Posted on 03/20/2006 6:23:45 AM PST by Mr. Silverback
If you ask people who Saint Patrick was, youre likely to hear that he was an Irishman who chased the snakes out of Ireland.
It may surprise you to learn that the real Saint Patrick was not actually Irishyet his robust faith changed the Emerald Isle forever.
Patrick was born in Roman Britain to a middle-class family in about A.D. 390. When Patrick was a teenager, marauding Irish raiders attacked his home. Patrick was captured, taken to Ireland, and sold to an Irish king, who put him to work as a shepherd.
In his excellent book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill describes the life Patrick lived. Cahill writes, The work of such slave-shepherds was bitterly isolated, months at a time spent alone in the hills.
Patrick had been raised in a Christian home, but he didnt really believe in God. But nowhungry, lonely, frightened, and bitterly coldPatrick began seeking out a relationship with his heavenly Father. As he wrote in his Confessions, I would pray constantly during the daylight hours and the love of God . . . surrounded me more and more.
Six years after his capture, God spoke to Patrick in a dream, saying, Your hungers are rewarded. You are going home. Lookyour ship is ready.
What a startling command! If he obeyed, Patrick would become a fugitive slave, constantly in danger of capture and punishment. But he did obeyand God protected him. The young slave walked nearly two hundred miles to the Irish coast. There he boarded a waiting ship and traveled back to Britain and his family.
But, as you might expect, Patrick was a different person now, and the restless young man could not settle back into his old life. Eventually, Patrick recognized that God was calling him to enter a monastery. In time, he was ordained as a priest, then as a bishop.
Finallythirty years after God had led Patrick away from IrelandHe called him back to the Emerald Isle as a missionary.
The Irish of the fifth century were a pagan, violent, and barbaric people. Human sacrifice was commonplace. Patrick understood the danger and wrote: I am ready to be murdered, betrayed, enslavedwhatever may come my way.
Cahill notes that Patricks love for the Irish shines through his writings . . . He [worried] constantly for his people, not just for their spiritual but for their physical welfare.
Through Patrick, God converted thousands. Cahill writes, Only this former slave had the right instincts to impart to the Irish a New Story, one that made sense of all their old stories and brought them a peace they had never known before. Because of Patrick, a warrior people lay down the swords of battle, flung away the knives of sacrifice, and cast away the chains of slavery.
As it is with many Christian holidays, Saint Patricks Day has lost much of its original meaning. Instead of settling for parades, cardboard leprechauns, and the wearing of the green, we ought to recover our Christian heritage, celebrate the great evangelist, and teach our kids about this Christian hero.
Saint Patrick didnt chase the snakes out of Ireland, as many believe. Instead, the Lord used him to bring into Ireland a sturdy faith in the one true Godand to forever transform the Irish people.
"The Irish of the fifth century were a pagan, violent, and barbaric people."
And today . . .
I realize you're relatively new around here but take your flame baiting Irish bigotry elsewhere.
Tis enough to make a Lepra'cohen cry 'aye' tis true...(originally pronounced oye)...inna enough to find out St Paddy is really English? and now to find Lepracohens are actually Jewish?)
It's enough to 'drive an Irishman to drink'...on the other hand the only excuse he needs for that...is to still be breathin' and maybe not even that...
With what has been happening to the Church in Ireland recently ("liberalizing" laws, plummeting church attendance, ordaining very few new priests), it seems a new St. Patrick is needed.
Do tell, what's your ethnic heritage, docbnj?
"No reptile is found there nor could a serpent survive; for although serpents have often been brought from Britain, as soon as the ship approaches land they are affected by the scent of the air and quickly perish." (Ch. 1).
The Maltese claim that there are no snakes on Malta because St. Paul drove them out.
Unlikely and debatable. If you know your history, Scotland did not exist at the time of St Patricks birth - it was known as Caledonia by the Romans and inhabited by the Picts. The Irish Scots tribe did not invade from Ireland and give their name to this region until the 6th century. Thus, even if St Patrick was born in Kilpatrick, which many doubt, it was not Scottish at the time, therefore he was not Scottish. Caledonia was not colonised by the Romans yet St Patricks name, Patricius is clearly of Roman-British descent, something which would be very unlikely in Celtish caledonia at the time.
So, we can conclude that he defintely wasn't Irish, definitely wasn't Scottish, but that he was probably of Romano-British stock and given his name, he was likely to be from below Hadrians wall rather than above it.
LOL! - If I don't tell anyone else that St. Patrick was British, will you promise not to tell anyone St George was a turk! ;-)
Murphys? You mean Heineken in a green can? There used to be lots of Murphys pubs in Ireland, but Guinness won the war and the name of Murphys was bought by the Dutch. You don't see it much in Ireland now,it's just an Irish stout brand largely for export.
A good Irishman drinking light beer - what planet are you from? :D
A friend of mine from Limerick used to run an Irish pub in florida and regularly had american customers bringing in their wives who eyed up the black stuff suspiciously and then ordered 'whatever you have that is most like american beer.' He would then serve them a glass of very cold water without cracking a smile. . . . . ;-)
Old St Paddy was a smart cookie though - not only did he remove all the living snakes from Ireland, he also removed all the fossilised snake bones since time began, just to confuse the archaeologists. . . . ;-)
"Plus ça change, plus cest la même chose."
"Unlikely and debatable?" to only you maybe
"even if St Patrick was born in Kilpatrick, which many doubt." many doubt?
I never said St. Patrick was Scottish.
Kilpatrick is in Scotland
It sure as hell isn't in England! LMAO
gezzzzz what is it with you people on FR;
why can't you just say "I stand corrected" and move on...
And...your point is?
Where'd corned beef come into the mix?
"The Irish of the fifth century were a pagan, violent, and barbaric people. Human sacrifice was commonplace..."
Actually I am curious about the British Isles in general. Why is their food so unbelievably horrible? I mean it isn't that tough to cook up some food with even a modest amount of taste but they go out of their way to make HORRIBLE food. Why?
St Patrick was born in Bannaven(m) Tabernae. Nobody really knows where that was born, but the more likely ones are in Wales or my particular favourite since I used to live near it, Bannaventa in Northamptonshire which is not only on the main North-South road, but its name is simply a contraction of the stated birthplace (in the same way Lincoln is a contraction of Lindum Colonia). Scotland seems unlikely because being north of the wall would mean it would be at best an outpost, not a place where "Thousands" of people might be captured.
The point being Colson never passes up the opportunity to slight Catholics.
It is not quite so. Roman Britain were stocked by Britons, who were later forced to flee to Ireland by the successive waves of invading Anglo-Saxons, Nordic Vikings, and Normans. Racially today's white English people are a mix of Anglo-Saxons and Nordic people.
(BTW, don't say that I didn't study history. I grew up as one of your formerly great colonial empire's last colonies just before the sun finally set LOL)
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