Today is St. Patrick's Day

1910

Dedicated to Saint Who Instituted Christianity in Ireland

There are several different legends concerning St. Patrick, the most popular of which is the one that tells of his driving the vermin from Ireland. These are only legends, however, and a summary of the facts of the life and works of St. Patrick is as follows:

St. Patrick, the tutelary saint of Ireland, was born about the year 372 at Kirk Patrick, and came to be a distinguished missionary of the fifth century. When a boy he was taken by pirates and sold to an Irish chief. He escaped after six years and went to France, where he became a monk. In the year 432 he was sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine as a missionary. He sailed north with the hope of converting his old master, but the latter killed himself when he heard of St. Patrick's approach. Diehu, a chief converted by St. Patrick, gave him his first church, called Sabhall, and it is still a church bearing the same name. St. Patrick is said to have founded 365 churches, baptized 12,000 people, and consecrated 450 bishops. The date of his death is disputed, the latest date given being 490, which would make him about 120 years old.

Certainly the most marvelous of all the miracles ascribed to the saints is that recorded of St. Patrick: "He swam across the Shannon with his head in his mouth!"

There is one legend relating to the time when St. Patrick cleared Ireland of its vermin. It tells how one old serpent resisted, and how St. Patrick overcame him by cunning. He made a box and invited the serpent to enter. The serpent insisted that the box was too small, and so fierce did the contention grow that the serpent got into the box to prove that he was right, whereupon St. Patrick slammed down the lid and cast the box into the sea. This tale sounds suspiciously like that one entitled "The Fisherman" in the "Arabian Nights."

"St. Patrick's Breastplate," the earliest Christian ode of Ireland, is said to have been composed by St. Patrick. It is sometimes called the guardsman's cry, and is recited as a protection against evil. The assured chronology of Ireland dates from the institution of Christianity by St. Patrick.