The Man
The man we have come to know as St. Patrick was a Roman citizen born in Britain during the late 4th century A.D. He was born to an upper class family which controlled agricultural production in Britain as well as the high offices of the new, developing Christian Church. His grandfather Potitus was a priest, and his father Calpurnius was both a deacon and decurion -- a member of a municipal council of a Roman town. The place where Patrick is believed to have been born was an ancient Roman village known as Bannaventa, where his father held a family estate.1,2
Patrick was raised as a nominal Christian but otherwise did not pay much attention to religious faith during his childhood. At the age of sixteen -- during a turbulent period in which the Visigoths and other invading armies began to lay waste to important cities in the Roman Empire -- Patrick was captured by a group of Irish pirates and brought over by ship to Ireland, where he would live in captivity as a slave for six years. This was a time in which Patrick is thought to have undergone a religious and spiritual transformation. According to his letters -- which represent some of the oldest surviving documents from Ireland -- Patrick was visited by voices in his dreams, which he took for signs of divine intervention that would help him flee from his captors.2 To make his escape, Patrick walked for hundreds of miles from to the Eastern Irish coast, and made his way onto a ship of pagan sailors en route to Britain. He would be reunited with his family shortly afterward.1
Several years later, following intensive training to be ordained as a priest, Patrick returned to Ireland as a missionary and was made a bishop in the process. He would spend the rest of his life working on the island to convert Irish pagans to Christianity, and founding churches to accomplish that goal.3 He is generally credited as leading a non-violent campaign to incorporate Christendom into Ireland.4 According to the historian Philip M. Freeman, Patrick's letters also revealed a deep concern for the social welfare of Irish women, many of whom among his flock of Christian converts were slaves themselves.3 He was also accused of corruption later in his life by churchmen in Britain, though he denied those charges.1
The Myth
One of the most popular legends about St. Patrick is that he banished snakes from Ireland, a myth likely borne from the imaginations of what Freeman calls "well-meaning" monks. This myth was lampooned in an episode of The Simpsons in which the people of Springfield celebrate "Whacking Day" -- a day where the snakes of the town are clubbed to death and, as Bart reveals, was "originally conceived in 1922 as an excuse to beat up on the Irish."5 In reality, there never were any snakes in Ireland in Patrick's time, likely due to an ice age that made the environment too cold for them to colonize the island.4 However, the image of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland probably serves as a sort of Biblical metaphor, in which a Christian figure attempts to banish paganism (a la the serpent from Paradise).6
Another myth about St. Patrick is that, as the patron saint of Ireland, he brought Christianity to the Emerald Isle. Not true -- as mentioned above, he worked as a missionary. There already were Christians living on the island among followers of native Celtic faiths. However, Patrick was successful at converting the Irish pagans.4 Popular folklore also mentions that Patrick used the shamrock as part of his method to teach the Irish about the Trinity, hence giving the clover a special symbolism that now resonates in Irish culture, but there isn't yet any hard evidence to support that theory.3
The Legend
St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17 as the anniversary of Patrick's death in 461 A.D. Although Patrick has never been formally canonized by a Catholic Pope, he was still liturgically celebrated as a saint in Ireland hundreds of years ago.7 Beginning in the early 17th century, St. Patrick's Day was listed as a saint's day on the Irish calendar. In Irish culture, most feast days of various saints were characterized by both religious observance, such as a pilgrimage to a sacred site; and secular activities, such as the staging of fairs, festivals, and markets. This holiday began to take on the popular form of religious worship followed by food, drink, music, and dance.8
The first recorded Patrician festivities of St. Patrick's Day occurred in 1762 when Irish troops serving in the British military marched through New York City. More than a decade later, the officers of a British regiment known as the Sons of St. Patrick marched through the streets of Boston to hear a sermon delivered at the King's Chapel -- thus staging what might be considered the first ever St. Patrick's Day parade, not in Ireland, but in the union that would soon become the United States. During the War of American Independence, Irish Americans had celebrated St. Patrick's Day as a dual holiday, one that commemorated their pride in Irish heritage, while also committing themselves to a new land independent of British rule.8
When the Potato Famine struck Ireland during the mid 1840's, millions of people died from starvation and disease, and millions more emigrated to other countries. The Tenant Right Movement, an Irish union group championing lower rents and property rights for citizens, had used the holiday to stage social protests to the famine, drawing crowds of thousands in Donhill and Castlecomber in 1850. In North America, following the influx of Irish immigrants, the St. Patrick's Day parades became a political statement in which the growing Irish community was expressing the legitimacy of their stake in the new land. This was a significant form of political advocacy and organization given that many of these immigrants were often marginalized and given working-poor jobs in America, as well as the fact that citizens in Ireland were still subject to British rule -- a state of affairs that would not change until the early 1920's.8
The Story
Today, in the United States, St. Patrick's Day is largely a secular holiday that is celebrated by people of all different walks of life, not only by Irish Americans, but citizens who -- for a day -- just want to feel "Irish at heart." That means participating in certain activities that show varying degrees of Irish pride, whether it's wearing green articles of clothing or eating corned beef and cabbage. In Ireland, however, the holiday is a day of national observance. Lots of businesses and schools are closed today in the Emerald Isle so that the people can spend the day at Mass and with their families for the festivities.9
I hope this diary has been somewhat informative, if not totally comprehensive. Like I said, most of what I wrote in this diary were things that I didn't even know about the holiday before reading about them recently. While you're out with friends or family drinking green beer or singing Irish folk tunes, you might have the opportunity to bring up some of these interesting facts about the history of St. Patrick's Day.
I think that, although this is a holiday with roots in Irish, British, and even Roman culture, it also bears a striking similarity to American history. The very person for whom this holiday is named after was an immigrant who, as a grown man, went to the shores of a foreign land and spent the rest of his life there. Is that not just like the story of this country? America was built on the backs of immigrants. That's something that I think we can all appreciate. As Sadhbh Walshe put it, this is a day in which "a nation of immigrants can celebrate the legacy of a nation of emigrants."9
So, to sign off, I wish you all a good Thursday, a good holiday, and of course, a merry good time.
Sláinte!
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Sources
1 Freeman, Philip M. (2004). St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
2 Bury, John Bagnell. (1998). The Life of St. Patrick and His Place in History. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.
3 Schoenherr, Neil. (February 10, 2004). St. Patrick's real life more fascinating than the myths. Washington University in St. Louis.
4 Dooley, Tara. (March 16, 2010). "The St. Patrick we never really knew." Houston Chronicle.
5 Internet Movie Database. (n.d.). "Memorable quotes for 'The Simpsons': Whacking Day (1993)." IMDB.com.
6 BBC. (March 17, 2010). "Thousands ready for St Patrick's Day celebrations." BBC News.
7 McCloskey, Pat. (2001). "Saints Come From All Nations." St. Anthony Messenger.
8 Cronin, Mike & Adair, Daryl. (2002). The Wearing of the Green: A History of St. Patrick's Day. Abington, Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge.
9 Walshe, Sadhbh. (March 17, 2010). "St Patrick's Day: Not Just For the Irish." guardian.co.uk.
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