Interesting Facts about St. Patrick
As a girl with a bit of Irish ancestry, I knew that I was supposed to wear green on Saint Patrick’s Day – or risk being pinched. And I always got pinched because I never remembered what day it was. But, bruises aside, I knew nothing about the saint who inspired this green holiday. Digging into his history a bit, I found some interesting facts about St. Patrick and decided that this Irish saint was quite an interesting fella…
🎥 Watch a short video here or continue reading below for the whole story.
St. Patrick was Born in Britain
Surprisingly, Ireland’s patron saint was born in Britain and his name wasn’t Patrick.
The future St. Patrick was born around 385 AD somewhere on the western shore of Britain, and according to legend, his name at birth was Maewyn Succatt. He and his family were British Roman citizens, as Rome ruled the land in those days.
Just five years before Maewyn’s birth, Christianity had become the official religion of Rome. But Maewyn’s family was probably Christian before that, as his father was a deacon and his grandfather, a priest.
Kidnapped and Enslaved
We can only assume that Maewyn’s early life was a normal one… But that all changed one day when he was about sixteen. A band of Irish raiders swarmed through the countryside, snatched him up, and whisked him away. They were slave traders, and they sold him into slavery in Ireland. As a slave, Maewyn was ordered to tend his master’s sheep.
Name Changed
At some point while he was in Ireland, Maewyn’s hard-to-pronounce, foreign name was traded in for a good Irish one: Patrick – he may even have been called Paddy.
Paddy Hears the Voice of God
For six long years Paddy was all alone in a foreign land. Sitting in the hills tending his master’s flock, he had no one to talk to but God and the sheep. The sheep never responded to Paddy, but God apparently did. One night he heard a voice in a dream telling him, “Very soon you’ll return to your native country.” Then sometime later, in another dream, the voice said, “Your ship is ready.” It went on to give him directions to a town about 200 miles away.
Escape
Paddy had never been to the town that was named in his dream, and he knew nothing about it. But on the strength of that dream, he left his master’s sheep to fend for themselves, and off he skedaddled to catch the boat. When he arrived, the ship was ready to leave. However, the captain and crew were all pagans and didn’t want a Christian on board, fearing he would bring them bad luck. Then, for some miraculous reason they changed their minds, and a grateful Paddy was on his way back to Britain.
The Long Way Home
At the closest point, the shores of Ireland and the UK are separated by only about 10 miles, so Paddy’s homeland was almost in sight. However, the ship he boarded must have taken the scenic route, because it was another two years before they arrived in Britain.
Paddy must have felt a bit like Homer on his Odyssey – he nearly starved, he was taken prisoner again, and who knows what other troubles he encountered. But finally, after 6 years as a slave and another 2 years on a boat, he reached his parent’s home. By this time, he was around twenty-four years old. When his parents heard of all he had been through, they begged him to never leave home again.
Another Dream
Paddy probably would have been very happy to stay put in his nice safe home – but then along came another dream: In this one, he saw a man coming across the sea from Ireland with an armload of letters for Paddy (or Maewyn). When he opened one of the letters, he heard the voices of the Irish people crying out, “We beg you, holy boy, to come and walk among us again.”
Back to Ireland
Paddy believed that the message was from God. He took it to heart and began studying theology so he could return to Ireland as a missionary and be of spiritual help to the Irish people. After a few years, he did go back and eventually became a bishop.
In that pagan land filled with Druids, Paddy converted and baptized thousands of people. He was much-loved in Ireland and was one of the first Christian figures to speak out against slavery, no doubt influenced by his own slavery experience.
Everyone’s a Little Bit Irish
Patrick’s popularity continued after his death, and by the seventh century he was already being revered as the patron saint of Ireland. Today, you can find Irish people in all corners of the world, and St. Patrick is more popular than ever. In fact, it seems that on Saint Patrick’s day everyone is a little bit Irish.
So this year, I’ll try my best to remember to wear green on the 17th of March and think of this saint who had such an interesting and eventful life. St. Patrick was kidnapped and enslaved, so it seems that he didn’t have the “luck of the Irish” on his side… But maybe that’s because he was born British.
♦ Saint Patrick left us a document which gives us insights into his life: The Confessions of St. Patrick: Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, in which he berates the soldiers for killing and taking slaves of the Irish Christians. You can find them here.
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