Saint Patrick's Day Research Paper

Saint Patrick’s Day is a story of history versus legend, according to randomhistory.com. Saint Patrick is known as the patron saint of Ireland because of his service across Ireland in the fifth century (theholidayspot.com). Without Saint Patrick’s background/childhood, Saint Patrick being a good bishop, or how Saint Patrick’s Day has come to be nothing would be known about him or Saint Patrick’s Day on March seventeenth.

In reference to gpb.org and and history.com, Saint Patrick’s birth name was Maewyn Succat and was born around the end of the fourth century. Patrick was born in Britain to a Christian family (news.nationalgeographic.com). At age sixteen, Patrick was kidnapped and sent to Ireland and sold into slavery (ancienthistory.about.com).

Patrick was enslaved by a group of professional Irish slave raiders that transported him to Ireland where he was captivated for six years (randomhistory.com). During his time in captivity he worked as a shepherd outdoors and away from people. With loneliness and afraidness is where he turned into his religion and became a devoted Christian (history.com). Escaping and returning to Britain was eventually because Patrick believed God had guided him to freedom, therefore was encouraged to his religion; Christianity ( randomhistory.com). After having returned from Ireland, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation, an angel telling him to go back to Ireland (history.com). It is known that Saint Patrick experienced very rough early years in his life.

Was Saint Patrick a good bishop?

After Saint Patrick being captivated for six years, he became increasingly religious and engaged to a monastery and studied under Saint Germain, bishop of Auxerre, where he spent twelve years in training (theholidayspot.com). He then went to back to Ireland to return as a missionary for thirty years. There he converted, baptized, and set up monasteries (news.nationalgeographic.com). He also set up schools and churches which would aid him in his conversion (classbrain.com). He developed a native clergy, fostered the growth of monasticism, established dioceses, and held church councils (theholidayspot.com). Saint Patrick was sent to Ireland with a dual mission to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to begin to convert the Irish. Patrick chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity instead attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs (history.com). Saint Patrick was a very recognized and honored saint. Patrick was very quite successful at winning converts. With his active preaching, he made converts even among royal families (theholidayspot.com). He was indeed a very legendary and great bishop with his continuing attempt to teach and spread Christianity. After his death, Saint Patrick was known as the patron saint of

Ireland.

Saint Patrick’s Day is known to be the day Saint Patrick died, March seventeenth. He died on March seventeenth. That day has been commemorated as Saint Patrick’s day ever since. The day’s spirit is to celebrate the universal baptization of Ireland (theholidayspot.com). The holiday is celebrated all over the country, but when the holiday came to America it was celebrated in Boston that year, circa 461 AD (classbrain.com). The legend of Saint Patrick’s Day continued to grow and began to move away from a religious holiday and more into a more secular celebration characterized by hard drinking and symbolized by many emblems such as the color green and the shamrock (randomhistory.com). Interestingly, the first parade to honor the Saint Patrick was taken place in the United States in the city of New York and not in Ireland (history.com). Throughout the United States, Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in many different ways. According to gpb.org and history.com, with parades in different cities like Boston, Philadelphia, and New York to dyeing the Chicago River green every year since 1962. It was said that Saint Patrick carried a shamrock because it was a metaphor for the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) showing that separate units could be part of a same body (gpb.org). As of the color green, it is the color the Irish Nationalist movement adopted for Saint Patrick and also establishing it as the traditional color of Ireland (randomhistory.com). “The story of Saint Patrick’s Day is a story of history versus legend--of political and religious manipulation of a man who, during his own life, was an understated and little- known cleric but who, in posterity, became the greatest Irish hero of all time” (randomhistory.com).
With Saint Patrick’s background/childhood it is more realistically to know more about the Saint and get to know more. Saint Patrick being a good bishop and teaching Christianity made him a more patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick’s Day came to be a day where people celebrated with a religious feast which eventually became popular in the United States with different ways of celebrating it. With this it is more aware of why Saint Patrick’s Day came to be. If there was no information on Saint Patrick no one would ever know the idea of how he was and how the idea of this holiday actually meant something.