Don your green clothes, open a pint of Guinness and scan the lawn for a four-leaf clover.

Sunday, March 17, 2002

Don your green clothes, open a pint of Guinness and scan the lawn for a four-leaf clover. It’s St. Patrick’s Day and, for 24 hours, everyone’s Irish.

But how much do you really know about this holiday?

St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He was born, however, in Wales sometime around 385 A.D. His given name was Maewyn, and he wasn’t always religious. Historical records reflect that until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan.

At 16, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village. Six years later, he escaped and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre.

According to his writings, a voice – which he believed to be God’s -spoke to him in a dream, telling him it was time to leave Ireland. To do so, Patrick walked nearly 200 miles from County Mayo, where it is believed he was held, to the Irish coast.

After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation – an angel in a dream tells him to return to Ireland as a missionary.

He studied for 12 years and during his training, he decided his calling was to convert the Celtic Druids to Christianity.

He wished to return to Ireland, but was instead sent to St. Palladius. Two years later, he was transferred to Scotland and then was appointed as the second bishop to Ireland, an appointment he almost didn’t receive because he lacked the required scholarship.

Patrick traveled through Ireland, establishing schools and churches, which helped him in reaching his goal to convert people to the Christian faith.

There are about 60 churches and cathedrals named for him in Ireland alone. One of the most famous cathedrals is St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. These grounds bear the mark of the place where St. Patrick baptized his converts.

St. Patrick worked in the mission field for 30 years, retiring to County Down. He died on March 17, 461, which has been commemorated as a holiday ever since.

There are several lores associated with St. Patrick, most of which are unsubstantiated. He is said to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland, which, as most realize, is untrue because snakes were never native to Ireland.

One traditional icon of St. Patrick’s day is the shamrock. This stems from a more bona fide Irish tale that tells how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day.

In America, the St. Patrick’s Day custom started in 1737. That was the first year St. Patrick’s Day was publicly celebrated in, of course, Boston.