Picturesque Variety of Incidents Crowded Into Life of the Great Apostle
Popular tradition has surrounded the life of St. Patrick whose festival all loyal Irish celebrate, with a more picturesque variety of incidents than has been the fate of any other saint. Whether they are true or not is a matter of little importance if the stories are good. They have to be good, for the Irish are the authors.
One of the most famous of the myths connected with St. Patrick, perhaps the most famous after the traditional expulsion of snakes from Ireland, is the story of how the saint became connected with the shamrock. When St. Patrick first began to talk to the heathen Irish of the Trinity they did not believe him till he picked a shamrock and illustrated the doctrine by three leaves growing on one stem. This concrete analogy appealed to the druids and most of them became Christians.
These druids were St. Patrick's worst enemies, and he was forced by their hostility to act in a manner somewhat inappropriate for a saint. He cursed their lands for them, so that they became waste and drear bogs; he cursed their rivers, so that no fish could live in them: he cursed their kettles, so that they would not boil, and finally he cursed the earth, so that it opened and swallowed them up.
The saint's most famous achievement was the ridding Ireland of snakes. The method he employed was novel at least. He simply called all the serpents together to the top of a mountain and compelled them to swallow each other until there was none left, but, as the Englishman said, that seems improbable.
A lovely children's collection of Irish folklore
and poetry from Kathleen Krull, illustrated by David McPhail.
A more authentic account is that he drove the snakes out by beating a drum, and that, in his enthusiasm, he knocked a hole in it, which an angel at once came and mended. One huge snake he is said to have chained in Lough Dilveen, and even to this day, every Monday morning, the snake calls out in good Irish:
"It's a long Monday, Patrick!"
St. Patrick seems to have taken a great delight in performing miracles. Once when he was in England he saw a leper who wanted to make a voyage in a certain ship, but the captain would not let him. St. Patrick took a stone altar which had been consecrated b the pope and threw it into the water. He then made the leper sit on the altar, which floated and kept up with the ship for the whole voyage.
He had a habit of setting a cross at the grave of a Christian whenever he could. In his travels one day he came upon two newly made graves at the head of one of which was a cross, St. Patrick stopped and asked the man in this grave what his religion was. The man replied he was a pagan.
"Why, then, is this cross placed at your head?" St. Patrick asked.
The man replied that his companion had become a Christian and that a mistake had been made in placing the cross. St. Patrick then corrected the error and went his way.
But even St. Patrick made mistakes. He was once tempted to eat meat wen it was not proper to do so. He got some pork, but hid it for a time and before he found an opportunity to eat it he met a man with a pair of eyes in the back of his head in addition to the usual ones in front. St. Patrick asked the meaning of this and the man replied that with the eyes in his face he saw such things as other men saw, but with those in the back of his head he saw secret things and he now saw a monk hiding some fresh meat that he might eat it secretly. St. Patrick was a once stricken with remorse and prayed for forgiveness. And angel then appeared and commanded him to put the pork into water. This he did, and it was immediately changed into fishes.
Such tales as these are told of by the Irish themselves with no hint of disrespect. They are merely the evidences of the all-pervading humor of this light-hearted people and should be taken in the same spirit by others. In spite of them the Irish worship the memory of St. Patrick above all other saints.
Illustration of Exodus 17:11 from the Book of Kells
watch the movie "The Secret of Kells" to celebrate
St. Patricks Day.
It should not be imagined, however, that the traditions concerning the patron saint of Ireland are all humorous. Some of them embody that sense of the beautiful which is also an Irish characteristic. One of the most attractive of these tales is that of St. Patrick and the kings daughters.
In the year 433 he celebrated
Easter by converting many thousands of the inhabitants. After the
termination of the services he went to Turn to try to convert the king.
But the king would have none of the new religion, and St. Patrick's life
was in danger. In despair he was departing from the town when he passed
a fountain near which were two fair maidens. The maidens, full of
wonder at St. Patrick's white garments, asked him who he was.
St. Patrick told them he was a bishop of God and expounded the principles of Christianity. They were delighted with his discourse and became converted at once. Then they asked St. Patrick to return to Turn where their father was king.
