St Patrick's Day

Today is St Patrick's Day.  To most people, its a excuse of a holiday in order to claim to be Irish and drink far too much.  As if St Patrick was a little leprechaun who pranced around Ireland passing out four leaf clovers.

I just want to let you know the real story.  In a nutshell.  With just a little creative licensing.  Here we go:

It was the year 2050, and a robot named Patrick....

Too much...

The real story of St Patrick is actually pretty inspiring!  He grew up in Britain, but when he was around 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave.  He remained there as their slave for 6 years before his escape.  If this was many of us, we would swear off Ireland and do everything we could to destroy it. Or we might do the standard Christian thing and turn the other cheek and drop it.

During his captivity, Patrick turned to God in prayer.  Once he escaped, according to Catholic Online, Patrick had a dream where the people of Ireland were calling out to him, "We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more."  

Patrick, after joining the Church (as in Catholic church), feels a conviction for the people who enslaved him, becomes ordained as a bishop, and returns to Ireland as a missionary.  The people of Ireland were druids, which is an old religion that practiced human sacrifice and reincarnation.

Patrick stayed in Ireland for 40 years, until his death, converting those he could to Christianity.  He put his convictions for the Irish people before his own wants, living in poverty most of his life.  And all of this because something horrific happened to him.  As National Geographic writes, this was no easy task- "he was constantly beaten by thugs, harrassed [sic] by the Irish royalty, and admonished by his British superiors."

We celebrate St Patrick's day on this day, March 17, the day of his death in 461.

Patrick did, in fact, use shamrocks.  He used the shamrock to help explain the trinity- that just like there are 3 leafs on each stem, there are 3 divine beings, but in one.  The shamrock was sacred to the Druids, so his use of this was very effective.

Anyway- I hope you learned some new things- I know I did.  This is an extraordinary story of someone putting their convictions before their preferences.