St. Patrick's Day Tidbits... Did you know?

• When Patrick was 16 years old, he was captured by pirates and sold as a slave in Ireland, where he served as a shepherd for a Chieftain in Ulster. During his captivity, he dedicated himself to religion and lived a solitary life out in the fields. After 6 years of slavery, he found the inner fortitude to escape and returned home to Britain.
• As a result of his experiences while a prisoner in Ireland, he became driven by the idea of converting the Irish to Christianity, and as preparation, he studied at the monastery in Lerins, an island off the coast of France. He also studied under Saint Germanus, a French bishop in Auxerre, France.
• St. Patrick used the shamrock (or “searoy”), which usually had 3 leaves, to teach his flock about the Holy Trinity, or how a thing could be both “one” and “three” (as in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). The shamrock became the symbol of Ireland, and was always considered a good luck symbol since the earliest times.
• No snakes in Ireland? Thank Patrick for that! There are a few legends surrounding this claim:

1. He stood upon a hill and used his wooden staff to drive all the snakes into the sea.

2. Another legend has it that one old snake resisted the banishment, so Patrick used his cunning mind and built a box, and invited the old serpent to enter it. The snake insisted the box was too small, and after a heated discussion, the snake entered the box to prove his point, at which action Patrick slammed the lid down, trapping the serpent, and tossed the box into the sea.
3. In many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common, and possibly worshipped. Driving the snakes from Ireland was most likely symbolic as well, as in putting an end to those pagan practices.

• Leprechauns? In the old Irish traditions, they were believed to be small mythical grumpy creatures, notorious for playing tricks to protect their treasures. It wasn’t until 1959, when Walt Disney created the movie “Darby O’Gill & the Little People” that the leprechaun became popular and eventually attached to St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

• Last, but not least, we come to the Blarney Stone. This too has several legends attached to it, the main one being that he (or she) who kisses the stone will be blessed with the gift of gab, or to put it another way, with eloquence. The Stone is a block of limestone that was set into the tower of the Blarney Castle beneath the battlements in the year 1446. No, perhaps it was Jeremiah the Prophet who brought the stone to Ireland? It is said to have been referred to as Jacob’s Pillow in the Bible. But then again, according to another legend, it was Cormac Teige McCarthy, Lord of the Blarney Castle, who received the Stone in 1314 as a gift of support of the Battle of Bannockburn. He is also credited with saving an old woman from drowning. It turns out that she was a witch, and in return for saving her life, she told him about a stone at Blarney Castle that held a magical secret that anyone can receive with just a kiss to the Stone. Regardless of what is fact and what is fiction, the Blarney Stone continues to hold its popularity from all around the world, bringing both curious seekers and believers to place their lips to the Stone.