Happy displaced-British-shepherd-turned-Irish-bishop's Day!

I love everything to do with Ireland (hmmm....except maybe the drinking) so I couldn't let St. Patrick's Day pass without posting my thoughts about it. (And yes, I attempted to post this yesterday, but technical difficulties both with my computer and my life interfered, so I am posting it today anyway. Take that, punctuality Nazis!)

St. Patrick's Day is a fun day to drink green beer (or green root beer, as your preferences run), wear green clothing to avoid getting pinched, watch parades, and eat corned beef and cabbage (which I did!). But, like most holidays, the original story behind the day and the man for whom we celebrate it are very important - and very unknown to your average St. Paddy's day-er. In fact, I can safely say that without St. Patrick's contributions to the world, we, as in America, western civilization, Christianity, would not be here. Literally.

Long story short: Patrick was a British Celt who was kidnapped and carried off to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16. He worked there as a shepherd for 6 years, and during this time of solitutude and loneliness he became very close to God. Eventually he was able to escape and return to his family, and he decided to enter the church and become a priest. One night he had a dream of an Irish man who said to him "O holy youth, come back to Erin {Ireland} and walk once more among us." Patrick returned to Ireland and began to convert the Irish people to Christianity, combatting the pagan Druids who had long held all the power in Ireland.

Patrick used the shamrock to teach the Irish about the Trinity. "See? The shamrock has 3 leaves, yet they are all part of the same clover. God exists in 3 persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet they are all one God."

Patrick died on March 17, 493, having converted the majority of the Irish nation to Christianity and (Daniella will love this) banished all snakes from Ireland! Why is this important? Well, following the fall of the Roman Empire, and the subsequent Dark Ages (early Middle Ages period) when classical learning essentially hit rock bottom, there was one group of people who still kept literature, history, and most importantly, the Bible still intact: the Irish monks. In their monestaries, the Irish monks essentially preserved what we would consider "civilization" in the from of writing. And who founded those monestaries? That would St. Patrick and his converts to Christianity.

So next time you open your Bible, thank St. Patrick and his determination to bring the gospel to the Irish people! It gives a whole new meaning to St. Patrick's Day!