In the Christian religion, St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, and was credited with driving evil in the form of snakes out of Ireland. He was born in Britain around 389 ce. He was the son of a Roman official. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was captured by raiders from Ireland and carried back to their homeland. After working as a shepherd for six years, he had a dream in which he was told that a ship was waiting to help him escape his captivity.
The accounts of his journeys at this time differ. He either traveled back to Britain or sailed to Gaul (present-day France). In any event, it seems likely that he visited France, where he joined a monastery and was ordained a priest. According to one of Patrick’s personal letters, known in Latin as the Confessio, he had another dream, in which the Irish asked him to return to their island. Patrick left his monastery to travel among the non-Christian Irish chieftains, converting them and their people to Christianity.
Several legends have sprung up around St. Patrick, the most famous one claiming that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland and into the sea. A
The Catholic saint known as St. Patrick was famous for supposedly ridding Ireland of all snakes. PHOTO BY TIME LIFE PICTURES/TIME LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES.
Popular myth holds that he used the shamrock, or three-leafed clover, to explain to an Irishman the Holy Trinity, the idea that God consists of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The shamrock is now Ireland’s national flower, worn by the Irish on St. Patrick’s feast day, March 17.
World History
