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| | The famous Irishman who is associated with St. Patrick's Day started his life far
from being a saint. Born with a name of Maewyn in Whales, he thought
of himself as pagan, and was sold into slavery by vandals who robbed
his native village. Maewyn was only 16 at that time, while he was in
captivity he started his path of becoming closer to God. Six years
after being in captivity, he managed to run away and his destiny
brought him to Gaul monastery, where he became his Christianity studies
under the supervision of bishop of Auxerre. Twelve years passed and
Maewyn, a solid scholar by that time, felt that his destiny lies in
going back to Ireland and converting native pagans to Christianity.
His wish was only fulfilled after another two years when St. Palladius
who was doing this job, was transferred from Ireland to Scotland.
Maewyn adopted a Christian name Patrick and was given a post of second
bishop to Ireland.
St. Patrick was preaching Christianity with passion and faith and
converted many pagans throughout the country. Celtic Druids of native
pagans were not happy with St. Patrick's converting "their" people and
have arrested him many times, but every time Patrick managed to
escape, and continue his job with establishing new Christian
monasteries along with new schools. His goal was to make the whole
Ireland a Christian country. His mission went on for thirty years and
showed great progress never achieved by his predecessors. Patrick died
in retirement on March 17, AD 461, and this day has since then been
known as St. Patrick's Day.
He became a true legend and Irish folklore has many sagas about him,
some of them more fiction than truth. One legend has it that Patrick
drove away snakes from the Ireland, and another one says he raised
people from the dead much like Jesus. The snake legend is probably
based on a metaphorical notion of conversion of pagans to Christians,
as well as the second legend, as baptism is considered being born
again in Christianity. Started as a strict Catholic holiday St.
Patrick's Day became a wildly celebrated national holiday of Ireland.
One of the symbols associated with this holiday is a shamrock. Rumor
has it Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the concept
of Holy Trinity to pagans and show how the Father, The Son and The
Holy Spirit exist as three elements of the same entity. Thus, the
custom of having shamrock on St Patrick's Day was born.
In United States this holidays started being officially celebrated in
1737 in Boston. It is associated parades, beer, leprechauns, pots of
gold and everything green. In fact, because St Patricks Day comes just
several days before the first day of spring, the green color seems
more than appropriate. |
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This Saturday is St. Patrick's Day It's a traditional Irish holiday where everyone acts goofy and pretends to be green. Americans call it Al Gore Day.
