Are you having a Happy Saint Patrick’s Day? Did you remember to wear green to avoid getting pinched? Will you drink responsibly this evening? We hope so!
Would it ruin your Saint Patrick’s Day if you learned the truth about some of the legends surrounding the Saint? If so, read no further.
Still reading? OK. That one about Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland? False. In the last Ice Age, Ireland was covered with glaciers. When the glaciers melted, snakes couldn’t spread from Europe to Ireland because it’s surrounded by salt water, and snakes aren’t the most likely critters that human explorers would bring along with them in their boats.
Did Saint Patrick use the shamrock to teach the Irish about the Trinity? Nobody knows, but I hope not! The Trinity doesn’t mean that God has three parts, like a shamrock has three leaves. It means that the One God is irreducibly Three Persons. Here, by the way, is a hilarious video in which two Irish peasants grill Patrick on his doctrine of the Trinity (hilarious if you were a nerdy seminary student once upon a time):
Didn’t Patrick write that lovely prayer that some people call The Deer’s Cry or the Breastplate of Saint Patrick? Sadly, no. That prayer wasn't written until the ninth century, as far away from Patrick as you are from Shakespeare.
So, what do we know about Patrick? A lot, actually. He was born in Briton in the fifth century, AD after the Romans had retreated from the island. His father and grandfather were Christian clergymen. (In those days priests could marry!) When he was a teenager Irish pirates kidnapped him and sold him into slavery. He worked as a shepherd for his master and experienced a spiritual awakening. In response to a vision, he fled and returned home. His parents received him with great joy, but Patrick had another vision. An angel appeared to him and sent him back to Ireland to be a missionary among the people who had once enslaved him. Patrick baptized thousands of people. He convinced many young Christian women to spurn marriage and live lives of celibacy and prayer, sometimes to the consternation of their parents. He had to spend a lot of money bribing his way past checkpoints thrown up by brigands and warlords. He also purchased the freedom of many slaves.
Patrick lived through some very difficult experiences while the western Roman Empire fell apart. In his two surviving written works he expresses gratitude that the hardships he endured sparked his conversion. He gave the credit for his conversion and for his success on the mission field to God’s grace and God’s Spirit. Patrick spoke truth to power. In a letter, he excommunicated a Christian British warlord who ordered a raid that resulted in the death and enslavement of Christians. He answered a difficult call from God. Patrick’s obedience, courage, and humility can inspire us all, even if he wasn’t Ireland’s first and best pest control guy.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
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