The story of

St. Patrick

Many, years ago in the day of old,

even older than Teresa, in a land

far, far away from Spain the

story begins which tells of the boy who

becomes St Patrick.

He was not born in Ireland,

which many people believe, including

many Irish people. No, he was born in a

country across the sea from Ireland

called Wales. Wales is not far

from Ireland which turned out to be

rather unfortunate for young Maewyn

Succat. Who is that? I hear you ask. You

see that was his name before he became

Patrick, I am glad he changed it as St

Maewyn Succat’s day is much harder to

pronounce. I am sure that young

Maewyn had a normal childhood;

perhaps he played football

with his friends who also

had silly names. Perhaps he used the

Internet. Could he have had

a Facebook page? Or, how about a

mobile phone to text his

friends? I wonder which TV programmes

he preferred? Well you see,

electricity had not been invented in

Maewyn’s time so he would not have

had any of the things that young people

today could not imagine living

without. What kind of games do you

think young Maewyn and his friends

played so long ago? Anyway, back to the

story. When Maewyn was sixteen years

old a group of mad Irishmen raided his

little Welsh village and captured

him. Without even asking for

permission, they bundled him on a boat

back to Ireland to

sell as a slave. He always wanted to go

on a boat journey but not like this. No

more normal childhood for young

Maewyn. He was sold to a Druid chief

who had a large herd of pigs. Guess

what his new job was to be? Yes, you

guessed correctly; a pig

farmer . Now life as a pig

farmer was no picnic for the young man

from wales. It was a very difficult and

smelly job to do, perhaps at that time

his name was changed to

Smelly , we just don’t know.

He ate, slept with and generally lived

among the pigs and each night he

would tell them the story of “The three

little pigs”, how they loved that story.

It was during his time in Ireland that

Smelly, sorry, Maewyn became a

Christian . One night he

heard a voice in his dreams telling him

to get an airplane back to his own

country, but as airplanes were not yet

invented he had to go by

ship . He fled the

coast of Ireland and found his way back

home. After having the world’s longest

shower he joined a

monastery where he stayed for the next

twelve years . It

became his goal in life to convert the

pagans of Ireland to Christianity.

Perhaps he thought that this would put

a stop to their pastime of kidnapping

and selling young boys into slavery. It

was at this time that he took the name

Patrick . He became a bishop

and went back to Ireland to pursue his

destiny . He was very good at

his job as he helped many people to

find God and leave their old pagan

ways behind. He even went to visit his

old slave master to show that he had no

bad feelings towards him. Perhaps he

also wanted to visit his old roommates

the pigs, but alas, they had all been

eaten. This upset Patrick because he was

looking forward to a nice piece of ham.

The story goes that his old master took

all his valuables to his house and

burned it down with himself still

inside. Apparently, he did not want to

face his former slave who had become

famous.

Many stories have been written

about Patrick. He was not yet called St.

Patrick, which would come much later.

It is said that he drove all the snakes

out of Ireland, not in a

car mind you because cars had not been

invented yet either. This is not exactly

true, at that time there were no snakes

in Ireland. As the devil is often referred

to as a snake, it is said that it was the

devil he banished from Ireland. It is

said also that he used the

shamrock as a symbol of the Holy

Trinity. That is why the shamrock is

very famous in Ireland and people

around the world associate it with

Ireland. But we do know that he built

many churches and schools all

over Ireland. He spent almost thirty

years in Ireland teaching the pagans of

that green land about the wonders of

the Catholic religion. The Irish people

never forgot about the boy who, in the

twelfth century became a saint,

taking the name St Patrick.

St Patrick day was originally a

religious holiday but these days it is a

secular holiday. It is celebrated each

year on March 17th, which is

the date on which he died. Ireland is

not the only country to celebrate. Over

the centuries many Irish people went to

distant lands to find fame and fortune.

With them they brought their culture

and traditions. Today St. Patrick’s day

is also enjoyed by both Catholics and

non-Catholics. In my own little town,

on the south coast of Ireland, we have a

beautiful parade through our city

streets. Lots of children dress up as

leprechauns and

mini St Patricks. It is a day to remember

all the good things about being Irish, a

time to be proud of our history.