LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. — St. Patrick is an icon of shamrocks and the color green, but what is the real truth of his legacy and how does it live on? Originally named Maewyn, St. Patrick was born to Christian parents in Roman Britain. The missionary went to Ireland in his early twenties, changing his name to Patricius, and spread Christianity throughout the nation, where he famously ‘drove the snakes out of Ireland’.
St. Patrick’s story of “driving the snakes out of Ireland” is a common saying, although no snakes exist on the island. Biblically, a snake represents the idea of evil and temptation, which is illustrated through the story of Adam and Eve.
Patricius was believed by members of the Pagan community to have demolished their religion during this time because of their non-Christian principles. He was thought to have forcefully converted or executed any Pagan that refused to adhere to his ideologies.
Although there is no legitimate proof of the genocide of Pagans, others think that St. Patrick pushed his beliefs onto Ireland for his idea of a stronger country.
“I think it’s probably metaphorical in the sense that he purified the country and made it better,” Imogen Grumley Traynor, a clinical psychologist and Dublin native at Staffordshire University, said in an interview with Global Mindset Development.
St. Patrick’s Day on March 17 was commonly valued as a religious feast, but now it is a widely celebrated holiday among Irish and Irish-Americans.
“Part of the celebration originally was that he brought Christianity to Ireland,” Traynor explained.
However, modern society chooses to honor this day with festivals and eat delicious foods like corned beef and green beer. At first, the Irish traditionally ate dishes with pork, but after traveling to America, they found corned beef more affordable, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Green attire is commonly worn on this day to symbolize luck and the shamrock, which St. Patrick used to spread the idea of the Holy Trinity. Folklore of Irish communities advises people not to wear the color orange on this day as it was once believed to show one’s allegiance to the British crown.
Whether one views St. Patrick’s Day and the history of the popular saint himself to be a fact or myth, it is undeniably a cultural tradition respected by many across the globe.
