St. Patrick’s Day Fact Sheet

Saint Patrick's Day

  • Lá Fhéile Pádraig ("the Day of the Festival of Patrick")
  • made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century
  • observed by
  • the Catholic Church,
  • the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland),
  • the Eastern Orthodox Church, and
  • the Lutheran Church
  • The day commemorates
  • Saint Patrick and
  • the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and
  • celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general.
  • Saint Patrick's Day is a public holiday in
  • the Republic of Ireland,
  • Northern Ireland,
  • the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (for provincial government employees), and
  • the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat.
  • celebrated by the Irish diaspora around the world, especially in
  • Great Britain,
  • Canada,
  • the United States,
  • Argentina,
  • Australia, and
  • New Zealand.
  • Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival

Saint Patrick

  • Saint Patrick (Irish: Pádraig) was a 5th-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland
  • Defn: Roman Britain was the area of the island of Great Britain that was governed by the Roman Empire, from ad 43 to 410
  • It is believed that he was born in Roman Britain in the fourth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family
  • Defn: Romano-British culture is the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and custom. It survived the 5th century Roman departure from Britain.
  • His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church
  • According to the Declaration, at the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland.
  • Defn: Gaelic Ireland refers to the time period pre AD 400
  • Defn: “The Declaration” (aka the Confessio and Epistola or the Confession). Through a consideration of the writings that are accepted as authentically his — the Confessio and the Epistola (or Letter) to Coroticus, both in Latin — we can discern something of the person of Patrick himself.
  • It says that he spent six years there working as a shepherd and that during this time he "found God" and eventually returned home where he would become a priest
  • According to tradition, Patrick returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity
  • The Declaration says that he spent many years evangelising in the northern half of Ireland and converted "thousands".
  • Tradition holds that he died on 17 March and was buried at Downpatrick
  • Defn: Downpatrick (from Irish: Dún Pádraig, meaning "Patrick's stronghold") is a medium-sized town about 33 km (21 mi) south of Belfast in County Down, Northern Ireland.

Myths/Lore about St. Patrick

  • Patrick's efforts against the druids were eventually turned into an allegory in which he drove "snakes" out of Ireland (Ireland never had any snakes)
  • A druid was a member of the high-ranking professional class in ancient Celtic cultures whowere religious leaders, legal authorities, adjudicators, lore-keepers, medical professionals and political advisors
  • The druids also appear in some of the medieval tales from Christianized Ireland where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers (or “Snakes”) who opposed the coming of Christianity.
  • According to legend, Saint Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org, confessio.ie, Timothy Cronin