St. Patrick's Day "Who is this Guy?"

St. Patrick’s Day came to America in 1737. This holiday was first publicly celebrated in Boston. Today, people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the traditional wearing of green and parades. Many people also celebrate with the drinking of beer and most of the time its GREEN beer.
So what’s the history of this guy, St. Patrick? Well he was born with the name of Maewyn around 385 AD. Before he began turning the native pagans of Ireland into Christians he sort of had a rough start in life. At the age of 16 he was sold into slavery. It was during this time of slavery he found God.

St. Patrick was a slave for six years until he escaped and headed for Gaul. This is where he met up with St. Germain and studied in the local monastery. This is where St. Patrick found his true destiny in life, and that was to turn pagans into Christians.

After returning to Ireland St. Patrick was very successful at converting the pagans and this did not sit well with the Celtic Druids. Patrick was arrested several times, but escaped each time, because that’s how the Irish roll! Throughout the next thirty years he traveled throughout Ireland building and establishing monasteries, schools, and churches.

St. Patrick died on March 17th 461 AD. After his death a lot of fiction surrounds St. Patrick’s Day. Some of these stories include the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead, but we all know that’s reserved for Capitan “Big Guns” upstairs! One of the most famous stories of St. Patrick is that he is said to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland. Of course, no snakes were ever native to Ireland.

So what’s the deal with the shamrock? Well St. Padddy used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. It is said that he used the shamrock in his sermons to show the representation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Sprit, hence the Trinity.

Well I hope this clears things up! Thanks