What is St. Patrick’s Day?  

Originating in the 9^th or 10^th century, St. Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick and has been around for over 1,000 years. It is a celebration of Ireland’s Patron Saint, Saint Patrick on the day of his death, March 17^th. The feast typically falls during the Christian season of Lent. Lent is a period where there is a prohibition of eating meat. This rule is usually lifted on this day. People can then celebrate by dancing, drinking, and enjoying the traditional Irish bacon and cabbage. More recently, we link St. Patrick’s Day with the color green, leprechauns, getting drunk, and eating corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage. Which, if I’m being honest, is probably close to what it was in the past as well.  

But we aren’t here to talk about the day itself. I want to go into who Saint Patrick was. I want to explore why we are celebrating him in the first place. His history in Ireland had big implications for the Pagan community.  

Who is Saint Patrick?  

Most of the information we have on Saint Patrick’s youth is from his own autobiography The Confessio. This means there could be some personal embellishments in the tale. Just remember to take everything with a grain of salt. If you are interested in reading St. Patrick’s confessions, it can be read here. If you don’t want to read it, I will provide a summary of what he wrote. I will also discuss other reports of his life.  

St. Patrick, reportedly named Maewyn Succat, was born around 386AD to a well-off family. They lived on the western coast of Great Britain. The area is most likely Wales. It was a part of the Roman Empire at the time. His father was a Christian Deacon and a minor Roman Official, his grandfather was a priest. In his confession, he admits that as a young boy, Patrick did not agree with his family’s faith. He believes that that is the reason for everything that happened to him.  

Early in the 5^th century, Maewyn was roughly 16 years old. A band of Irish marauders, or pirates, raided the small village of Banavem Taburniae. While they were raiding the village, they captured 9 people for the Niall, Ireland’s King. Maewyn was one of the people that the pirates captured. He claims that they brought him back to Ireland. They sold him in the slave trade to herd sheep for a local chieftain. While in slavery, he was deprived of clothing and food. He attributes his time in captivity to the bloom of his faith. He wrote that he prayed daily. This practice is what helped him survive the 6 years he was confined in Ireland. He claims that while he was in captivity, an angel visited him in a dream. The angel told him he would return to his homeland once again. The angel informed him about a ship that was leaving Ireland. It reassured him that God would be with him on the journey home.  

Maewyn felt prompted to escape his captivity. He walked an estimated 200 miles across peat moss and forests. His destination was the port where the ship was going to be. When he got to the port, the captain of the ship originally turned him away. He left the port and went to pray. While he was praying, he heard one of the men call him. The man told him to hurry up and get on the ship. Once on the ship with primarily Pagan crewmates, he shared his beliefs. He attempted to convert them to Christianity.  

When the ship finally arrived on land, Maewyn and the crew were stranded. They walked through the wilderness for a few weeks without knowing where to go. They were also unsure of how to get food. During this time, the crew started to criticize him for his faith. They asked if his god was so powerful, why didn’t he pray for help. They were lost without food and needed assistance. This prompted Maewyn to pray with the Pagan crew for guidance and food. He claimed that after they prayed, pigs stampeded across their path. This unexpected event gave them the food they needed to survive. The crew of the ship would be the first group of people that were converted to Christianity by Saint Patrick.  

Eventually, Maewyn made it back to Great Britian and his family. Who after hearing his retelling of the events, begged him not to leave them again. He reports his religious visions returned shortly after coming home. He claims that in the visions, he saw a man carrying letters. In the letters, he could see and hear the voices of the Irish people. They were begging for him to return to Ireland and lead them to God. This started his religious training. He was ordained as a Deacon in roughly 418AD. He was then consecrated as a Bishop around 432AD. This was when he was given the name Saint Patricius, or Patrick.  

The newly made Bishop then requested to be assigned to the missionary in Ireland. He spent the rest of his life there. He used his knowledge of the culture and language from when he was captive to his benefit. Saint Patrick worked at converting as many people as he could while he was in Ireland. Claiming to have converted them by the thousands. He claims to have baptized all the Druid priests, Chieftains, and Aristocrats in Ireland. He used common imagery to trick people. He made people think that the Christian God was all around them. For example, he would use the shamrock, or three-leaf clover, as an example of the Holy Trinity. He continued to do this and act and Ireland’s Patron Saint until his death in 461AD. It is rumored that he died on the equivalent of March 17^th, which is why the feast of St. Patrick is celebrated on March 17^th every year.  

Disbelief of Patrick’s Story 

Some people think that the story of Saint Patrick’s early life is just a tale. They believe he wanted to enhance this tale about himself. The working theory is that young Maewyn was not captured by the Irish marauders. Instead, he ran to Ireland to avoid being forced to inherit his father’s job of being a tax collector. During this period, the Roman empire was starting to fall. This made being a tax collector increasingly dangerous and financially risky. The collectors were responsible for personally covering any shortfalls they encountered. It is claimed that instead of entering Ireland as a slave, he introduced himself as a wealthy slave trader.  

These theories are supported by the fact that the transportation of goods at the time did not run smoothly. The chances were slim for a roughly 22-year-old man. He was deprived of food and clothing. Making it through the transport system from Ireland to Britain was unlikely. It was extremely unlikely he also made the supposed 200-mile trek to get from where he escaped to the port.  

There really isn’t a well-documented telling of his life from an outside perspective. It is highly likely that he did exaggerate his life story. He might have done this to make it sound better for his cause of converting people to his faith. That being said, we don’t really have any proof that what he claims didn’t happen either. I will say, there is documentation showing his dishonesty about some other legends. We are about to explore these now.  

St. Patrick and the Snakes 

One of the main tales of Saint Patrick is that he “rid Ireland of the snakes”. It is a good contributing factor of the celebration of the Feast of St. Patrick. The legend states that the Patron Saint of Ireland was fasting for 40 days on top of a hill. During this time, snakes started to attack him. He claims that he chased them down the hill and into the ocean, effectively ridding Ireland of the snakes.  

Science aside, yes, it is possible. He could have run snakes down the side of the hill. They could have gone out into the ocean. However, it is a longshot to claim that he rid Ireland of snakes with one hill. What’s even better is that science exists. Researchers have surveyed the land in Ireland. They determined that because of the temperature and earlier ice ages, Ireland is not habitable to most reptiles. It has never been habitable to most reptiles. So, the tail of him physically ridding the county of snakes is essentially impossible.  

The story of Saint Patrick and the snakes most likely is a metaphor for his Christianization of Ireland. The snakes being the Pagan that lived there at the time, and the Christianization being the eradication of them. At the time, snakes were heavily considered evil. They were synonymous with the devil because of their portrayal in Adam and Eve’s fall in the bible. Many believed throughout the Christian faith that if you followed any path other than Christianity, you followed the Devil. This belief still persists today.  

My thoughts 

So, I did not expect to be as interested in this topic as much as I am. As much as I HATED researching and writing things in school, I am finding it very enjoyable now. Also, full disclosure, I went into this expecting to essentially shit on St. Patrick for what he did. Somewhere along the line of research, I realized he was just following his faith. I can’t necessarily fault that… I still find the idea of trying to Christianize anything is deplorable. It’s no one’s place to dictate another’s faith. After reading his dying confession, the empath in me connected with the fear that he was writing. He seemed to spend his entire life thinking that his god was going to turn his back on him. Don’t get me wrong. It doesn’t make me like him. I do think part of what he wrote is a parodied version of the truth. However, it does make me pity him and what he potentially went through.