Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is probably one of the most widely recognized saints by people of all religious beliefs.
I had always supposed that he must have been Irish, but I found that he was not.
There are many stories about Saint Patrick, although very few actual facts are known. He is thought to have lived in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries.
Two genuine letters he wrote are in existence. From those we know he was from Britain, and that when he was about 16, Irish raiders captured him and took him to Ireland as a slave. He escaped after six years and returned home.
While back in Britain, he became an ordained bishop and returned to Ireland. While there, he established churches with adjacent schools.
Saint Patrick's Day is always observed on March 17, the date of Patrick's death.
It is a myth that he rid Ireland of snakes and rodents, but the legend still endures in verses like this:
There's not a mile in Ireland's isle where the dirty vermin musters;
Where'er he put his dear forefoot he murdered them in clusters.
The toads went hop, the frogs went flog, slap dash into the water.
And the beasts committed suicide to save themselves from slaughter.
and this one:
The Wicklow Hills are very high, and so's the Hill of Houth, sir;
But there's a hill much higher still--ay, higher than them both sir;
'Twas on the top of this hill Sir Patrick preached the sarmint
That drove the frogs into the bogs and bothered all the varmint.
Mos of us like to consider ourselves "Irish for a day" on Saint Patrick's Day, so I just had to find out if I had any Irish ancestors.
I had to go back to the 17th Century to find my Irish roots. My 10th great grandfather, Ellis Fitzgerald Barron was born to Irish parents in Waterford, Ireland in 1607. He emigrated to the United States somewhere in the 1630's or 1640's, and died October 30, 1676 in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
