The Amazing Story of St Patrick

Saint Patrick ( St Benin’s Church -Ireland)

Dear Reader:

When it comes to understanding the real St Patrick… the folklore stories surrounding his life have to be separated from his real life -( forget those snakes-didn’t happen) BUT his true life is ” stranger than fiction.” Unbelievably so…,

Oh… and don’t worry if you can’t find something green to wear today-the color originally associated with St Patrick was blue! ( green is more for Ireland) And besides… Kermit the frog always admitted ” It’s not easy being green.”

Today one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world is St Patrick’s …in New York City. Over 30 million Americans today can trace their ancestry back to Ireland … and on St Patrick’s Day -just about everyone wants to be Irish.

St Patrick’s real name was Maewyn Succat-he was born and lived in Great Britain ( part of Scotland today) … and sadly it was here, at the tender age of 16, he was abducted by an Irish raiding party in what became known as ” smash and grab jobs.” If you fought back you were killed -he was taken as a slave where his job was to protect the sheep and lambs from a variety of ferocious predators.

Patrick’s father had been a deacon-a highly thought of Catholic and he had , no doubt, instilled a strong faith in Patrick as the family daily prayed for his safe return.

It was during this difficult part of his life-lonely and depressed that he turned to God in prayer-praying non-stop that he be delivered from his bondage and returned back to his loving family.

Six years later he escaped when an Angel came to him in a dream and showed him the path home– including where a ship was anchored to take him on the first leg of the journey.

Imagine the happiness in his family upon his miraculous return. Patrick soon fully understood his vocation now… to enter the priesthood. It was after accomplishing this life goal he started hearing the ” voices ” -that tormented him -they started calling out at night repeatedly crying out ” Come back to us Patrick.” They were Irish voices.

After much prayer, he once again put his faith in God and returned to Ireland as a missionary. Though never canonized by a pope… his mission to bring Christianity to Ireland far surpassed anything imaginable. Today he is not only the Patron Saint of Ireland but several other countries.

St Patrick’s Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival. Green lights appear on the Roman Colosseum, Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Sydney Opera House.

In London ( The London Eye) Irish Embassy is lit green every St Paddy’s Day.

At the White House the North White House fountain turns green on March 17 -which marks the death-date of St Patrick and also commemorates the arrival of Christianity in Ireland.

St Patrick also left us the Celtic Cross incorporating the sun that had once been worshipped in Ireland and the sacred standing stone -marked with a circle-symbolic of the moon that the Druids once worshipped-he wanted to demonstrate that both the sun and the moon were created by God and part of His universe.

And now St Patrick gets to share this special commemoration with our Lachlan-the night after he was born-Mollie and Walsh decided to go with an Irish name-Lachlan for a body of water like a lake.

When Lachlan was born Walsh and Mollie were waiting to see if it was a boy or girl too-so the blog readers got to try and guess along with the date. My readers picked a boy by a wide margin and Anne chose St Patrick’s Day for his arrival -right on target!