St. Patrick’s Day: A Story of Celebration and Survival

On March 17, many Americans will dress in green, enjoy “green beverages,” and consurme meals of corned beef and cabbage. It’s a uniquely American tradition, celebrated on the anniversary of the passing of St. Patrick. In fact, it was until recently, mainly a religious holiday back in Ireland, although that has been changing. So how did a quiet religious holiday become a rowdy secular holiday here in the states? Therein lies the tale.

First, let’s look at St. Patrick. St. Patrick was the son of a Roman Decurion (deacon) named Calpornius. The title was religious and autocratic as he was a landowner and tax collector. Celibacy was not required of the priesthood back then, and Patrick had five sisters. (Had celibacy been required, Ireland would not have its patron saint!) Patrick probably had two names, one Roman and the other was Sucat or Maewyn in the local British language.

Thus leading us to one of our first ironies; we Celts in America are celebrating the life of an English-born, Roman-educated priest. St. Patrick himself was not Irish!

Most scholars put his birth in Wales or on the western coast of England. Young Patrick likely considered himself somewhat pagan or rustic, although he had a formal Roman education. That year, Irish raiders (possibly led by Niall of the Nine Hostages) hit the coast, looting, pillaging, and taking slaves of which Patrick was one. At sixteen, Patrick was taken to Ireland as a slave.

He had six long and bitter years of loneliness, cold, and depravation as a sheep herder. During this time he learned to speak Irish fluently. Patrick started praying devotedly, up on his cold mountain in County Antrim, and then he heard a voice telling him to catch a ship. He escaped his captivity and went two hundred miles, where he managed to convince a ship to take him to France.

In France, he went to monastery where he studied under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for a period of twelve years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity. But before the church would let him go forth, he needed official approval. Many of the priests considered him not well educated enough. So the very act that gave him the ability to speak Irish almost kept him from becoming a priest to Ireland.

During this time, the Christian Church was rife with internal conflict as many factions were trying to decide what exactly the message of the church was and who got to control what. Patrick tried his best to steer clear of these controversies and was able to avoid some of them.

In 432, Patrick and twenty-four of his followers went back to Ireland. At this time, there had been other Christian missionaries but they had met with limited success. Patrick was different, and a powerful force to be reckoned with. His simple doctrines and persuasive speeches made many converts. By spring, Patrick went to confront the high King himself in Tara.

There, he convinced the High King to give him free rein to travel and convert, despite the protests of the local Druids. But Patrick went on to “fight the good fight” for thirty years, during which time he was imprisoned twice, and had many confrontations with Druids and the Celtic Warrior culture.

There is a story that while converting one of the lesser kings, Patrick accidentally put the sharp point of his crosier (bishop’s staff) on the foot of the warrior chieftain. The Chieftain said nothing while his foot bled. As the ceremony went on, the chieftain had was turning white and starting to sway. Finally Patrick noticed and said, “Why didn’t you say something?” Replied the chieftain, “I thought it was part of the ceremony, and did not want to show dishonor!”

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He was worshiped for many years and was proclaimed a Saint, even before the Catholic Church had been formed. A huge body of folklore and legends sprang up around his story, including the story of where he had picked up a Shamrock (a symbol of spring), and used its three leaves to educate people on the Christian holy trinity (Father, Son, Holy Ghost). Another popular legend is that he scared the snakes out of Ireland. Scientist now say that there probably weren’t any snakes in Ireland (even in his day) and what is implied by this is that Patrick was winning against priests of other religions.

So how does this all tie into the St. Patrick’s Day of Green Beer and Leprechauns?

Many of the first Irish immigrants were from the Protestant middle-class, educated, and fairly well to do. Since St. Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland, the religious observance and feast after made it a good time to have speeches and later, parades. In fact, the first recorded American St. Patrick’s day parade started in Boston, in 1737. Soon there were Irish parades in many of the major cities.

But the big immigration had not happened yet. The Great Potato Famine hit Ireland from 1845-1851. In about three to four years of wet weather, a type of fungus they called “the black rot” destroyed the main food source of the Irish peasant class. The nation was devastated. For the record, some English and American organizations did try to help, but due to bad planning and luck, hundreds of thousands of Irish died of starvation before anything could be done. For those of you interested, there are actual photos of this time period available on the internet.

Close to a million uneducated, starving, Catholic Irish pour into the United States. They were met with closed doors, prejudice, and outright hatred. They were shoulder to shoulder with poor immigrants and the African-American community, fighting for what jobs could be had. “Gangs of New York,” indeed.

Another irony: the Leprechaun cartoon that we see everywhere had its genesis in Anti-Irish drawings portraying the Irish as drunken, lazy, murderous monkeys complete with shamrocks, shilleaghly (a type of club), and knives. Less than 100 years later, the film “Darby O’Gill and the little people” was released by Disney, and cartoon Leprechauns were forever linked to the holiday.

Many Irish were impressed into the military, the sweatshops, and the outright dangerous jobs like dynamiting. But compared to the last two hundred years of their own history, this new wave of Irish were up for the challenge. Within a vary short time, these Irish immigrants saw themselves as part of the great destiny of the US, building railroads, businesses and, more importantly, voting coalitions. The Irish dug in, become part of the American dream. And in 1960, John F. Kennedy, an Irish Catholic American, was elected president. This was something that would have been undreamed less than thirty years before.

So this St. Patrick’s day, everyone will be “a-wearin’ o the green,” which in Irish folklore is considered an unlucky color. Ireland’s first national color was sky blue. Folks will put up shamrocks and leprechauns (notoriously grumpy, and no one had anything to do with the fairies in Ireland, if they were sane). And they’ll probably eat corned beef (a tradition borrowed from their Jewish neighbors in New York, because they couldn’t afford Irish bacon) and potatoes (not originally native to Ireland). And they may talk with a lilt (usually fake). But the truth is that St. Patrick is a good choice as a Saint to Celebrate. He was much like the Irish American character—tough, thought to be a bit crazy, persuasive, determined, and not afraid of challenge.

Here’s a traditional Irish toast for you to raise your glasses to: “May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a road downhill, all the way to your door!”