St. Patrick, much surprised to hear that two maidens were daughters of the king he had just visited, accompanied them back to the castle. Here the king was persuaded by the princesses to accept the new religion. The next day 12,000 of the people followed the example of their king and princesses. Carrizozo Outlook, 1918
Notes - The illustration of The Holy Trinity with a three leaf clover is actually not a "myth". A myth is a widely held but false belief or idea. The teaching of a concept with a literal illustration attached to an object is called a parable or a metaphor.
Now parables are often referred to as myth when spoken about or described by "non-believers." The fact that you do not believe in something does not always mean that therefore it is incorrect. One must have proof that something is incorrect in order to successfully deny it's existence and the idea that St. Patrick may have spoken to the Irish in parables is not a very far fetched notion. After all, he was a follower of Jesus and Jesus often spoke in parables while giving sermons.
"The expulsion of snakes from Ireland," is also not a literal reference to snakes, but to paganism; the Irish do love to tell a good tale. The Irish worshiped gods and goddesses who used snakes to represent their ideology in St. Patrick's time and this is a reference to their practices.
However, St. Patrick did not need to drive the pagans from Ireland through hostility like some folks wish to believe. The Irish converted to Christianity by their own free will quite easily. In fact, they converted so quickly that one might assume that a life time of superstition and fear was a bit depressing and well, unappealing at best. Christianity offered to the Irish hope in a God who would always forgive, love and welcome them home in death. And who would turn such an idea down? Not even a druid; I'd venture to guess.
Those who hated St. Patrick did so because they lost power to dominate and take pleasure in subjecting others to their own evil pleasures. That is a historical fact. To deny this obvious fact means that one is merely of the nature to live at the expense of another's demise. In other words, it is like an addict complaining because he is not allowed to rob who he chooses in order to feed his own appetites. St. Patrick did not "hate" anybody with his belief. In fact he freed much of Ireland from selfish tyranny. This is why he is celebrated all over the world. He also instrumentally preserved knowledge during a time when most of Europe was waging war against itself.
The cursing of rivers, land and kettles is not likely to have been within the power of a mere mortal. If such a thing did occur, I imagine that the The Lord had more to do with it than St. Patrick. (grin)
An Englishman who had toured the United States said to an American friend:
"I cannot understand it. On the 22nd of February I supposed there would be a grand national demonstration in honor of George Washington. But nothing occured. On the 17th of March the city I was in was decorated in green flags and Irish emblems fluttered everywhere, the hotel menu card was in green ink and the evening paper came out in green.
"Bands played in the streets, men paraded, the city police force and military turned out, there were balls, banquets and public speaking. What I want to know is whether St. Patrick or George Washington is the nation's patron saint."
Some idea of how powerful a figure St. Patrick was may be gained by comparing the memory of St. Patrick, born 1,535 years ago, with that of George Washington, who has been dead a little more than a century.
St. Patrick went to Ireland when it was plunged in the darkness of paganism. He confronted a hostile people with a dozen assistants. He carried the new civilization with him. He met a fighting race and subdued it single-handed.
His first work in reaching a community was to preach the gospel in the native tongue of the people. This he did with Pauline fervor and a fire of conviction which fired the heart and imagination of the people. You can look at the work of any Irish priest to-day and see the duplication of St. Patrick's method. First a talk to the people, then the building of a church, then the erection of a school, and then the exhortation to practice the Christian virtues, the succor of the widow and the orphans, the weak, the fallen and the aged.
Patrick established universities which, by the labor of the inmates, were self-sustaining, and to which the youth of England flocked by thousands. Europe, during his lifetime, was in conflagration. Hordes of the north, Goths and Vandals, ravaged the south, and the lamp of learning, extinguished on the continent, burned brightly in the cloisters of the monasteries and universities of Ireland. Patrick translated nothing into Irish. He taught the Irish Latin and implanted, full born, the civilization of Christian Rome.
He introduced the arts and crafts, developed agriculture, taught industry, application and love of work. Institutions of learning, churches and homes of religious workers, training schools and seminaries, were supported, not by contributions, but by labor of the inmates.
From idleness to industry, from fighting to the arts of peace, from Druidical worship to Christian practice and ideals, St. Patrick turned the whole island by personal effort and example, by incessant exhausting toil. He died as he lived, without the possession of a groat.
