March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day. While the immediate image that comes to mind may be of parades, wearing green and eating and drinking at the nearest pub, there really was a St. Patrick and his life bears remembering.
St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He is traditionally credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, though it is more accurate to say that he was the leading figure among many missionaries engaged in that task. No one knows for certain where Patrick was born, but based on his own account, it was most likely in southwestern Britain.
In recent years many people have expressed delight in the “irony” that Ireland’s patron saint was actually “English.” But no one in the fifth century was what is today called “English.” Rather, the people living in present-day England were Romanized Celts, or Britons. Patrick thus was a Celtic Briton who went by the name of Succat. Patrick’s father was a low-level Roman official and a deacon. Patrick’s grandfather had been a priest.
The life of St. Patrick
At age 16, Patrick was captured by Irish raiders under command of Niall of the Nine Hostages and taken to Ireland as a slave. For the next six years he labored tending sheep and pigs for Miliucc near Mount Slemish in Antrim. Life as a herdsman was rough. Patrick barely survived, poorly clothed, without protection from the elements and frequently near starvation. He sought consolation in constant prayer.
Finally, his prayers were answered by a mysterious voice that said: “Your hungers are rewarded. You are going home.” Miraculously, he walked unharmed 200 miles to the Wexford coast. There he managed to stow away aboard a ship transporting Irish wolfhounds to the continent.
After reuniting with his family in Britain, he experienced a vision in which he was handed a letter inscribed with the words “vox hiberionacum,” or “Voice of the Irish” and heard people calling to him: “Come and walk among us once more.” It was not long before Patrick headed for Gaul to study for the priesthood. He was ordained approximately 430 A.D. Although haunted by his years of captivity there, Patrick headed for Ireland.
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He began his mission in Ireland about 432 A.D., possibly as successor to Palladius, first bishop of Ireland. Although Christian missionaries had arrived before Patrick, the Irish remained a pagan people. Patrick faced enormous dangers from local chieftains and bands of marauders, also from the Druid priests, who correctly perceived him as a threat to their authority. “Every day,” Patrick wrote, “I am ready to be murdered, betrayed, enslaved.”
Patrick concentrated his missionary efforts west and north of Ireland. He converted thousands during his mission and established, according to tradition, bishops throughout north, east and western Ireland (everywhere, it seems, but Munster). Pimatial bishop, Patrick established his see at Ard Macha (present-day Armagh), symbolically a stone’s throw from the seat of Ulster kings at Emain Macha.
When he died circa 461 A.D., much of Ireland had been exposed to the teachings of Christianity. The process of conversion, however, took time, and as late as the seventh century, groups of non-Christian Irish continued to resist.
The first commenoration
No one knows for sure when the first commemoration of St. Patrick’s Day took place. One of the earliest references is to the establishment of the Charitable Irish Society, founded on St. Patrick’s Day in Boston in 1737. Another early celebration took place in New York City in 1762, when an Irishman named John Marshall held a party in his house. Although little is known of Marshall’s party, it is understood that his guests marched as a body to his house to mark St. Patrick’s Day, thus forming an unofficial parade.
The first recorded, true parade took place in 1766 in New York when local military units, including some Irish soldiers in the British army, marched at dawn from house to house of the leading Irish citizens of the city. Most celebrations on March 17, as indicated by John Marshall’s example, were St. Patrick’s Day dinners, hosted by individuals and benevolent organizations, such as the Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick, the Knights of St. Patrick, and the St. Patrick’s Society.
The shamrock
The origin of the shamrock as the primary symbol of St. Patrick’s Day also is a mystery. Some legends declare that the shamrock refers to the Christian Trinity (comparing the three leaves with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The legend is unverifiable, since Patrick doesn’t mention it in his writings. Some have suggested it derives from an earlier Celtic tradition of using the shamrock as a metaphor representing “trust in your soul,” belief in your heart,” and “faith in your mind.” Some missionary, if not Patrick himself, very likely Christianized this concept. Few in Ireland seem troubled by these details, and the shamrock remains the Irish national symbol.
The above material was taken from “1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History” by Edward T. O’Donnell.