When St. Patrick set foot in Ireland in the 5th century AD, he faced an uncertain future in a little-known country. Warring Celts were scattered in tribal groups across the island, ruled with iron might by five provincial kings. Eerie dolmen monuments and ancient ruins dominated the landscape. Even the Roman conquerors of Britain had not ventured this far – apart perhaps from the odd traveler or adventurer.

Against this backdrop, St. Patrick’s phenomenal success as a Christian missionary seems all the more incredible. By the end of the 15th century, Ireland had become a Christian nation.

Perhaps Patrick’s elevation into sainthood was therefore inevitable. But his prominence in the traditions and legends of the country says something of the reverence, awe and affection in which he has been held in the intervening centuries and which are rekindled in the Irish every St. Patrick’s Day.

The Feast of St. Patrick is now celebrated in nearly every country throughout the world where Irish descendants or influence have continued to reinforce is popularity. Among the countries with centuries-old traditions of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day were obviously the United States, Canada and Australia, but less obviously France and Argentina and even the Caribbean island of Montserrat. Nowadays it is also celebrated in countries such as Russia and Japan.

In Britain - Ireland’s closest neighbor and its biggest visitor market - the Trojan efforts of a large population of Irish descent have established March 17 as a day of celebration for British and Irish alike.

Who was St. Patrick? 
The man largely responsible for converting Ireland to Christianity over nearly 30 years, up to the year 462 AD or thereabouts - even if the work had been started by other missionaries before him.

Was he real then?
Most definitely, even if the facts about his life have been freely mingled over the centuries with legend and make-believe, his existence is authentic. A written document, his Confession, is tangible evidence of his authenticity.

Where did he come from?
An important thing to remember about Patrick is that he was not Irish. In fact he was what nowadays at least would be called British, even if he was of Roman parentage.

Where in Britain did he originate?
To be honest, nobody knows. Patrick himself refers in his writings to his father owning a holding near the village of Bannavem Taberniae, but there is no such name on any map of Roman Britain. The date of his birth is commonly given as circa 389 AD.

How did he first arrive in Ireland?
As a 16 year old named Succat, he was captured in a raid by the Irish King, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and sold into slavery, working as a herdsman for six years on Slemish Mountain in County Antrim. Irish pirate chieftains were given to raiding the western coast of Britain in those days. Hence, it has traditionally been assumed that Patrick originally came from South Wales, probably along the Severn Valley, which could also mean that he came from Gloucestershire. Modern scholars however, are more inclined to think of Strathclyde as being more likely.

How was that slave turned into a missionary?
After six years, Patrick managed to escape from his master, Milchu - legend has it that he was told of a waiting ship in a dream - and made his way back to Britain. According to Patrick, he had another dream of monumental importance. In it, The Voice of Ireland called to him to return to that country as a Christian missionary. As a result, he went to France, some say, studied to become a Christian and a missionary at the monastery of Auxerre, near Paris, and later was ordained a priest. In 432 AD, now a bishop named Patricius, he was sent by the Pope to Ireland to take up where a previous missionary Bishop, Palladius, had left off.

How successful was he?
Phenomenally so, if some are to be believed. By some accounts, he failed to convert King Laoghaire (pronounced Leary), High King of Ireland and, by an odd coincidence, the son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, who had originally captured him. Other accounts say that he succeeded. Crucially, however, he won the King’s permission to continue his work in Ireland. Some historians, however, are inclined to believe that the thrust of his efforts was confined to Ulster, concentrating on Downpatrick, by then the seat of the Ulster Kings. Whatever the truth of that, it appears that over two to three decades from 432 AD, either he or his disciples travelled to just about every corner of Ireland. And his legacy lived on. By the end of the 5th century, Ireland was a Christian nation.

When did he die?
There is some doubt about this too. Some accounts say Patrick lived to be all of 120 years of age! Most, however, point to him dying on March 17 about the year 461 AD at Saul, County Down, at a church built on land given to him by Dichu, a local chieftain, who was one of his converts. The Annals of Ulster also mention him dying in 491 AD. This has given rise to the so-called “two Patricks” theory, providing food for endless speculation by scholars. By the end of the 7th century a single Patrick had already become a legendary figure.

Where is he buried?
A tombstone in the grounds of Down Cathedral in Downpatrick is supposed to mark his grave. But there are serious doubts. Patrick is almost certainly buried somewhere in County Down but it is thought that the Norman nobleman John De Courcy may not so easily have found the remains almost seven centuries after Patrick’s death. De Courcy claimed to have found them and brought them to the seat of his stronghold. The claim was politically convenient to say the least in 12th century Ireland as the Normans bade to consolidate their power.

