St. Patrick The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales[Other Sources say Romanized England or Scotland] about AD 385 (or 390). His given name was Maewyn. Though Patricius was his Romanicized name,
he was later came to be familiar as Patrick.
Patrick was the son of Calpurnius, a Roman-British army officer. OR
Insert from History Channel: Although his father was a Christian deacon, it has been suggested that he probably took on the role because of tax incentives and there is no evidence that Patrick came from a particularly religious family.
Far from being a saint, until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan. At that age, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders/pirates that raided his village and kidnapped him and others.[Sources say he was brought to County Mayo, Ireland or County Antrin, Northern Ireland.] He was there for 6 years(some say 12 years), mostly imprisoned—another site says outdoors. Insert from History Channel:he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people.
During his captivity, he became closer to God. He dreamed of having seen God.
Legend says, he was then dictated by God to escape with a getaway ship.
He escaped from slavery after six years (walking 200 miles to get to the coast). After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation-an angel in a dream tells him to return to Ireland as a missionary. and went to Britain, and then to Gaul [France] where he studied in the monastery. . . for a period of twelve years. And when he became a bishop he dreamed that the Irish were calling himback to Ireland to tell them about God. He wished to go there but he was instead appointed him elsewhere. He transferred to Scotland, and then finally was appointed to Ireland.
Patrick was quite successful at winning converts. And this fact upset the Celtic Druids. Patrick was arrested several times, but escaped each time. He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries across the country. He also set up schools and churches which would aid him in his conversion of the Irish country to Christianity.
From this same evidence, something can be seen of Patrick's mission. He writes that he "baptised thousands of people". He ordained priests to lead the new Christian communities. He converted wealthy women, some of whom became nuns in the face of family opposition. He also dealt with the sons of kings, converting them too.[14]
Familiar with the Irish language and culture, Patrick chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish. (Although there were a small number of Christians on the island when Patrick arrived, most Irish practiced a nature-based pagan religion.
And, in a diplomatic fashion he brought gifts toa kinglet here and a lawgiver there,but accepted none from any.
Insert from Wikipedia:Much of the Declarationconcerns charges made against Patrick by his fellow Christians at a trial. What these charges were, he does not say explicitly, but he writes that he returned the gifts which wealthy women gave him, did not accept payment for baptisms, nor for ordaining priests, and indeed paid for many gifts to kings and judges, and paid for the sons of chiefs to accompany him. It is concluded, therefore, that he was accused of some sort of financial impropriety, and perhaps of having obtained his bishopric in Ireland with personal gain in mind.[13]
Patrick's position as a foreigner in Ireland was not an easy one. His refusal to accept gifts from kings placed him outside the normal ties of kinship, fosterage and affinity. Legally he was without protection, and he says that he was on one occasion beaten, robbed of all he had, and put in chains, perhaps awaiting execution.[15]
Much Irish folklore surrounds St. Patrick's Day. Not much of it is actually substantiated.
Some of this lore includes the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead. He also 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, and some people think this is a metaphor for the conversion of the pagans. Though originally a Catholic holy day, St. Patrick's Day has evolved into more of a secular holiday.
History Channel: The Irish culture centered around a rich tradition of oral legend and myth. When this is considered, it is no surprise that the story of Patrick's life became exaggerated over the centuries-spinning exciting tales to remember history has always been a part of the Irish way of life.)
St. Brigit and St. PatrickBrigit's Shrine:
The Celtic world in pre-Christian times was devoted to the goddess Brigit, the all encompassing goddess of healing, farming (particularly dairy), crafts (particularly smith crafts and poetry, the craft of words) and fire. At Brigit's shrine at Kildare an ever burning sacred fire was kept lit in her honor by all female devotees. This shrine was later claimed by the church and there was built a convent. Brigit was canonized as St. Brigit and Catholic tradition had it that as a Druid convert to Christianity St.Brigit founded this the first convent in Ireland.
St. Brigit's legends:
Not only as a keeper of the goddess Brigit's sacred fire, many of the attributes and mythology of the ancient goddess was attributed St.Brigit.It was believed that flowers sprung up from where she walked and at springtime her cloak passed over the earth to bring it back to life. Asthe "Queen of Heaven" she was considered by ancient Celts on a par with Mary
the mother of Christ, some legends even referring to her as her sister, and as the nursemaid to the infant Christ child, feeding him with her sacred milk. In a popular spell to protect against the evil eye,she was invoked as "The Great White Mary sent to Bride (Brigit) the lovely fair."
Brigit and St. Patrick:
Brigit herself was considered in popular Irish mythology to be both mystic mother and bride of St. Patrick. Some legends have it that St. Patrick died as one of her sacrificial victims and entered the underworld via her sacred
grove at Derry Down. As the old Distich went, "On the hill of Down, burried in one tomb, were Bridget and Patricius."
