Would Saint Patrick recognize the holiday named in his honor?
Saint Patrick’s Day in America, and likely many other parts of the world, is fun, boisterous, and downright bawdy. We dye portions of lakes, ponds, and rivers green, dance with leprechauns, some drink green beer, eat corned beef and cabbage with a side of soda bread, search for four-leaf clovers among the newly greening grass, and tell of Saint Patrick’s heroism in driving all the snakes out of Ireland.
But did you know that Saint Patrick wasn’t Irish? That a shamrock is three-leafed, not four? That no snakes are native to Ireland?
So, what is the truth about Saint Patrick?
Patrick was born to a flourishing Romanized Christian family in Britain in the fifth century. His father, Calpernius, was a deacon and a local official. When Patrick was about sixteen years old, Irish raiders descended upon his father’s villa and dragged him away to serve them as a slave in the sheep fields. Patrick served as their herdsman for six lonely, bleak years in which he embraced his faith and finally dreamed of the ship that would rescue him and take him back to his home and family.
That should be the end of the story. But it wasn’t.
Other dreams came to Patrick, ones where the Irish people called for his return. You see, in the fifth century, Ireland wasn’t a unified country as it is today, but a collection of roughly 150 (estimates range from 100 to nearly 200 depending on who is doing the estimating) independent kingdoms, often engaging in warfare and raids, and each of these had its own religious culture that often clashed with neighboring religious beliefs. Sound familiar?
“We ask thee, boy, come and walk among us once more.” –St. Patrick, from his dream to return to Ireland.
Patrick respected his dreams, even though he felt he wasn’t prepared. (Don’t you like a saint with doubts?) He returned to Ireland, bringing fairness, diplomacy, mercy, and a knack for explaining the Holy Trinity by using the widely available and recognizable shamrock—the clover—three divisions in one leaf, three persons in one God. He Baptized the Irish and brought Christianity to Ireland, a unifying act, thus driving out a lot of the warring demons (snakes) that we read about in legend. Patrick died on March 17 of some year in the fifth century, but it isn’t clear if that year is 461 or 495, or some other year in the last half of the fifth century.
“It’s not easy being green.”–Kermit, the Frog
Today, Patrick is not only recognized as a Saint, but as the Apostle to Ireland.
America has seen a strong influx of Irish Immigrants, and Scottish, too, sometimes called Scotch-Irish. According to some reports, there are more Scottish and Irish people in the United States than in Scotland and Ireland.
I’m not sure I’d go that far. I just think we all want to be Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day.
Renee Canter Johnson was born in North Carolina, where she still resides. She has a BS in Business Management from Gardner Webb University. Johnson studied Creative Writing in France and Italy, was awarded two terms at Noepe Center for Literary Arts on Martha’s Vineyard, and completed a Novel Intensive Study at the University of Iowa. Johnson loves spending time with her family and fur babies, and when she is not with them, you will find her reading or writing.
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