Legends
Separating fact from fiction in the story of St. Patrick can sometimes be tricky. But the legends more often than not speak for themselves.

St. Patrick is supposed to have driven the snakes from Ireland. Certainly, there are no snakes in Ireland. But neither are there any in New Zealand and there is no record of St. Patrick ever having visited there! Moreover the Graeco-Roman writer Solinus recorded the fact that Ireland was snake-free a good two hundred years before St. Patrick was born! The story that Patrick banished the snakes seems quite simply to have been invented in the12th century by a Northumbrian monk named Jocelyn, whom the wife of the Norman John De Courcy brought to her husband’s court in Downpatrick.


•••
One legend has it that Patrick, when he escaped from his youthful slavery in Ireland, went straight to France. Deciding to visit his uncle in Tours, he had to cross the River Loire. He had no obvious means of doing so, but he found that his cape was made an admirable raft. On reaching the other side, he hung his cape out to dry upon a hawthorn bush. Despite it being the middle of winter, the bush immediately burst into bloom. 

Fact: to this day, the hawthorn blooms in winter in the Loire Valley and St. Patrick has two feast days there - one on March 17 and the other on Christmas Day.


•••
Patrick, despite his saintliness, was not averse to bouts of temper, it seems. After a greedy man once denied him the use of a field to rest and graze his oxen, Patrick is said to have cursed the field, prophesying that nothing would grow on it from then on. Sure enough, that very day, the field was overrun by the sea and remained sandy and barren for evermore.


•••
A blind man once came to Patrick seeking a cure. As he approached, he stumbled several times and fell over and was duly laughed at by one of Patrick’s companions. The blind man was cured. The companion, however, was blinded.


•••
Before he died, an angel told Patrick that he should have two untamed oxen yoked to his funeral cart and that they should be left to decide where he should be buried. With great political foresight, the oxen chose Downpatrick.

On the day that Patrick died, night never fell in Ulster nor did it for a further 12 days.

‘The Shamrock’
The shamrock is popularly identified with Ireland. That custom owes its origins to St. Patrick.

What is a shamrock?
The reality is that shamrock is a form of clover - Trifolium repens, Trifolium pratense or more likely Trifolium dubium, to give its botanical pedigree - and only looks different from what one might expect because it is picked so early in spring. It is not unique to Ireland. Trifolium dubium is found from Scandinavia to the Caucasus and even in America
What’s the connection with St. Patrick?
Legend has it that in attempting to explain the three-in-one principle of the Holy Trinity to the pagan King Laoghaire (pronounced Leary), St. Patrick found the three-leafed shamrock a convenient teaching aid. Four-leafed shamrocks obviously are discounted. They cause severe theological problems!

What is meant by “drowning the shamrock”?
The answer seems fairly obvious - a few drinks on St. Patrick’s Day by way of celebration. What is not so obvious is that this is a custom of British rather than Irish origin! Presumably for morale purposes, from at least the middle of the 18th century, an extra ration of grog was provided by English army commanders to Irish troops on March 17.Queen Victoria in 1900 ordered that soldiers in Irish regiments should wear shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day in memory of fellow Irishmen killed in the Boer War. Shamrock worn as a symbol of remembrance thus predates the red poppy of Flanders fields.

Sites Associated with Saint Patrick
Nowhere is more closely associated with the Apostle of Ireland than Downpatrick, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Lecale. Here in the leafy graveyard of Down Cathedral, with the Mountains of Mourne as a backdrop, lie the mortal remains of St Patrick.
A large simple granite slab marks the grave where he takes his eternal rest alongside Ireland’s other two patron saints, Brigid and Colmcille, reputedly buried here as well. It would be fair to say that rival claims for St Patrick’s last resting place do exist - bones of contention as it were. Apart from claiming Patrick’s grave, Down Cathedral has had a history for which the word ‘chequered’ barely does justice. Destroyed by an earthquake, pillaged by the Danes, burnt by the Scots, destroyed again by the English, it then lay in ruins for the best part of 200 years.

Today it is hard to imagine a more peaceful place, with its views across the river Quoile to the ancient Cistercian Abbey of Inch. About a mile north-east of Downpatrick, at the mouth of the Slaney River (now called Fiddler’s Burn), is the village of Saul where St. Patrick began his mission to Ireland circa AD 432, and where he died.

Information courtesy Tourism Ireland.