Free Republic

Maewyn Succat did not have an easy time embracing the Faith. Although his father Calpurnius was a deacon, Maewyn indulged a spirited youthful rebellion against what he had been taught, and it was only after being kidnapped by superstitious people called Druids that he realized the difference that Christianity makes in the souls of men and the character of cultures. This was in the fifth century, and Maewyn, probably born in the Cumbria part of England near the Scottish lands, was roughly contemporary with the bishop Augustine in North Africa who watched the decay of the Roman Empire. Maewyn eventually...

Patricius: The True Story of St. Patrick Before all the festivities focused on shamrocks and leprechauns and good luck wishes, there was truly something to celebrate: a man willing to stand in the gap for Jesus Christ. It was an act of defiance that changed the course of a nation. Patrick lit a fire in pagan 5th century Ireland, ushering Christianity into the country. Who was this man who became the patron saint of Ireland? Ireland was a beautiful island shrouded in terrible darkness. Warlords and druids ruled the land. But across the sea in Britain, a teen-ager was poised...

Who was Saint Patrick? Well, for starters, he wasn't Irish. He was born a Roman (Patricius) during the days when Britain was cut off from the empire immediately before the final collapse of Roman power in the west. Though not born an Irishman himself, Patrick had a deep and abiding love for the Irish and dedicated his life to bringing them to Christianity. Amazingly, two works written by Patrick have come down to us from antiquity. The first is his Confessio, which was written about AD 450 under obscure circumstances. Following is an excerpt from this document, where Patrick tells...

St. Patrick, as seen in C.E. Kempe's stained glass in St. John the Baptist parish, Burford, UK. Credit: Lawrence OP via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Washington D.C., Mar 17, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Many know that Saint Patrick, bishop and missionary to Ireland, was once a slave – but few know of his heartfelt plea on behalf of girls and boys abducted into slavery. “The pathos of St. Patrick’s description of the fate of his victims is something I think we can identify with now,” said Jennifer Paxton, a history professor who teaches at Catholic University of America’s...

. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, lets remember captives and slaves whose sacrifice made ours lives so much better. Many don't know that Patrick was NOT Irish. He was born in Scotland and captured by the Irish when he was a teenager. Then he spread Christianity to the Irish. In the Bible, Joseph's brother's sold him into slavery. When he was later able to save his family, he told them, "What you meant for evil, God meant for Good." Thousands of years later, Squanto was captived by Europeans and taken away. Years later, after learning English, he made his...

LONDON -- St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, may well have been a tax collector for the Romans who fled to Ireland where he could have traded slaves to pay his way, according to new research by a University of Cambridge academic published on Saturday. The generally accepted account of the saint's life, albeit based on scant evidence, says Patrick was abducted from western Britain as a teenager and forced into slavery in Ireland for six years during which time he developed a strong Christian faith. Afterwards, the account continues, he escaped his captors and went back to Britain before...

If you ask people who Saint Patrick was, you’re 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 Irish—yet 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...

But Dixon was guilty of a very bizarre comment himself involving St. Patrick's Day. The tweet from 2012 sprang back into prominence on Sunday because of the "Hamilton" furor with many commentators claiming it refers to blacks raping drunken girls on St. Patrick’s Day.

Some thoughts on Saint Patrick's Day, and the real-life Roman-British Christian missionary that brought the Gospel to Ireland.

Have you noticed we are bickering and arguing more lately? Is it six years of obama, or should we blame Bush? Pour yourself a drink, hard or soft, and tell us a good joke. Cheers, to the best people I know!

The wearing of the green is nearly upon us, and so the season of green beer, bagels and milkshakes has begun. While there’s nothing particularly Irish about shamrock-shaped cookies or green-frosted cupcakes, you might be surprised to learn that the traditional St. Paddy’s meal—corned beef and cabbage—is no more authentic. Like many aspects of St. Patrick’s Day, the dish came about when Irish-Americans transformed and reinterpreted a tradition imported from the Emerald Isle. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Dublin but in New York City, in 1762. Over the next 100 years, Irish immigration to...

Guinness pulls out of St. Patty’s parade over LGBT ban Guinness beer has pulled its sponsorship from New York’s famed St. Patrick’s day parade over a controversial policy that prohibits gays and lesbians from marching openly, according to reports. “Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all,” the company said in a statement on the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation website. “We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year’s parade. As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation. We will continue...

BOSTON, March 6, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The organizers of Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade have rescinded their controversial invitation to a homosexual advocacy group, saying they believe the group’s application was a “ploy” made under “false pretenses.” The news comes days after a Catholic school said it would withdraw its iconic float and school band from the March 16 celebration because of the decision. "In the footsteps of St. Patrick, [Immaculate Heart of Mary School] does not condone and will not appear to condone the homosexual lifestyle,” Brother Thomas Dalton, the school’s principal, said in a statement reported by the...

• The story of Gráinne Ni Mháille or Granuaile (Anglicized as Grace O'Malley, Grany Malley) reads like the most brazen and unlikely sort of adventure fiction, but there's history as well as myth in the legend of the Irish noblewoman who led a band of 200 sea-raiders from the coast of Galway in the sixteenth century. Twice widowed, twice imprisoned, fighting her enemies both Irish and English for her rights, condemned for piracy, and finally pardoned in London by Queen Elizabeth herself, Gráinne was one of the few sea-raiders to retire from the sea and die in her own bed,...

Due to his brilliant strategy on the battlefield Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne was nicknamed “Stonewall Jackson of the West.”

And now I'm off to get half in the bag. Feel free to express your vicious anti-Irish slurs, insults and calumnies in the comments...

A White House aide tells POLITICO44 that Obama (O’Bama?) will be hosting two St. Patrick’s Day bashes ... ... at the White House Tuesday night. The theme at the WH will be green all day. Starting at the top o the morning--or more like 11a.m. -- Obama and Joe Biden will meet with the Taoiseach of Ireland in the Oval Office. A little while later, they'll attend a Shamrock Ceremony in the Roosevelt Room. After meeting with the Northern Ireland officials, Obama will travel to the Capitol where he will deliver remarks at Speaker Nancy Pelosi's St. Paddy's Day lunch....

Stout call for St Pat's holiday in US   By Johnny Caldwell BBC News   Guinness is very popular on St Patrick's Day Guinness has launched a campaign to have St Patrick's Day officially recognised as a holiday in the US.The campaign is centred around a petition, which it hopes one million people will sign or endorse by midnight on Sunday 16 March. It will then be presented to Congress the following day, which of course any Irish man, woman, child or indeed self-respecting plastic paddy will of course know is St Patrick's Day. The petition can be signed...

With thanks for prayers offered and prayers answered and with deep respect and gratitude for our troops I offer the following special Saint Patrick's Day Blessing for our troops. (Graphic intense and be sure to click to link provided to play the audio portion of this offering)

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY TO ALL FROM THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS!Saint Pádraig (Patrick) the Enlightener of IrelandHappy St. Patrick's Day! Orthodox Christianity in the Celtic British IslesCeltic Comeback I&II: Seeking roots in Ireland, Eastern Orthodox shepherd seeks Celtic flock