Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Jim McDermottMarch 17, 2009

1. St. Patrick was not Irish. Patrick was actually a Welshman who was abducted as a child by Irish brigands. He was a slave for six years before he escaped. After his conversion experience and years of study, he returned to Ireland to convert the Irish.

2.  It’s very unlikely that St. Patrick ever banished any snakes from Ireland.  Scientific evidence suggests whatever snakes there had been in Ireland were gone after the last Ice Age.   Probably this story refers back to the Genesis, suggesting through the power of God Patrick was able to cast out the temptations of the Devil.

3. Most intriguing:  St. Patrick has never been formally canonized as a saint. No Pope has ever declared him a saint, no committee ever met to consider his miracles.  But it’s not an oversight, either.   In the first 1000 years of Christianity, these matters were not decided from Rome, but locally.  A saint was so declared by the people who had known him or her up close.  It was their lifelong example that made them a saint.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Jim McDermott, S.J.

 

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
16 years 1 month ago
Gab, the piece is titled, "Three things you may not know about St. Patrick" not "Everthing there is to know about St. Patrick".
16 years 1 month ago
''In the first 1000 years of Christianity, these matters were not decided from Rome, but locally. A saint was so declared by the people who had known him or her up close. It was their lifelong example that made them a saint.'' All the more reason to accept in sanctity. No ecclesiastical politics, etc. I just read Justin Catanoso's wonderful book ''My Cousin the Saint,'' and I gained a new insight into JPII's saint-making, he wanted regional saints, he wanted holiness to be recognized from the bottom-up.
16 years 1 month ago
Is that all you can find to say about St. Patrick?
16 years 1 month ago
From the Czech community - Happy St. Joseph's Day.

The latest from america

The funeral Mass of Pope Francis will be celebrated April 26 in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican announced.
President Donald Trump ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half mast in honor of Pope Francis. Mr. Trump, one of many U.S. political leaders remembering the late pope, called Francis “a good man.”
In his brief final testament, Pope Francis asked to be buried at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major and said he had offered his suffering for peace in the world.
Pope Francis died April 21 after suffering a stroke and heart attack, said the director of Vatican City State’s department of health services. The pope had also gone into a coma.