If You Ever Wondered About St. Patrick.....

St. Patrick depicted with shamrock
in detail of stained glass window in St. Benin's
Church, Kilbennan, County Galway, Ireland

Just out of festive curiosity and the fact that I must distract myself and my beloved since we have both given up alcohol for Lent, here are few interesting facts about our mysterious Saint Patrick...

• He's not actually Irish. When he was about 16, he was captured from his home in Great Britain, and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. 
• It's the date of his death we celebrate.  It is celebrated inside and outside Ireland as a religious and cultural holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation; it is also a celebration of Ireland itself.
• He was a bishop and missionary in the 5th century.
• He's known as the "Apostle of Ireland".
• There are two Patricks.  Many of the traditions attached to Saint Patrick actually concerned Palladius, who was sent by Pope Celestine I as the first bishop to Irish Christians in 431 before Patrick was dispatched.
• He had visions. 
• He was charged with some 'shady dealings' regarding money.
• "He converted wealthy women, some of whom became nuns in the face of family opposition" 
• Legend has it St. Patrick taught the Irish about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock. For this reason, shamrocks are a central symbol for St Patrick's Day.
• He did not banish snakes from Ireland. According to National Geographic, Ireland has never had  snakes.  "At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish", says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched extensively through Irish fossil collections and records.
• He grew an ash tree everywhere he preached. Saint Patrick carried with him an ash wood walking stick or staff that he would thrust into the ground wherever he was evangelizing. According to legend, the place now known as Aspatria (ash of Patrick) the message of the dogma took so long to get through to the people there that the stick had taken root by the time he was ready to move on.

Want to know more?

• biography.com
• goireland.about.com

Sources: Wikipedia