This Day in History: St. Patrick's Day died on this day in 461 A.D., or so legend has it. Did you know that St. Patrick wasn't Irish, in fact some would argue that he wasn't sufficiently Catholic either. "He was not a messenger of the pope, but of Christ. He went to Ireland of his own accord, and established a church independent of Rome. Churches on the model of the great apostle were established in France and Germany, and were persecuted on the continent as in Ireland. In A. D. 602, the Irish Columbanus was ordered to leave France by a council to which he wrote, pleading for liberty of conscience; and five centuries after the time of Saint Patrick, Saint Bernard reproached the Irish for being Pagans, unconnected with Rome, because every little town had its independent bishop; and it was not until 1148 that Rome obtained a secure foothold in Ireland, when the clergy suicided their independence, and sacrificed themselves upon the altar of Rome. Irishmen worship the Virgin Mary. Not so with Patrick. A glorious hymn remains as composed by him the day previous to his controversy with the Irish prince, but not a word in it to Mary; all his beautiful aspirations, all his warm affections, all his victorious hopes, are to and from Christ alone." ~Justin Dewey Fulton 1887
As such, Saint Patrick could be called a proto-Protestant.
Patrick was a slave born in either England, Scotland or Wales around 386 A.D. St Paddy is said to have banished snakes from the Emerald Isle, however, Ireland has never really been home to snakes...it's just too cold. The snakes could have been a metaphor for the pagan Druids.
Patrick is not really a "Saint" as he was never canonized as such.
Did you know: There are 35 million U.S. residents with Irish ancestry. This number is more than seven times the population of Ireland itself.
Your odds of finding a four-leaf clover are about 1 in 10,000.
St. Patrick's Day once was a dry holiday, as up until the 1970s, pubs were closed on that day.
In traditional Irish folk tales, there are no female leprechauns.
The Irish were sneered upon in early America. "There’s actually a term for anti-Irish prejudice: Hibernophobia. You can see it expressed in commonly-known “Irish need not apply” clauses in job advertisements from 19th century America." Source
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