The arts and letters, science and biblical knowledge which fled from the continent took refuge in the famous schools which made Durrow and Arragh the universities of the west. To the eternal honor of Irish hospitality be it said that these thousands of strangers from every country in Europe were not only welcomed, but supplied gratuitousily with books, clothes and food.
The scholarship thus engendered refurbished Europe when, a century's anarchy over, the Irish missionaries emerged from schools and flashed over the charred remains of European civilization the sacred light of learning.
So, when the bearer of the name Patrick, laborer and toiler though he be, remembers that his title is descended from one of the proudest in Rome, patrician, and thinks in his poverty and humility of the ancient glory of his people, where is there an American who will not honor in him the survival through the centuries of the pride and learning and achievement of his ancestors, and join him on St. Patrick's day in singing "All Hail to St. Patrick!" The Marion Daily Mirror, March 17th, 1909.
As part of a more than fifty-year-old Chicago tradition, the
Chicago River is dyed green in observance of St. Patrick's Day. The
actual event does not necessarily occur on St. Patrick's Day and is
scheduled for the Saturday of the closest weekend. The dye takes days to
dissipate.
The tradition of dyeing the river green arose by accident when some
plumbers used fluorescein dye to trace sources of illegal pollution
discharges. The dyeing of the river is still sponsored by the local
plumbers union.
A Shamrock Mosaic Simple Enough for Children 3, 4 and 5 Years Old to Craft
A dried green pea mosaic craft easy enough for very young children to craft!
Supply List:
dried green peas
uncooked rice brown or white
white paper plates
white school glue
stencil
Directions:
Teachers need to prepare the paper plates in advance. Draw and cut a shamrock stencil for this assignment. Cut it twice, once from scratch paper. Trace it onto the paper plate and cut out the second stencil. This second stencil will be easier to trace around quickly because it will include the contours of the paper plate. Now trace around it for however many paper plates you need in the classroom; one per student. Make sure you use a either a permanent ink marker or a pencil to do this so that the white glue will not cause the shamrock tracing to smear during the glueing process.
Pour out an ample supply of dried green peas into a shallow tray for the little ones to pick from during the project.
Emphasize to them the importance in filling up their shamrock entirely with the green peas and white school glue. Have a sample their to show them how their completed shamrock should look.
On the second day, students may repeat the same process of gluing with white or brown rice, filling in the outside space surrounding the shamrock.
This is a good opportunity for teachers to discuss positive and negative space concepts with their young students.
Students may then paste a boarder of green peas around the ridge of the paper plate on the third day. By this time they should be less intimidated by the pasting process.
Simple Clover Mosaic Craft for First, Second, and Third Graders
This clover mosaic is a bit more complex; it is assembled using torn and shredded shapes of paper.
Above photos show parts of the St. Patrick's Day craft up close.
A photo of my intermediate level paper mosaic for 1rst -3rd grade.
Supply List:
brown, black, white, and several varieties of green construction paper
white glue
shamrock stencil (optional)
white lead pencils
Directions:
Teachers should draw a simple clover on a chalk board or a white board demonstrating to his or her students what the parts of clover are.
Give each students a large black sheet of construction paper and a white pencil or a white crayon to draw a similar clover leaf pattern onto their paper.
Students may then tear the green papersand glue these pieces inside their clover leaf drawings. This part of the project may be further complicated if the teacher chooses to do so by using hand painted green papers to craft the purple clover leafs as I have done in the sample shown. Often times teachers choose to do this so that the assignment may be used to stretch over several days and including more processes in order to teach a combination of skills under the same assignment. If you want the assignment to be less complex, simply exclude this part of it and use plain green construction paper. However, do include a variety of greens so that the students may alternate the shades and craft an interesting abstract pattern.
After completing the clover, students may then select background colors consisting of at the very least, two colors of construction paper. I used black and brown for my teacher's example. But students may wish to choose more vibrant colors than these.
Next paste shredded lavender papers on top of each other to create delicate looking purple clover. I used a dark purple, and lighter purple and a white colored paper for this part of the assignment. Purple clover is very common to the State of Missouri where I live and so it is a natural selection of color for me to make for this mosaic. However, I could have chosen to use shades of grey for white clover blossoms if I had preferred them.
