Ask Mike: Who was St. Patrick?
Hey Guys,
March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day. While browsing around Yahoo! Answers, I noticed an uptick in questions having to do with the man behind the holiday. Who was St. Patrick? Did he really banish all the snakes from Ireland?
The History Channel has a slew of information on the Patron Saint of the Emerald Isle. The site explains that much of what we “know” about ol’ St. Paddy is actually false. For example, contrary to popular belief, Patrick didn’t drive out all the snakes from Ireland. Still, what he did do is arguably even more impressive.
According to History.com, Patrick was actually born in Britain. At 16, he was taken prisoner “by a group of Irish raiders” who took him across the sea to Ireland. There, he spent six years in captivity. Apparently, it was then that he turned to religion as a means of fighting off fear and loneliness.
Eventually, Patrick escaped. Guided by a voice he believed to be God’s, Patrick walked 200 miles to the Irish coast. Back in Britain, he trained to be a priest for 15 years. Patrick then returned to Ireland with two goals — “to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to begin to convert the Irish.”
Patrick was successful in his goals, perhaps largely due to his incorporating traditional Irish symbols into Christianity. For example, many believe he came up with the Celtic cross. According to legend, he wanted to incorporate an Irish symbol (the sun) onto the Cross “so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish.” The site Catholic.org explains that Patrick also used a three-leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the Irish (other sites call this another myth).
St. Patrick died on March 17, 461 “after years of living in poverty, traveling, and enduring much suffering.” Like St. Valentine and St. Nicholas, he has become a beloved figure to many. American Catholic offers an in-depth biography of the man and notes that for someone who is so famous, there is surprisingly little research. The St. Patrick Centre hosts a complete version of Patrick’s famed “Confession.”
Thanks for reading,
Mike
**PLEASE NOTE: A slightly different version of this blog was first published in March, 2009
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What’s the big deal about getting drunk about. That’s nothing to be proud of.
Im from Ireland and didnt know most of that makes good reading
i didnt know of these type of people!!! thats all im daring to tell!!! but if they were able to build themselves up into saints from just being poor waifs and strays back then about 1600 years ago!!! then!!! that shows they still werent considered nameless types of people!!!
i didnt like the sound of this!!! and also spurned me on to keep up with the usernames on eminem forum to eventually come round more and more to get my real name in better context!!!
George, people just want an excuse to get drunk.
What are you talking about. If you go celebrat in Ireland; they don’t even want to open the Pubs. That started opening them in 1990s because tourist were trashing things because all the pubs were closed and people were home to have religious celebrations about St Patrick who brought Christianity to their country. I was there in 1999. tourist came from England woudl get so drunk and came to the hotel I was stay and broke the marble floor coming into the entrance of the foyer. I went in the pub and they were upset saying don’t these people know this is a religious holiday.
Virtually spot on except as the United Kingdom of Great Britain wasn’t formed till the middle of the first millennium, St. Patrick was Welsh.
The snake was a pagan symbol, still is for that matter, and it was the pagans to which the legend of St Patrick driving the snakes from Ireland refers.
I’ve always known that story, although; i don’t think it makes much sense “we” were suppose to have captured “him” when those Brits were on our backs for years! We weren’t hurt a fly
Probably just trying to make themselves look better 
You can narrow it down,and say he was probably from what is now known as ‘Wales’.
Wales is the country,that Americans seem to have ever heard of.
Saint Patrick is responsible for the massacre of at least 10,000 Irish men, women and children. Of course, he ordered them murdered in the name of God, so it’s all good.
I couldn’t care less about St.Patrick, does anyone else? No one here in Australia celebrates it.
Phoenix has the right of it. The snakes were the snakes of perdition or some gobbledy gook. It was always a saint’s feast day but americans (me too!) turned it into a pseudo irish heritage day (as they seem to be doing with columbus day[italian] and others).
Unfortunately stereotypes stick and it is universally joked around the states that st. patrick’s feast day is for drinking.
If you wanna see weird holiday celebrations look at x-mas in japan. downright confusing.
Paddys day is a feast day. Nothing to do with drinking. We were given the reputation of “the drunken irish” most likely by the Americans. They probably met a few drunk Irish people at one time because everything you see on the television about us is bullsh*t. You actually don’t know anything about us. Britain is worse for drinking than us. And now you’ve gone and turned our St. Patricks day into a drinking day in YOUR country. You really don’t know anything about the rest of the world. But, enjoy the day anyway.
The snakes St. Patrick ran out of Irland were the druids and the Cathars both of whom were harmless enough but just like the buring times when many people were burned at the stake for “Witchcraft” they were persecuted for their faith.
t. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, died on 17 March 461 AD and the day has been celebrated ever since. St. Patrick spent thirty years building and setting up ministries and places of worship all around Ireland.
Since the earliest centuries of Christianity, it has been a custom to celebrate the anniversary of saints’ deaths. This allows believers to honor the saint’s accomplishments and celebrate their entry into heaven. A “feast day” is designated for every saint, even when the exact date of death of a saint is not known.
