It makes me cringe when people call it “St. Patty’s Day”. Don’t ask me why. Maybe for the same reason it disturbs my brother to hear people use the word “frat”. Mostly I think it’s because they’re refering to a Saint as though he were a close personal friend. Either way, here’s some history – brought to you by www.newadvent.com and www.wikipedia.org.

Apostle of Ireland, Christian bishop, patron saint of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland.

He was one of the earliest writers to advocate the abolition of slavery.

Mythology credits him with banishing snakes from the island, though others suggest that for climatic reasons post-glacial Ireland never actually had snakes; one suggestion is that snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids of that time and place, as shown for instance on coins minted in Gaul (see Carnutes), or that it could have referred to heretical beliefs such as Pelagianism, symbolized as “serpents”.

Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian dogma of ‘three divine persons in the one god’ (as opposed to the Arian heresy that was popular in Patrick’s time). It should be noted that tripartine gods were not new to the Irish pagans.

It is unknown on what date he was born but it would have been at the beginning of the 5th century. He died in 491 AD according to the latest reconstruction of the old Irish annals. It is believed that March 17 was his death date (according to the Encyclopedia Britannica) and it is the date popularly associated with him as his feast, known as St. Patrick’s Day.