17th March: St Patrick's Day

10 things you may not know about St Patrick.

1. He wasn't Irish. Although nobody is really sure where he was born, what information there is suggests he was born in England (possibly Cumbria) or possibly in Scotland or Wales.
2. He was captured by Irish pirates at the age of 16. They took him to Ireland and held him prisoner for six years, during which he had plenty of time to think about spiritual things, and it was while he was held captive that he became a Christian.
3. His birth name was not Patrick. It was Maewyn Succat. When he became a priest, he changed his name to Patricius, from the Latin for "father figure", which eventually evolved into "Patrick".
4. After six years, he ran away and persuaded the captain of a ship to take him back to England, where he stayed for several years, studying Christianity, before eventually returning to Ireland as a missionary. He also spent some time as a prisoner in France.
5. The shamrock was a sacred symbol before St Patrick used it in a sermon to illustrate the Holy Trinity. It represented rebirth and eternal life, and also the three goddesses, Brigid, Eriu and the Morrigan. The word "Shamrock" means "young clover".
6. St Patrick's best known miracle, driving the snakes from Ireland, may not have involved the actual animals at all as there is no biological evidence that there ever were any Snakes in Ireland. The "snakes" he drove out were more likely to have been people - one theory is that they were actually the local Druids, who used to have snake tattoos on their arms.
7. Another legend says that St Patrick used to stick his staff in the ground while he was preaching, and in one place, (Aspatria, meaning Ash of Patrick) his sermon was so long that the staff took root!
8. St Patrick was never formally canonised by a pope - this is because in St Patrick's time, the rules about how people became saints were different. The local church then had the power to declare especially holy people saints and celebrate them.
9. Ireland is not the only place that has claimed St Patrick as patron saint. He is also the patron saint of Nigeria, Montserrat, Boston, Rolla, Missouri (USA), Loíza, Puerto Rico and Murcia (Spain). He is also the patron of engineers and paralegals and is invoked against snakes, sins, and witchcraft.
10. He is the primary patron saint of Ireland, but not the only one. Saints Brigid and Columba are also patron saints of Ireland.

Before you go

Check out what else I write!

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