St. Patrick was a fifth-century English (or perhaps Scottish) missionary to Ireland. Scholars agree he is a historical figure and that he converted many of the pagans on the island to Christianity, but dismiss most of the legend that has developed about him over the centuries.
The feast day of St. Patrick has been observed in Ireland on March 17 for hundreds of years. The date falls during the fasting season of Lent, but on St. Patrick’s Day the prohibitions against eating meat were lifted, and the Irish would celebrate their patron saint with dancing, drinking, and feasting on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.
One of the most widespread of today’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, the St. Patrick’s Day parade, began not in Ireland but in America. It consisted of Irish soldiers serving in the English army and took place in New York City on March 17, 1762. The parade helped the soldiers connect with their Irish roots and their fellow Irishmen. In 1848, several Irish Aid societies in New York decided to combine their parades into a single St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This parade is the oldest and the largest civilian parade.
Today, Irish expatriates, those of Irish descent, and ever-growing crowds of people with no Irish connections whatsoever celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Another contributor said:
Not surprisingly, the origin of St. Patrick’s day has a lot to do with a man named Saint Patrick. He was supposedly born in the late fourth century with the given named Maewen. Until he was sixteen years old, he considered himself a pagan. He was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village. While he was a captive, he became closer to God. He escaped after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in a monastery for twelve years. There he came to believe that his calling was to convert pagans to Christianity. He wanted to return to Ireland, but his superiors appointed St. Palladius instead. Two years later, however, he transferred to Scotland. Patrick was then appointed as the second bishop to Ireland. Because he was successful at winning converts, the Celtic Druids arrested him several times, but he escaped anyway. He established monasteries across the country, and set up schools and churches. He described himself as a “humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshiped idols and unclean things had become the people of God.”
There are more legends than facts about him, one of which tells about how he drove the snakes from Ireland. It is true that there are no snakes there, but there probably never were any. In pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and worshiped, so it was most likely symbolic of putting the end to pagan practice. He stayed there for about thirty years. He was the patron saint and the national apostle of Ireland. No one knows for sure how he died. One says that he died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland on March 17, 460 A.D. Another account says he died at Glastonbury, England, and was buried there. The chapel of St. Patrick still exists as part of Glastonbury Abbey. The first St. Patrick’s day took place not in Ireland, but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Over the next thirty-five years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished. When they got together to have their parades and parties, newspapers made fun of them, but they soon realized that their numbers gave them power. Political hopefuls began to pay attention to them because of the large numbers of votes they could receive, and they went to St. Patrick’s Day parades.
In 1948, President Truman attended New York City’s parade. Saint Patrick’s Day has become associated with everything Irish, green, gold, shamrocks, and luck. For people who celebrate it for spiritual reasons, it is a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries. It is celebrated on March 17th because that is the day that St. Patrick died. The holiday is observed all around the world, but especially, of course, in Ireland. Almost all businesses other than restaurants and pubs close, and many Irish attend mass. In American cities with a large Irish population, they celebrate with parades, wearing green, music and songs, Irish food and drink, and activities for kids like crafts, coloring, and games. Some communities even dye rivers or streams green. In some places, if you forget to wear green, other people are allowed to pinch you as a friendly reminder. If someone pinches someone who is wearing green, however, they get to pinch the other person ten times.
I’m part Irish, thanks for the info. Many interesting facts and trivia about St. Patrick, many great people are Irish from U2, Bono and even President Obama partly.
Also Russian and Polish people often drink Vodka, get drunk as well.
Another Holiday based on Christianity.
Green Beer!!
I think that Patrick must have been of a religious bent before he was captured. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, he was born in Kilpatrick near Dumbarton in Scotland in 387. His father was a high-ranking Roman official and his mother was a close relative of St. Martin of Tours (who was born in Hungary but became the patron of Gaul. Martin was the saint who met a freezing beggar and cut his cloak in half to share with the man). According to some accounts, Patrick lived to be over 100 years old (387 to 493). However, in that death date, he may have been confused with a “younger Patrick” who worked ministering to the Scots. It is believed Patrick really died around 460. Old, but not 106. As for driving the snakes out of Ireland, I think he metaphorically drove the snakes out of Ireland in that after having lived with the Irish and been in the household of a Druid high priest, he understood how the Irish thought and what ideas were important to them. He managed to integrate these ideas with Christianity giving the new religion deep roots in Ireland’s rich soil. The serpent is closely associated with Satan and paganism in Christian Lore. Ireland is an island which did not have snakes (wiped out in the ice age), so there were no actual snakes to drive out.
He is born in ireland and he was a priest
My mom s birthday is 17 of march
Heres my theory, Saint patty’s day is a day when christianity was introduced to ireland and the snakes symbolize adam and eve aka The snake that convinced them to eat the apple.
As for why people get drunk, i think its because people who work through the week get a break for friday and saturday and then they depend for sunday.
St Patrick brought christianity to Ireland. Before he came, the celts were mostly Druids, especially the high kings of Ireland.
There was no christianity in Ireland before he came to Ireland on his return as a bishop !!