ST. PATRICK
He was born in Scotland and was
kidnapped and sold in Ireland as a
slave. He became fluent in the Irish
language before making his escape to the
continent. Eventually he was ordained as
a deacon, then priest and finally as a
bishop. Pope Celestine then sent him
back to Ireland to preach the gospel.
Evidently he was a great traveller,
especially in Celtic countries, as
innumerable places in Brittany,
Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland
are named after him.
Patrick is most known the world
over for having driven the snakes from
Ireland. Different tales tell of his
standing upon a hill, using a wooden
staff to drive the serpents into the
sea, banishing them forever from the
shores of Ireland. One legend says that
one old serpent resisted, but the saint
overcame it by cunning. He is said to
have made a box and invited the reptile
to enter. The snake insisted the box was
too small and the discussion became very
heated. Finally the snake entered the
box to prove he was right, whereupon St
Patrick slammed the lid and cast the box
into the sea. While it is true there are
no snakes in Ireland, chances are that
there never have been since the time the
island was seperated from the rest of
the continent at the end of the ice age.
As in many old pagan religions
serpent symbols were common, and
possibly even worshipped. Driving the
snakes from Ireland was probably
symbolic of putting an end to that pagan
practice. While not the first to bring
Christianity to Ireland, it was Patrick
who encountered the Druids at Tara and
abolished their pagan rights. He
converted the warrior chiefs and
princes, baptizing them and thousands of
their subjects in the Holy Wells which
still bear that name. According to
tradition St. Patrick died in A.D. 493
and was buried in the same grave as St.
Bridget and St. Columba, at Downpatrick,
County Down. The jawbone of St. Patrick
was preserved in a silver shrine and was
often requested in times of childbirth,
epileptic fits and as a preservative
against the evil eye. Another legend
says St. Patrick ended his days at
Glastonbury and was buried there. The
Chapel of St. Patrick still exists as
part of Galstonbury Abbey. There is
evidence of an Irish pilgrimage to his
tomb during the reign of the Saxon King
Ine in A.D. 688, when a group of
pilgrims headed by St. Indractus were
murdered.
The great anxiety displayed in the
middle ages to possess the bodies, or at
least the relics of saints, accounts for
the many discrepant traditions as to the
burial places of St. Patrick and others.
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