After the pictures dry, teachers may then choose to have students cover their mosaics with Modge Podge in order to better preserve their work.
A Fun Recyclable Clover Mosaic for Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Graders
Upper Left, The shredded purple papers for the purple clover flower buds. Lower Left,
The hand cut shredded painted papers for the clover's foliage. Right, The layered shredded
newsprint and shredded color paper mix for the first layer of the paper mosaic.
The finished purple clover, paper mosaic for St. Patrick's Day. This paper mosaic is complex enough
to hold the interests of fourth through sixth graders. It may also be challenging to students in middle school.
Close up camera shots of the purple clover mosaic.
Supply List:
newsprint
magazines
printed green papers
scissors
white glue
Directions:
This project provides the perfect opportunity to introduce your students to the concept of recycling discarded papers on order to create works of art.
The first layer of this St. Patrick's Day craft are made with shredded old newspapers and tossed construction paper scraps that have been cut into smaller pieces.
I have included detailed photos here of how paper may be shredded by hand to craft very detailed complex art work. Encourage your students to spend time doing this scissor work over several days. Give them zip lock plastic bags to keep their shredded paper in.
Students will need to cut green hearts in advance for clover leaves and shred tiny pieces of lavender paper to paste in lumps for the purple clover.
As you may have guessed, they will need an ample supply of white glue or wheat paste if you prefer to mix this prior to their pasting together the layers.
The project is designed to take place over a few days of drying time between layers. However it is possible to do an entire mosaic over two hours with very little trouble. How much trouble will dependent upon the student's age and dexterity, and also upon the size of the initial paper given for the "field" of clover. If you are concerned about time constraints, use 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch paper for the background. I choose to use large sheets of newsprint for my paper mosaic project.
I also cut my clover leaves and green stems from painted papers in order to complicate the assignment for older students. They will need an extra day for painting papers with brayers and combs.
Teachers may also use a paper shredder in order to speed up the art assignment for impatient participants. However, I applaud those students who are willing to develop the tenacity involved in manipulating their paper mosaics over several class periods. Certainly this should be encouraged with those students who are home schooled and have the opportunity to develop artwork over several days without time constraints.
After the artwork has been completed, teachers may choose to have their students brush on a top layer of Modge Podge in order to preserve their creations from damage. This will definitely need to be done if these pictures are to be displayed in the school's hallways.
Plant Long Held "Sacred"
Clover, of Which the Shamrock is a Species, Was Much Thought Of by the Ancient Greeks
It is difficult to say what was the original shamrock, trefoil or Hero Trinity. The leaf now recognized as the national emblem is that of the white clover, but the name shamrock is the generic and is applied also to the purple clover, the speedwell, the pimpernel and to the wood sorrel.
The clover of two or four leaves was held sacred in the festivals of the Greeks. The one of four leaves, when carried about, is supposed to insure success at play and confer the power of detecting evil spirits. The lover may put it under his pillow and he will dream of his beloved, or the maiden may slip it into her sweetheart's show without his knowledge and it will insure his safe return from any journey. It may be employed to prevent the wearer's being drawn into military service, is said to be a cure for lunacy, and is still, among the Irish, regarded as magical, even sacred. Snakes dislike it exceedingly and will not remain where it is growing.
Some say that four-leaf shamrock is the shamrock of luck, and others that it is the five-leaved one that holds the magic touch. This latter is rare and prized and is said to grown from a decaying body, as the nettle is said to spring from buried human remains. The shamrock of luck must be found "without searching, without seeking." When thus discovered it should be cherished and preserved as an invincible talisman.The Semi-Weekly Tribune, North Platte, Nebraska, 1918
"Danny Boy" is a ballad written by English songwriter Frederic Weatherly and usually set to the Irish tune of the "Londonderry Air". It is most closely associated with Irish communities.
Although initially written to a tune other than "Londonderry Air", the words to "Danny Boy" were penned by English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly in Bath, Somerset
in 1910. After his Irish-born sister-in-law Margaret (known as Jess) in
the United States sent him a copy of "Londonderry Air" in 1913 (an
alternative version has her singing the air to him in 1912 with
different lyrics), Weatherly modified the lyrics of "Danny Boy" to fit
the rhyme and meter of "Londonderry Air".
