St Patrick - the real deal

We all know what St Patrick’s day means right? Green clothes, green rivers, green beer and a green faced hangover on the morning of 18th. Behind the parades and parties on 17th March there is agood deal of history and a fair whack of legend

St. Patrick was Irish–sure and everyone knows that

Well, kind of. St. Patrick was born in what is now Wales UK around 385 AD to Roman parents, Calpurnius and Conchessa. At least, being Welsh he was somewhat Celtic and anyhow we’ve adopted him now so he’s ours.

Is it St Padraig or St Patrick?

Padraig is the Irish spelling of Patrick but actually neither one was his name at birth.His given name was Maewyn Succat which has a nice kind of Welshy, Romesque feel to it. He adopted his new name – Patrick or Padraig, after Patricius which comes from the Latin for father.

He first came to Ireland as a slave

Long before Blackbeard or Cap’n Jack Sparrow, Ireland was a heathen hotbed of marauding pirates. At sixteen years old Maewyn Succatwas kidnapped by a pirate raiding party, sold into slavery in Ireland and worked the land for six years as a shepherd. Somehow, and legend has it he had dream that showed the escape route; he escaped to a monastery in England, became a devout Christian and was ordained a Bishop. His second trip to Ireland was a happier one as a missionary. Must have come as a surprise to the farmer who by now had bought himself a new shepherd but history does not record his reaction

Patrick’s Mission 

Ireland was pagan at this time and Patrick set out to convert the whole country, some might say an ambitious plan for a wee Welshman.  

Now Loeghaire the pagan king of a pagan Ireland was none too keen on this idea and put a contract out on St Patrick. Patrick hung in there and eventually the king converted and was baptized by Patrick and bit by bit the people of Ireland followed suit. 

Sounds simple put like that but with no transport, tv, internet or advertising budget that was quite a trick. 

St. Patrick wore green robes. 

 Well actually No! There is plenty of surviving artwork showing the Saint himself and they almost all show him wearing blue. It was much later around the 17th century that green emerged as a national colour.   

About those snakes 

There are two sides to every story but in Ireland two is never enough. 

 Experts as always have differing views which begs the question, “why do we call them experts?”.  Some say Ireland is too cold for snakes, others say the topography is all wrong, so how come Wales and Scotland with a similar topography and climate has adders? Oh, and by the way did you know there’s palm trees growing in Co Cork it’s so warm? Others yet say there was never a land bridge for snakes to cross, so how did the bunnies get here then – Ryan Air? 

 They do all seem to agree however that there have never been snakes in Ireland but then what do they know? We suspect a conspiracy. 

 The true believers insist that country was riddled with reptiles until Auld Pat showed them the road. 

 The most likely explanation (not one that we necessarily subscribe to) was that the snakes were symbolic of evil. It all goes back to Adam and Eve and the slippery serpent but one thing’s for sure, St Pat went around the country throwing something out. 

The Shamrock

Legend has it that St. Patrick, clearly a resourceful man who used the plentiful shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity with each separate leaf representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but remaining part of a single whole.  

 There is a lack of hard evidence as to the truth of this story or if there is a direct link between his preaching and the emergence of the shamrock as a national symbol – well what do think? 

St Patricks legacy 

Patrick became to be known as the “Apostle of Ireland.” He founded many churches across the nation, the first one probably at Saul, near Belfast in Northern Ireland.   

 But his reach went way beyond Irelands shores. 

 In his bestselling non-fiction book How The Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, Thomas Cahill claims that St Patrick was directly responsible for the survival of civilisation as we know it.  

 It’s a mouthful of a title and quite a claim but then again it just goes to prove what we always knew: the Irish are the most civilised nation on earth. 

Is Patrick a Catholic or a Protestant Saint? 

 The Irish, wherever they are, love a good argument and there was a huge row in Ireland about this a few years back – then everyone went to the pub had wee drop or three and caught themselves on.  

 St Patrick was around 1000 years before the Protestant Reformation, he is respected by both as the man who brought Christianity to Ireland and as the Patron Saint of all Irish Christians. 

 In fact, St. Patrick has never actually been canonised by the Roman Catholic Church or indeed any other Christian Church. Patrick himself claimed he was a sinner, not a saint but in the eyes of the Irish people he’s not just any old saint – he’s our saint. 

Call him what you will he was quite a guy 

 Maewyn Succat, St Padraig, St Patrick, the true story is even more amazing than the myths and legends. Next time you head off to the parade, spare a thought for this simple man who moved mountains and did more than any other single person to create the Ireland we know today.