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St Patrick's Life Including Capture and Slavery
St Patrick's Day: The Dramatic Story of Saint Patrick’s Life Including Capture and Slavery
While St Patrick’s Day celebrations will be smaller this year due to coronavirus, millions of people around the world will celebrate Irish traditions and culture, as well as Saint Patrick himself
Daily Mirror UK, 17 MAR 2020
Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland (Image: Getty Images)
Happy St Patrick's Day!
17 March is normally a day when people don green clothes, Guinness hats adorned with shamrocks and suspicious Irish accents.
This year public celebrations in Ireland and the UK will be severely curtailed due to coronavirus and the government’s social distancing advice.
So while people mark St Patrick’s Day 2020 in their own homes rather than pubs and bars, what’s the story behind the individual who the day is named after?
Well his life is much more dramatic - and darker in places - than you might imagine, given the modern day festivities.
Two important things to know first about Saint Patrick
He isn’t technically a Saint
He isn’t actually Irish.
The person we now know as Saint Patrick was named Maewyn Succat when he was born into a wealthy family in AD387 in Kilpatrick, Scotland. His father, Calphurnius, was a priest from a Roman family while his mother, Conchessa, was a close relative of Saint Martin of Tours.
Pontius, Maewyn’s grandfather, was also a priest.
In AD403, when Maewyn was just 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken to Gaelic Ireland. Once there he was sold into slavery and given a job of herding sheep.
His slave master during this time was a high priest in Druidism which was extremely popular in Ireland in the early fifth century.
Maewyn is said to have prayed to God more than 100 times a day and saw his slavery as a test of faith. After a few years living in slavery he had a dream in which God told him he was set to leave Ireland by ship.
This dream emboldened Maewyn to escape from his captors around the year AD408, making his way back to Britain.
Now a free man again he decided to enter the priesthood - following in the footsteps of his grandfather.
For his training Maewyn headed to France, and he made his way up the ranks in the church before being ordained as a bishop in AD432.
Ever since his days in slavery he believed it was his mission to help convert Ireland to Christianity, and soon after becoming a bishop he was sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine I to do just that.
St Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland (Image: Wikipedia (Creative Commons))
It’s said he converted thousands of pagan Irish to Christianity with preachings and baptisms. Maeywn used spiritual symbols already in place in Ireland and incorporated them into Christian worship. An example of that is the Celtic cross which was created by merging the Christian cross with traditional Irish sun-worshiping symbols.
Legend also says he used Ireland’s native shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to those he preached to, as well as performing miracles and building churches.
Maywen died at Saul in Ireland on 17 March 461. He was later buried in Downpatrick, County Down.
St Patrick’s Name
An actor playing the part of Saint Patrick leads the annual Saint Patrick's Day parade on 17 March, 2019 in Dublin, Ireland. (Image: (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
It’s unclear exactly when Maewyn Succat became Patricius or Patrick, however it’s thought he adopted the name during his religious journeys or when he became ordained as a priest.Since then he’s gone on to become the patron saint of Ireland.
However, like many priests and other religious icons from that period, he was never formally canonised by a pope as there was no formal process in place. Instead the title was unofficially given to individuals seen as martyrs or extraordinarily holy, but in the eyes of the church he is not officially a Saint.
St Patrick’s Day Celebrations
In Ireland March 17 is a religious holiday, with families traditionally attending church in the morning. Other rituals include eating a traditional meal of cabbage and corned beef.
In other parts of the world it’s become a more secular celebration with less focus on religion and more on Irish culture and heritage. Parades also take place in Ireland and around the world.
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