St. Patrick's Day

 

  Happy St. Patrick's Day! I've been waiting five years for March 17th to come up on a Friday so I can write about my second favorite saint, St. Joseph of course being number one. Back in 2018 in the Wannaskan Almanac's first year, March 17th was on a Saturday, Kim Hruba did a fine job talking about St. Patrick as well as an American quilter who moved to Ireland apparently because Ireland is a hotbed of quilting.

  I'm not really sure where to start with Patrick. It's ironic that the patron saint of Ireland and is Briton and a Roman Briton to boot. He was doubly foreign. He was captured as a teenager by Irish pirates and sold into slavery. Hec worked several years as a shepherd in the Irish wilds until God told him in a vision to escape and go home. God next sent him to a seminary in Gaul (France).

  Patrick's friends were shocked when he said he was going back to Ireland to bring the one true God to the Irish. The Irish were considered hopeless barbarians. Patrick had a vision for his future and since he already spoke the language, he figured, why not him. 

  There are some pretty legends about Patrick: that he used a shamrock to explain the mystery of the Trinity, and that he drove the snakes out of Ireland.  Paleontologists have determined that never have been snakes in Ireland, but maybe snakes symbolized the pagan Druid priests Patrick had to contend with.

 No matter. It is known that Patrick converted thousands to Christianity, built churches, monasteries, and convents and filled them with priests and nuns. He died in 460 and within a century he was venerated as a saint. He's now the patron of Ireland. When Irish Catholics go to mass on his feast day, they don't feel it as an obligation, which it is.