Who was St. Patrick and Why Do We Celebrate His Life?



Posted: Sunday, February 26, 2006

by N Cinneide
http://www.RoboticVacuumCleanersReviewed.com

St. Patrick’s Day is known as a day of celebration and festivities, but very few people know the true story of St. Patrick and who he really is. By tradition, he is a patron saint of the Catholic religion because of the captivity that he went through, the time of solitude and his great faith, and eventually the number of people that were converted to know God through him. It is legend that he heard angels and they helped him in his decisions. All in all, he is known as the patron saint of good luck and blessings to the Catholics in that era up until the 21st century.

St. Patrick was a real live person born in the time around 400 AD in Roman Britian, when the British Isles were still under the domain of the Romans. He was born with the name Maewyn. His name wasn’t changed until he was in the monastery. His father was a soldier in the army, and Patrick also reports him to be a deacon, civil official, and a town councilor, who was a son of a Romano-British priest. The family was Christian, but they weren’t extremely religious, some historians even say Patrick was agnostic in his childhood.

According to his most famous work, the Confessio, Patrick was captured along with many others when his village was attacked, and he was taken to Ireland as a slave. Patrick was under the authority of a druid high priest and his family and here he learned the native Celtic language which he later used to communicate, and help those to be converted.

After 8 years in captivity, he escaped at the age of twenty-two, and legend has it that an angel directed him to spend twelve years in a monastery near Paris, France, where he adopted the name Patrick. It was during this time of captivity that Patrick found God and developed the habit of praying throughout the day to strengthen himself and to be closer to God. It is recorded in the Confessio that he would often pray up to 100 times a day. One night, while in the monastery, he said he heard many voices that were calling him back to Ireland to help the remaining slaves. At this time he was somewhere in his mid thirties and so he answered the callings. He became one of the first Christian missionaries in Ireland.

He was confident in the Lord, and he journeyed far and wide, baptizing and confirming with untiring zeal. Indeed, Patrick was successful at converting Ireland to christianity . And he even made important converts even among the royal families. For 20 years he had travelled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries, schools and churches, which would aid him in his conversions. He died on March 17th.

You can see how originally this was a Catholic holy day, but today St. Patrick's Day has evolved into more of a secular holiday. Or, rather, 'be Irish Day '. Speculation as to why this holiday is so popular could be the coming of spring that occurs within just a few days.

Niall Cinneide loves entertaining and celebrating St Patrick's Day. He publishes views, information, news and Espresso Machine reviews at http://www.BestEspressoMachineReviewsNow.com.

This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact. All rights reserved. Copyright http://www.St-Patricks.info
This Article has been viewed 18,676 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More comments
» left by jj from california 3 years 47 days ago.
this article saved my grade point avarage
» left by brenda from us 2 years 51 days ago.
thank god for all the saints who came before us and those who stand with us and intercede on our behalf.
» left by Sarah Schiff-Berger
from IL chicago
2 years 49 days ago.
This article was very good!
» left by Ray Burk
2 years 47 days ago.
3 fans.
I had no idea who St. Patrick was... How on earth did his good deeds turn into National Alcoholics Day?
» left by Godchild
from maryland
2 years 47 days ago.
yes, this article was very helpful to me, I love all people who spend thier life believing in God! So awesome!!!!!!!!
» left by Anounymous
2 years 47 days ago.
God bless this wonderful saint :)
» left by thomas becket's guarder
from united states
2 years 47 days ago.
too helpful.
» left by unknown
from unkown
2 years 47 days ago.
it was a wonderful story to read more people should write about him to help people understand y we celebrate this holiday
» left by Mathias
from Miami Beach
2 years 47 days ago.
This was verry usefull information. I always knew knew who St Patrick is but i don't understand why people make it seem like is a day to get @#$%&*t up as a matter of fact they should light a green candel for him in the morning to thenxs him for what he does for us... This information is verry usefull because more people can find out the truth and not mistake him for a ferry...
» left by Lorrie
from Ky.
2 years 47 days ago.
This article was a help in knowing why we celebrate a pagan holiday. Instead of celebrating a man who did good things for people,we should be celebrating why Jesus Christ died on the cross for us all,THAT we should celebrate every day !!

More comments
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.