St. Patrick’s Day: Facts, Myths, and Traditions
As many Irish folk will attest to, St. Patrick’s day is a social celebration, a holy day of obligation, and another opportunity to enjoy a good drink.However, St. Patrick’s Day has morphed into a big public frolic with parades and inflated mythology mainly due to modern American influence with old ties to Irish identity.
The legend of St. Patrick reveals the historical rise of Christianity against paganism in Ireland.
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St. Patrick’s Day 2011: Facts, Myths, and Traditions (2011)
By John Roach | National Geographic News
On St. Patrick’s Day—Thursday, March 17—millions of people will don green and celebrate the Irish with parades, good cheer, and perhaps a pint of beer.But few St. Patrick’s Day revelers have a clue about St. Patrick, the historical figure, according to the author of St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography.
"The modern celebration of St. Patrick’s Day really has almost nothing to do with the real man," said classics professor Philip Freeman of Luther College in Iowa.
Who Was the Man Behind St. Patrick’s Day?
For starters, the real St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish. He was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family with a townhouse, a country villa, and plenty of slaves.
What’s more, Patrick professed no interest in Christianity as a young boy, Freeman noted.
At 16, Patrick’s world turned: He was kidnapped and sent overseas to tend sheep as a slave in the chilly, mountainous countryside of Ireland for seven years.
"It was just horrible for him," Freeman said. "But he got a religious conversion while he was there and became a very deeply believing Christian."
St. Patrick’s Disembodied Voices
According to folklore, a voice came to Patrick in his dreams, telling him to escape. He found passage on a pirate ship back to Britain, where he was reunited with his family.
The voice then told him to go back to Ireland.
"He gets ordained as a priest from a bishop, and goes back and spends the rest of his life trying to convert the Irish to Christianity," Freeman said.
Patrick’s work in Ireland was tough—he was constantly beaten by thugs, harassed by the Irish royalty, and admonished by his British superiors. After he died on March 17, 461, Patrick was largely forgotten.
But slowly, mythology grew around Patrick, and centuries later he was honored as the patron saint of Ireland, Freeman noted.
St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Shortage
According to St. Patrick’s Day lore, Patrick used the three leaves of a shamrock to explain the Christian holy trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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Until the 1970s, St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland was a minor religious holiday. A priest would acknowledge the feast day, and families would celebrate with a big meal, but that was about it.
"St. Patrick’s Day was basically invented in America by Irish-Americans," Freeman said.
Read the full article at: nationalgeographic.com
Wikipedia sites many interesting and strange aspects of the history of Saint Patrick, including:
The "Two Patrick" Theory suggests that the traditions attributed to St. Patrick are actually the stories of Palladius, an early cleric sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine I. His mission was to suppress the Pelagian heresy.
The ancient tale of St. Patrick driving snakes out of Ireland relates to the serpent symbolism of the Druids. They wore snake tattoos to represent their spirituality, knowledge and gods, and it was Patrick’s mission to banish the old pagan ways and to foster Christianity.
This relationship to snakes associates St. Patrick to a deity in Voodoo.
The exact date of his death in 493 AD is unknown, but it remains celebrated on March 17 annually. There was a ’Battle for the Body of St. Patrick’, and it was moved several times to various locations.
St. Patrick allegedly heard voices, a common theme from history that connotes both madness and a divine connection. Wikipedia notes: " [...]a supposed prophecy by the druids which gives an impression of how Patrick and other Christian missionaries were seen by those hostile to them" : ’crazed in the head’.
