood through popular acclaim.

            St. Patrick died in Ireland on March 17, 460/461 AD, so that date became the day to celebrate his accomplishments. It is easy to assume that as Irish immigrants made their way to the United States over the years, they brought traditions such as St. Patrick’s Day parades, Irish flags flying, and dying everything green with them. However those assumptions are incorrect. In the mid-1500s, an Irish Franciscan friar named Luke Wadding solidified the idea of honoring Patrick’s death date into a true Catholic feast day, but this was much more of a day of introspection than of a bacchanalia-like celebration. In 1737, Irish immigrants in Boston, tired of being belittled for their Irish customs, decided to step up the celebration game. They were the first ones to add the parade and wearing green aspects to the feast day. Green was the color of Ireland, and Patrick was their patron saint, so these immigrants took to the streets to celebrate their heritage. Three decades later, the parade aspect spread to New York City. But Ireland’s official website says that the parade idea did not take hold in the motherland until Waterford held Ireland’s first St. Patrick’s Day parade in 1903 and Dublin finally joining the club in 1931.

            It is not just Ireland and Irish immigrants in the United States that hold a green out each year to celebrate Patrick. In recent years, the Colosseum in Rome, Sacre’-Coeur in Paris, the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, and the London Eye have all shined green on March 17. While U.S. celebrations tend to include dyeing rivers green and going on pub crawls, this amazing man’s story is one the world remembers and honors each year.