Did you ever wonder about St. Patrick?

Have you ever been pinched for not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day?

As a kid in school, anyone who didn’t wear green got pinched (some used to say the tradition was to get a kiss, instead of a pinch).  And when those boys pinched, some of them pinched really hard!

Anyway, to this day, I rarely forget to wear green for St. Patrick.

Why do we celebrate for St. Patrick?

Would you like to know some history?  (Besides people drinking green beer and having parades?)

St. Patrick was born as Maewyn Succat around 386 AD.  He was raised in a well-to-do Christian home in Scotland along Great Britain’s western coast, which was part of the Roman Empire at that time.

His father was a Christian deacon and a minor Roman official; his grandfather was a priest.  Patrick had never been very serious about the Christian faith.

The Irish had been raiding Western Britain regularly.  Among other things, they plundered animals and children—the young men to herd sheep and cattle; the young women to serve them. 

In the slave business, no tribe was known to be more fierce or more feared than the Irish.

Early in the fifth century King Niall of Ireland, sent a band of marauders in an Irish ship along the Western coast of Great Britain, on the far edge of the Roman Empire, and they crept into a secluded cove and raided the village of Bennavem Taburniae. 

In that raid, among the plunder, they captured nine hostages, which included a 16-year old boy named Succat.  Young Patrick arrived in Ireland as a foreigner being held against his will as a slave. 

He herded sheep in Northern Ireland.  He was deprived of food and clothes, and lived in virtual isolation.  His only companions were his flock, and his new-found faith, which had blossomed, as he prayed as many as a hundred times a day. 

As he continued to pray, (he wrote that) after 6 years in captivity, an angel appeared to him in a dream, telling him, “You have fasted well.  Very soon you will return to your native country.”

The angel told him of a ship leaving Ireland, and the young man walked across 200 miles of bogs and forests to arrive at the port where he found a cargo ship bound for Europe.

The captain refused him passage, and young Patrick began to pray.  A distance away, before he finished praying, a sailor from the ship came shouting, “Come quickly! Those men are calling you!”  The captain had changed his mind.

Patrick sailed from Ireland, feeling God’s protection with him through his unlikely escape.  This would have been a very harrowing and difficult journey, especially for an escaped slave.

**********************************

When Patrick finally returned to his family in Great Britain, his parents begged him to never leave again. 

He went through a period of religious training, was ordained a deacon, and consecrated as a bishop.  After he became a priest he was given the name of Patricius, from the Latin term “father figure”.

Patrick heard a voice of the Irish call out to him, “We beg you, oh holy boy, to come and walk again among us.”

He then asked for an assignment as a missionary to Ireland, and returned to the pagan island in 432. 

After landing on the continent, he and the ship’s crew wandered for weeks in a wilderness with no food.

The crew began to chastise Patrick for his piety.  “What about this, Christian?! You tell us that your God is great and all powerful—Why can’t you pray for us since we’re in a bad state with hunger?!”

Patrick replied, “Turn in faith with all your hearts to the Lord my God because nothing is impossible for Him.”  Immediately after he led them in prayer, a stampede of pigs crossed their path.  Patrick had his first converts.

With knowledge of their language and customs, he was able to convert and baptize Druid priests, chieftains and aristocrats by the thousands before his death on what we now celebrate at “St. Patrick’s Day”, March 17, 461 AD.

Legend has it that St. Patrick explained the trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of the native Irish clover, the green Shamrock.

Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy that would create conditions that allowed Ireland to become known as “the Isle of Saints and Scholars”.

************************************************

Just some random facts:

The church began observing a special feast to honor him on this day in 1631.

In Ireland, the day has been traditionally a religious observance until the 1960’s, and by law, everything was closed on that day including all bars and pubs.

Ireland has celebrated the holiday for over 1,000 years.

The first St. Patrick’s Day parade was in America, not in Ireland.

St. Patrick’s Day parade is the oldest civilian parade, and also the largest in the U.S.

Chicago began its annual tradition of turning the Chicago River green on St. Patrick’s Day in 1962.

The Celtics believed in fairies who could use their magical powers to serve them for good or evil.  They were known as cranky souls, and also for their trickery.

The (American depicted) leprechaun began from earlier cartoons which were made to make fun of the Irish, with the pug nose, fist-up, and battered hat and coat.

America celebrates…

When the great potato famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million Irish Catholics came to America to escape starvation.  They were looked down upon and dealt with discrimination, but as their numbers grew, they began to organize, and St. Patrick’s Day parades became a show of strength for them.  They actually formed a new political block (called The Green Machine), and were recognized politically.

In 1948 President Harry Truman attended New York City’s parade, which was a proud moment for many Irish Americans whose ancestors had had to fight racial prejudice.  After that the parades began to be a must-attend event for political candidates.

Today the New York City parade has approximately 150,000 participants with nearly 3 million people lining the 1 ½ mile parade route, which takes more than 5 hours.

I’ve never thought too much about St. Patrick’s Day, to be honest.  But after looking into the history of it and being educated into the details, I am proud to know the significance of it.

Summary…

So.  A couple of Things.

1.     If you feel you are “just little ol’ me” and that you have no power to accomplish anything, nor to make any changes even in your own life, much less in the world… maybe it would be good to think again…

You can do absolutely anything you set your mind to…in your own life…and in the world around you!  And

2.     It seems to me that the best way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day is by sharing your faith.  And just in case you think you can’t… this young man came to realize that the slave owners in Ireland were enslaved themselves—in bondage to pagan superstition and Druid worship.

3.     St. Patrick witnessed to everyone, including kings in their courts, peasants in their fields.  He preached, established churches, trained leaders, and baptized converts. 

4.     His work formed the movement that transformed “The Emerald Isle”.

We can do it.  Whatever it is.

Your health… Your relationships… Your profession… Your life…

Thank you for reading!  I hope you learned a little bit, as I did!

If I can help you in any way, with any changes or decisions in your life, I would love to help you.