Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick (389 AD-461 AD?) is known as the Apostle of Ireland, Christian prelate. His birthplace is uncertain, but it was probably in southwestern Britain; his British name was Succat. At 16 years of age he was carried off by Irish marauders and passed his captivity as a herdsman near the mountain Slemish in County Antrim (according to tradition) or in County Connacht. The young herdsman saw visions in which he was urged to escape, and after six years of slavery he did so, to the northern coast of Gaul. Ordained a priest, possibly by Saint Germanus, at Auxerre, he returned to Ireland. Sometime after 431 AD, Patrick was appointed successor to St. Palladius, First Bishop of Ireland. Patrick concentrated on the west and north of Ireland, establishing his see at Armagh. Patrick’s two surviving works are written in Latin and demonstrate his acquaintance with the Vulgate translation of the Bible. In one of these works, ‘The Confessions’, Patrick portrays himself as an ignorant yokel in an unequal contest with the powerful and learned adherents of Pelagianism. His reported use of the shamrock as an illustration of the Trinity led to its being regarded as the Irish national symbol. A strange chant of his, called ‘The Lorica’, is preserved in the ‘Liber Hymnorum’ (Book of Hymns), and what purports to have been a handbell he used during Mass is shown in the National Museum in Dublin. Ireland held few secular celebrations and parades on Saint Patrick’s Day; however, in 1995 the government of Ireland established the Saint Patrick’s Day Festival with the goal of creating a festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world.