On this day in 461 A.D., Saint Patrick, Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland, dies at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland.
Much of what is known about Patrick’s legendary life comes from the Confessio, a book he wrote during his last years. Born in Great Britain, probably in Scotland, to a well-to-do Christian family of Roman citizenship, Patrick was captured and enslaved at age 16 by Irish marauders. For the next six years, he worked as a herder in Ireland, turning to a deepening religious faith for comfort. Following the counsel of a voice he heard in a dream one night, he escaped and found passage on a ship to Britain, where he was eventually reunited with his family.
According to the Confessio, in Britain Patrick had another dream, in which an individual named Victoricus gave him a letter, entitled “The Voice of the Irish.” As he read it, Patrick seemed to hear the voices of Irishmen pleading him to return to their country and walk among them once more. After studying for the priesthood, Patrick was ordained a bishop. He arrived in Ireland in 433 and began preaching the Gospel, converting many thousands of Irish and building churches around the country. After 40 years of living in poverty, teaching, traveling and working tirelessly, Patrick died on March 17, 461 in Saul, where he had built his first church.
Since that time, countless legends have grown up around Patrick. Made the patron saint of Ireland, he is said to have baptized hundreds of people on a single day, and to have used a three-leaf clover–the famous shamrock–to describe the Holy Trinity. In art, he is often portrayed trampling on snakes, in accordance with the belief that he drove those reptiles out of Ireland. For thousands of years, the Irish have observed the day of Saint Patrick’s death as a religious holiday, attending church in the morning and celebrating with food and drink in the afternoon.
The first St. Patrick’s Day parade, though, took place not in Ireland, but the United States, when Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City in 1762. As the years went on, the parades became a show of unity and strength for persecuted Irish-American immigrants, and then a popular celebration of Irish-American heritage.
The party went global in 1995, when the Irish government began a large-scale campaign to market St. Patrick’s Day as a way of driving tourism and showcasing Ireland’s many charms to the rest of the world. Today, March 17 is a day of international celebration, as millions of people around the globe put on their best green clothing to drink beer, watch parades and toast the luck of the Irish.
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An oldie but goodie:
Pat and Mike are walking home after a night spent at the bar. They walk past a hospital where a nurse is emptying a bedpan. Thinking it’s a church with a nun holding holy water they walk up to her, reach into the pan and bless themselves. As they walk away Pat says to Mike “I don’t believe that was a Catholic church at all.” “You don’t?” answered Mike? “No, I think it was Episcopalian.”
Happy St Pat’s Day all you fellow white devils.
Ever since Michelob stopped making their craft line, I have not been able to find an exceptional Irish Red. “More’s the pity.”
If that’s the case, you surely need to learn how to brew your own beer. I have.
With a bit of time and effort you can not only begin a new hobby but drink something uniquely yours. So lift a mug and a middle finger to those big corporations everyone loves to hate. Brew your own!
“… dies at Saul,”
I knew it. Fuckin’ Joos. Call Saul.
250 years after the death of St. Patrick, the scourge of all humanity was born in Arabia – maybe. No one will ever know for sure who St. Patrick was, or what he did – other than the actual physical writings which he wrote himself, and the writings of those who actually had physical contact with him. That 250 years is just about the total history of the United States of America. Just think for a moment about everything that has happened in the last 250 years. Then remember that it was 250 years after that “prophet” was born in Arabia before a single word was written about him.
God will Bless St. Patrick, that false prophet from Arabia, not so much.