St. Patrick's legends:
An Irish slave who grew to become bishop, St. Patrick is credited for traveling all over converting the Irish to Christianity. Patrick's name meant "father" and historians believe he may have been seen in the eyes of the ancient Irish as a new version of Brigit's old consort The Dagda or "father god(s)". The Dagda, also known as "the good god", was the Celtic God of the earth and plenty. As snakes were symbols of both the earth and the male life force, it is no wonder that they showed up in St.Patrick's most popular legend. The legend of St. Patrick driving the snakes from Ireland has come to be accepted as an allegory, as snakes were sacred to the Druids and also represented in Celtic thought esoteric knowledge.
His mission in Ireland lasted for thirty years (another source says over 20). After that time, Patrick retired to CountyDown. He died on March 17 in AD 461. That day has been commemorated as St. Patrick's Day ever since. The day's spirit is to celebrate the universal baptization of Ireland.
The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737. That was the first year St. Patrick's Day was publicly celebrated in this country, in Boston. (Or NYC a few year later.)
Today, people celebrate the day with parades, wearing of the green, and drinking beer. One reason St. Patrick's Day might have become so popular is that it takes place just a few days before the first day of spring. One might say it has become the first green of spring.
The First Parade
St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for thousands of years.
On St. Patrick's Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink, and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.
The first St. Patrick's Day parade took place not in Ireland, but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers to reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as fellow Irishmen serving in the English army.
Over the next thirty-five years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called "Irish Aid" societies, like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes (which actually first became popular in the Scottish and British armies) and drums.
No Irish Need Apply
Up until the mid-nineteenth century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million poor, uneducated, Catholic Irish began to pour into America to escape starvation. Despised for their religious beliefs and funny accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country's cities took to the streets on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.
However, the Irish soon began to realize that their great numbers endowed them with a political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the "green machine," became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick's Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Truman attended New York City 's St. Patrick's Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in America.
Wearing of the Green Goes Global
Today, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by people of all backgrounds in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest productions, St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated in other locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore, and Russia.
In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick's Day has traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use St. Patrick's Day as an opportunity to drive tourism and showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. Last year, close to one million people took part in Ireland 's St. Patrick's Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions, and fireworks shows.
The Chicago River
Chicago is also famous for a somewhat peculiar annual event: dyeing the Chicago River green. The tradition started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realized that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate the holiday. That year, they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river—enough to keep it green for a week!
Today, in order to minimize environmental damage, only forty pounds of dye are used, making the river green for only several hours. Although Chicago historians claim their city 's idea for a river of green was original, some Savannah natives believe the idea originated in their town.
They point out that 1961, Savannah mayor Tom Woolley had plans for a green river, but due to rough water on March 17, the experiment didn 't work and Savannah never attempted to dye its river again.
ShamrockOne traditional icon of the day is the shamrock. And this stems from a more bona fide Irish tale that tells how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.
History Channel insert:
The shamrock, which was also called the "seamroy" by the Celts, was a sacred plant in ancient Ireland because it symbolized the rebirth of spring. By the seventeenth century, the shamrock had become a symbol of emerging Irish nationalism. As the English began to seize Irish land and make laws against the use of the Irish language and the practice of Catholicism, many Irish began to wear the shamrock as a symbol of their pride in their heritage and their displeasure with English rule.
In written English, the first reference to the Shamrock dates from 1571, andin written Irish, as seamrog, from 1707. As a badge to be worn on the lapel on the Saint's feast day, it is referred to for the first time as late as 1681. The
Shamrock was used as an emblem by the Irish Volunteers in the era of Grattan's Parliament in the 1770's, before '98 and The Act of Union. So rebellious did the wearing of the Shamrock eventually appear, that in Queen
Victoria's time Irish regiments were forbidden to display it. At that time it became the custom for civilians to wear a little paper cross colored red and green.
As a symbol of Ireland it has long been integrated into the symbol of the United Kingdom, along with the Rose, the Thistle and the Leek of England, Scotland and Wales. So today, on St. Patrick's Day, a member of the British Royal Family presents Shamrock to the Irish Guards regiment of the British Army.
Click Here to send a Shamrock card!
THE MAGIC SHAMROCKThree is Ireland's magic number. Hence the Shamrock. Crone, Mother and Virgin. Love, Valour and Wit.. Faith, Hope and Charity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.Numbers played an important role in Celtic symbolism. Three was the most sacred and magical number. It multiplies to nine, which is sacred to Brigit. Three may have signified totality: past, present and future OR behind, before and here OR sky, earth and underworld. Everything good in Ireland comes in threes. The rhythm of story telling in the Irish tradition is based on threefold repetition. This achieves both intensification and exaggeration. Even today in quality pub talk, a raconteur can rarely resist a third adjective, especially if it means stretching a point."Three accomplishments well regarded in Ireland: a clever verse, music on the harp, the art of shaving faces."
