What is St. Patrick’s Day?
St. Patrick’s day is a national holiday in Ireland and a widely celebrated day in the United States, if for no other reason than being a good excuse for Americans to leave work early and drink green beer.
Who was St. Patrick?
But who was St. Patrick and why do we celebrate his special day? St. Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British missionary and bishop in Ireland known as the “Apostle of Ireland”. Although he was never formally canonized, he is considered the primary patron saint of Ireland.
According to Patrick’s autobiography called “Confessio of Patrick”, he was captured by Irish pirates at the age of sixteen from his home in Britain and taken as a slave to Ireland where he was a shepherd. After living in Ireland for six years, he heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home and that his ship was ready. He then fled to a port two hundred miles away where he found a ship and was able to persuade the captain to allow him to board. After returning to Britain, Patrick studied Christianity, was ordained as a priest and, returned to Ireland as a Christian Missionary.
Why is St. Patrick’s day on March 17th?
Although no one knows for sure the exact dates of Patrick’s birth and death, March 17th is the supposed date of his death and is the day we celebrate inside and outside Ireland as a cultural and religious holiday.
What do Shamrocks have to do with it?
Irish legend says that St. Patrick used the three-leaf clover, which is the unofficial national flower of Ireland, as an educational symbol to explain the Holy Trinity to nonbelievers as he converted the Irish to Christianity in the fourth century.
Why green beer?
Although the Irish have a tradition of dropping clovers into drinks for good luck, (known as “drowning the shamrock”) drinking green beer on St. Patrick’s day is a uniquely American tradition invented in 1914 by Irish American Dr. Thomas Hayes and unveiled at a Bronx social club.