Weatherly gave the song to the vocalist Elsie Griffin, who made it one of the most popular songs in the new century; and, in 1915, Ernestine Schumann-Heink produced the first recording of "Danny Boy".
Jane Ross of Limavady is credited with collecting the melody of "Londonderry Air" in the mid-19th century from a musician she encountered.
The
most beloved song of Gordon B. Hinckley, "Danny Boy" was originally
intended as a love song sung by a girl to her sweetheart, but it is now
more often associated with brotherly affection between friends. When
McKay Crockett collaborated with Keith Evans for this arrangement, Evans
viewed the lyrics in a different way: about a father struggling to
share his feelings with his departing son. In the newly written final
verse, the father contemplates that perhaps he will outlive his precious
Danny Boy.
LYRICS
O Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen and down the mountainside.
The summer's gone and all the roses falling.
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,
Or all the valley's hushed and white with snow.
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
O Danny Boy, O Danny Boy, I love you so.
When winter's come and all the flow'rs are dying,
And I am dead, as dead I well may be,
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.
But I shall hear, though soft you tread above me,
And all my grave shall warmer, sweeter be.
And you will bend and tell me that you love me;
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.
O Danny Boy, the stream flows cool and slowly;
And pipes still call and echo 'cross the glen.
Your broken mother sighs and feels so lowly,
For you have not returned to smile again.
So if you've died and crossed the stream before us,
We pray that angels met you on the shore;
And you'll look down, and gently you'll implore us
To live so we may see your smiling face once more,
This little shamrock pattern appeared in "The St. Paul Globe, Sunday, April 17, 1904.
A newspaper clipping of an early pattern for pyrography in 1904.
"Can you suggest a pretty birthday gift, one that I can make myself, for a friend whose anniversary occurs in the month of March?" writes a girl reader.
In answer she will find the picture of a charming little pyrographed case for postage stamps or other uses--and the pattern, exact size, to be followed in making it.
A box of the proper size can be secured anywhere where pyrographic supplies, etc., are on sale.
Transfer the pattern given to the lid of the box, and scorch it in with delicate lines.
The first step is to tint your box all over, using water colors.
Commence by washing the wood with a very thin wash of burnt sienna.
On this, before it is perfectly dry, let fall drops of very liquid pale green.
Now, put it aside to dry, leaving it to chance to work out a good effect by the mingling of these two colors.
When perfectly dry put in the foliage which decorates the corners with a warm green.
A rich pink is used for the little roses in the corners and for the petals of the eglantine, which forms the center of the the design. It is now complete, save for a light coat of varnish.
The original shamrock and roses pattern, 1904, for pyrography projects for those of you who would like to reproduce it.
St. Patrick's day in the morning,
An' I donned a sprig av green,
An' away for the day, wid laughter gay,
Wid me own dear, swate colleen;
Wid Nellie, me blue-eyed darlint;
Wid Nellie, me own colleen!
An' it's gree, I ween, on our brists Is seen
St. Patrick's day in the morning.
Ah! St. Patrick's day at midday--
It is thin the bands are seen,
An' the way they play all the bilased day
At the "Wearing ay the Green!"
Yis, chunes like "God Save Ireland"
An' "The Wearing av the Green,"
An the rhyme an' chime av that chune subline,
"St. Patrick's Day in the Morning!"
St. Patrick's day in the avening,
Whin the sun has gone to rist,
Thin I'll tell me Nell what she knows so well-
Who it is I love the bist.
An' sure it's this I'm thinkin',
Whin I say, "Jist name the day,"
She will say, so gay: "Arrah, now, the day?
St. Patrick's day in the morning!"
Above, setting up for the snake mosaic art project. Right, teachers sample.
Student work in progress, this assignment took quite a while.
So what is sooooo Irish about snakes? Well, St. Patrick drove them out of Ireland. The snakes driven from Ireland were not like the snakes we worked with and on during this assignment however.
As you may guess from the photo, I used a paper shredder for this assignment. The students then cut their own little "paper tiles" from the strips of construction paper as they glued them down to the surface of their pictures. The children drew their snakes with yellow and white crayons first on the dark construction paper before beginning to fill them in with paper mosaic tiles.
Below are a few snapshots of the "snake man" who came to share these slithery beasts with our kids. I just had to take a few photographs of the children holding the large banana colored python. Their expressions and yelps were unforgettable, well, at least those coming from the surviving students.
Our students were very brave as you can imagine.
I kept my distance from this little demonstration. Snakes give me the creeps!
Nesbitt Smith delle Celtic Woman in una fantastica esibizione. I use St. Patrick's Day projects as an opportunity to integrate studies in Irish culture. Here is a wonderful video demonstrating Irish folk music!
A simple pot of gold, a few shamrocks and a rainbow made from a paper plate are all you need to
craft this playful little St. Patrick's Day Mobile.
Craft and Hang a Mobile of a Rainbow, Shamrocks and a Lucky Pot of Gold!
Students can craft this lucky pot of gold from just a few simple paper supplies: gold foil cupcake liners, scissors, white glue, magic markers and black and green construction paper.
Cut a simple pot from black construction paper and glue inside the gold foil cup cake liner to illustrate your pot of gold.
Cut out bunches of shamrocks to string along the side the pot of gold from bright green paper.
Then each student will need a paper plate to cut in half so that they may color in the shape of a rainbow twice.
After threading the shamrocks and pot of gold, glue these threads on the inside half of one paper plate so that the threads will hang between the rainbow shapes.
Glue the decorated paper plates back to back so that the mobiles may be viewed from both sides.
Weave a Giant Shamrock to Hang From The Ceiling!
I cut giant green shamrocks from painted green papers for the woven mobile pictured below. I then chose plain stripes of pale green construction paper for the paper streamers. Although, teachers or students may wish to weave their shamrocks alternatively with crepe paper streamers. Glue together the unpainted sides of your green shamrocks so that these mobiles may be viewed from either side if you should chose to hang them in the center of the classroom. I have linked to a video here that demonstrates this basic weaving procedure.
Above are four photos showing a woven paper shamrock banner.
For
more Irish clip art or St. Patrick's Day clip art, click on the links
below. We will keep a current listing of new and old clip art
collections for St. Patrick's Day here.
Visit the Ireland First!
Irish clipart archive for over 250 free from copyright images. Ireland
First's archive boasts of a gigantic collection of shamrocks, pots 'o
gold, leprechauns, clover, beer mugs brimming with green bear, Irish
flags, Irish dancers etc...
The Horse Racing Net has a general collection of St. Patrick's Day shamrocks, bullets, liners and leprechauns.
myFreeClipArt.com
has St. Patrick's Day greetings, Irish mice, green dragons, Irish
harps, kissing green frogs, leprechauns, pots of gold and Irish lassies
with clover.
Parenting with Lee Hansen has Irish scrapbook graphics perfect for printing out gift tags, cards, crafty pictures and more.
Karen's Whimsy
has large pictures scanned from old postcards and children's book
illustrations. There are many options here so keep turning pages to find
what you need.
Kaboose.com
has a sweet small collection of St. Patrick's Day clip art for
children. There are cartoons of kids puttin' on the green, lovable green
teddy bears, small fairies and clover selections for your craft
projects located here.
Visit theKidzpage.com
for classic fun St. Patrick's Day clip art. Most leprechauns, laughing
shamrocks, pudgy teddy bears etc... are computer animated. Your kids
will love these fun Irish graphics!
ClipsAhoy.com has 12 goofy cartoons of St. Patrick's Day Clipart for your enjoyment!
Anne's St. Patrick Day Graphics
include animations and old illustrations. Choose from lucky horse
shoes, an Irish lassie or laddy, leprechauns fiddling and playing tunes,
or even cuddly pets displaying the green.
ChristiaNet has a free Holy Trinity Shamrock, one Irish knot cross and a teddy bear with a clover ballon.
Designed to a T has a popular page of simple St. Patrick's Day graphics.
Search freeceltic.com
large free Celtic art designs to learn about Celtic graphics. This
collection contains Celtic alphabets, Celtic animal designs, Celtic
backgrounds, buttons, shapes, and Celtic shields.
iStockphoto has original Celtic designs for spot illustrations on invitations and advertisements. Check 'em out!
The personage whose natal day is celebrated with such enthusiasm by our Irish citizens was unquestionably the brightest luminary that adorned the Emerald Isle, for by his almost herculean labors he rescued that land from paganism. Some uncertainty exists as to the date and place of Patrick's birth. The most reliable historians, however, concur in the belief that he was born about the year 396 in the British-Roman province of Valentia, at a place near the Clyde, not far from the modern Dumbarton, called from him Kilpatrick.
Click directly on the portrait of St. Patrick to
download a coloring page.
About the year 432 he began his missionary work of converting the pagans of Ireland to Christianity. It is said that during his stay in the island he founded 365 churches, baptized with his own hands more then 1,200 persons and ordained a great number of priests. He died about the year 469 at a place called Saul, near Downpatrick, and his relics were preserved till the time of the Reformation.
It is but natural that the land which produced a Fingal and an Ossian should abound in legends of the great missionary who taught the Christian religion to the Irish pagans -- stories, some of which are surrounded with an atmosphere of beauty, others that are wild and ridiculous. His explanation of the Trinity to his hearers, whose simple minds could not conceive of the existence of three in one, was timely and satisfactory. Plucking a stem of the shamrock from the earth at his feet, he pointed out to his congregation the three leaves growing from the one stalk, by that simple illustration bringing the members of his flock to a realization of a Triune God. Since then that trefoil plant has been sacred, and together with the harp has been the emblem of the Emerald Isle.
As long as the shamrock continues to spring from the soil of Erin the true Celt will observe the yearly recurring holiday that is supposed to mark the anniversary of the birth of Ireland's patron saint. It is true that many well-informed Irishmen will tell us that the 17th of March is not celebrated as the birthday of Patrick, because it is by no means certain that it is the correct date: but that the day is merely set apart as a time upon which to honor the old saint's memory. But, be that as it may, the majority of people, and perhaps a majority of the Irish, consider it the birthday anniversary of Ireland's great evangelist. What the Fourth of July is to the true-born American St. Patrick's day is to both the native Irishman and the Irish-American. It is true that the latter is loyal to his adopted country, and has many times proved his patriotism, but when the 17th of March appears the citizen of Hibernian blood is ready to celebrate a day this is exclusively his own--a day commemorating, an event that occurred 15 centuries ago, yet which remains undimmed by the mists of time.
It must be confessed that the celebration of St. Patrick's day is not upon the whole invested with any marked degree of sanity by its participants--that is apparent at least to American eyes. Of course, upon that occasion appropriate ceremonies are conducted in the churches with becoming reverence, but to Irishmen as a whole the anniversary of the old saint's nativity is looked forward to as a day for participating in all the pomp and pageantry of the street parade, in which the green flag with the harp and shamrock shares the honors of the day with the Star and Stripes of the Milesian's adopted country.
Looked at from a meteorological point of view the festival of the canonized Patrick's birth enjoys a distinction that is by no means mythical. Those who have long made a study of the weather and its vagaries can testify that the 17th of March as it appears each year is as a rule, characterized by storms of either rain or snow, or gales of wind. The few exceptions to this phenomenon only prove the rule. The boisterous deportment of the elements on that day, however, are easily accounted for by the fact that the Vernal equinox is then near at hand, when elemental and atmospheric, disturbances are liable to occur.
Saint Patrick's Confessio Hypertext Stack
as published by the Royal Irish Academy Dictionary of Medieval Latin
from Celtic Sources (DMLCS) freely providing digital scholarly editions
of St Patrick's writings as well as translations and digital facsimiles
of all extant manuscript copies.
Brown Bag Films, or Brown Bag, is an Irish-Canadian television animation production studio, based in Dublin,
Ireland with a 2D facility based in Manchester, UK. Best known for its
character CGI-animated television series' and short films, including the
Oscar nominated Give Up Yer Aul Sins and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty.
Brown Bag Films was established in 1994 by Cathal Gaffney and Darragh
O'Connell and the studio has garnered a number of awards, including
Academy Award nominations for Give Up Yer Aul Sins (Best Animated Short Film 2001) and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty (Best Animated Short Film 2010), six Emmy Award wins for Peter Rabbit, an Emmy award for Bing and a number of BAFTA, Emmy and Annie nominations for their shows Octonauts, Doc McStuffins and Henry Hugglemonster. Read more...
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