The truth behind the shamrock
The shamrock is an iconic image
BBC News
It is commonly believed the shamrock is a clover - the Gaelic word seamrog means "little clover" - but the botanical world is not so sure.
There is much debate about which species is the real thing and some of the likely candidates are not even classified as clover.
This confusion is partly down to the mythology of the shamrock and the different representations that have appeared in Celtic artwork through the centuries.
According to Irish legend, the druids in Ireland looked at the shamrock as a sacred plant because its leaves formed a triad. Three was a mystical number in the Celtic religion.
Then St Patrick, who was thought to be born in Wales, used the shamrock in the 5th century to teach people about Christianity as he travelled around Ireland.
He told people that each of the three leaves illustrated the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit of the Holy Trinity.
/ WHICH IS THE TRUE SHAMROCK?
trifolium dubium (lesser trefoil) 46%
trifolium repens (white clover) 35%
medicap lupulina (black medick) 7%
oxalis acetosella (wood sorrel) 5%
trifolium pratense (red clover) 4%
Source: Survey of Irish people by Charles Nelson, 1988
Old Irish manuscripts make no reference to this in connection with St Patrick, so this is likely to be pure mythology.
According to Nathaniel Colgan, the botanist and author of The Flora Of County Dublin in 1904, people even ate the shamrock in times of famine.
In the 19th century it became a symbol of rebellion against the English and began to be strongly associated with Irish identity. Apparently anyone wearing it risked death by hanging.
Botanist Charles Nelson carried out a shamrock survey in 1988 for his book Shamrock: botany and history of an Irish myth.
He asked Irish people to collect what they imagined to be shamrocks and send them to him.
/ The shamrock is known from artwork and not from an exact botanical representation, so to fix a species to it is quite difficult
James Armitage,
Royal Horticultural Society
The top five species can all be found in northern Europe and all but two are forms of clover. Only the trifolium can strictly be called clover.
The trifolium dubium, which can be found throughout the British Isles, was the most common in Dr Nelson's survey.
It is an annual plant which grows to 25cm in height, and can be bought in seed packets.
The trifolium repens, or white clover, is commonly found on lawns as a wildflower.
Scottish puzzle
James Armitage of the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley told BBC News Online the five species were all similar looking plants.
"They have this trifoliate leaf so if you are not an expert they can be easily confused.
"The shamrock is known from artwork and not from an exact botanical representation, so to fix a species to it is quite difficult.
"The plant itself is not particularly fascinating. It's slightly weedy and grows in grassy areas and open ground."
He said there was a similar conundrum surrounding the Scottish thistle because no one was sure what species it was meant to represent.
The four-leaf clover is said to be a lucky charm and it comes about when the plant mutates.
THE LEPRECHAUN
[Insert from wikipedia] There are a number of possible etymologies of the name "leprechaun". One of the most widely accepted theories is that the name comes from the Irish Gaelic word leipreachán, defined by Dinneen as "a pigmy, a sprite, a leprechaun; for luchorpán"; the latter word Dinneen defines as "a pigmy, a leprechaun; 'a kind of aqueous sprite'";[2] this word has also been identified as meaning "half-bodied", or "small-bodied". This is the etymology given in the Collins English Dictionary.[3]The word which is widely believed to be the root and one of the ones quoted by the Oxford English Dictionary is luchorpán. An alternative derivation for the name and another one quoted by the Oxford English Dictionary, is leath bhrógan, meaning shoe-maker — the leprechaun is known as the fairy shoemaker of Ireland and is often portrayed working on a single shoe.[4]
Another derivation has the word "leprechaun" deriving from luch-chromain, meaning "little stooping Lugh", Lugh being the name of a leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann.[5]
The word leprechaun was first recorded used in the English language in 1604 [in a book].
Some alternative spellings of the word leprechaun that have been used throughout the ages are; leprechawn, lepracaun and lubberkin. The word leprehaun has also been used.
The Leprechaun is an Irish fairy. He looks like a small, old man (about 2 feet tall), often dressed like a shoemaker, with a cocked hat and a leather apron. According to legend, leprechauns are aloof and unfriendly, live alone, and pass the time making shoes. They also possess a hidden pot of gold. Treasure hunters can often track down a leprechaun by the sound of his shoemaker's hammer. If caught, he can be forced (with the threat of bodily violence) to reveal the whereabouts of his treasure, but the captor must keep their eyes on him every second. If the captor's eyes leave the leprechaun (and he often tricks them into looking away), he vanishes and all hopes of finding the treasure are lost.
Leprechaun: