{"id":4455,"date":"2018-03-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-15T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/10-things-to-know-about-the-real-st-patrick\/"},"modified":"2025-02-10T15:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T23:29:43","slug":"10-things-to-know-about-the-real-st-patrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/10-things-to-know-about-the-real-st-patrick\/","title":{"rendered":"10 things to know about the real St.\u00a0Patrick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-2768-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-2768-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"10 things to know about the real St.\u00a0Patrick\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Did you know that Saint Patrick was not Irish? (Photo by Thad Zajdowicz.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=faculty\">Faculty<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>10 things to know about the real St.\u00a0Patrick<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  There are many myths associated with St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. But Patrick&#8217;s own writings and early biographies reveal the person behind the legend.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Lisa Bitel<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">March 15, 2018<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" 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cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>On March 17, people around the world will celebrate St. Patrick\u2019s Day by parading in green hats, sporting images of shamrocks and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/37626-leprechauns.html\">leprechauns<\/a> \u2013 tiny, grinning, fairy men \u2013 pinned to their lapels. Patrick\u2019s picture will adorn greeting cards: an aged, bearded <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholic.org\/saints\/saint.php?saint_id=89\">bishop in flowing robes<\/a>, grasping a bishop\u2019s staff and glaring at a coil of snakes.<\/p>\n<p>The icon refers to one of Patrick\u2019s legendary miracles in which he is said to have prayed to banish all snakes from Ireland. However, as a <a href=\"http:\/\/www-bcf.usc.edu\/%7Ebitel\/\">historian of medieval Ireland<\/a>, I can assure you that the real St. Patrick, who lived and worked in the fifth century, never saw a snake or wore a shamrock.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/etexts\/confessio_english#undefined\">Patrick\u2019s own writings<\/a> and early accounts of the saint\u2019s career reveal many interesting details about the life of this patron saint of Ireland. Here are 10 things you may not know about St. Patrick.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Patrick was not Irish<\/h2>\n<p>Patrick was born around 450 A.D., just when Roman troops withdrew from Britain. His father was a gentleman and a Christian deacon who owned a small estate in a place called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/etexts\/confessio_english#undefined\">Bannavem Taburniae.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scholars aren\u2019t sure where this place was \u2013 it was probably on the west coast around Bristol, near the southern border of modern Wales and England.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Patrick was a slave<\/h2>\n<p>Irish slave traders sailed the waters off that same coast, and one day they came ashore to capture <a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/etexts\/confessio_english#undefined\">the teenage Patrick<\/a> and his neighbors, to sell back in Ireland. Patrick spent six years tending sheep in the west of Ireland.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Patrick heard voices<\/h2>\n<p>While chasing sheep on the hills, Patrick prayed a hundred times a day, in all kinds of weather. It paid off. One night a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/etexts\/confessio_english#undefined\">mysterious voice called to him<\/a>, saying, \u201cLook, your ship is ready!\u201d Patrick knew he wasn\u2019t hearing sheep. The time was right for his escape.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Patrick refused to \u2018suck a man\u2019s breasts\u2019<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 237px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/208976\/original\/file-20180305-146697-ssg9ih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"Stained glass window which depicts St. Patrick.\" width=\"237\" height=\"237\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Patrick Catholic Church, Ohio. Nheyob (Own work)., CC BY-SA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Patrick made his way to Ireland\u2019s east coast and sought passage on a ship bound for Britain. The captain, a pagan, didn\u2019t like the look of him and demanded that Patrick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/etexts\/confessio_english#undefined\">\u201csuck his breasts,\u201d<\/a> a ritual gesture symbolizing acceptance of the captain\u2019s authority. Patrick refused \u2013 instead he tried to convert the crew.<\/p>\n<p>For some reason, the captain still took him aboard.<\/p>\n<h2>5. Patrick had visions<\/h2>\n<p>One night Patrick dreamed that Satan tested his faith by dropping an enormous rock on him. He lay crushed by its weight until dawn broke, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/etexts\/confessio_english#undefined\">he called out<\/a>, \u201cHelias! Helias!\u201d \u2013 the name of the Greek sun god. The rock disappeared. Patrick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/etexts\/confessio_english#undefined\">took it as a kind of epiphany<\/a>. He later wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI believe that I was helped by Christ the Lord.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Patrick had other peculiar visions, too. Back home at Bannavem Taburniae, he was visited by an angel with a message from the Irish: \u201cWe beg you, Holy Boy, to come and walk again among us.\u201d He trained as a bishop and went back to Ireland.<\/p>\n<h2>6. Patrick did something unmentionable<\/h2>\n<p>Years into his mission, someone, it seems, told a dirty secret about Patrick to his fellow bishops. \u201cThey brought up against me after thirty years something I had already confessed \u2026 some things I had done one day &#8211; rather, in one hour, when I was young,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/etexts\/confessio_english\">he wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Patrick did not tell us what he did \u2013 worship idols? Engage in a forbidden sexual practice? Take gifts from converts?<\/p>\n<p>Whatever it was, Patrick retrospectively understood his zealous Irish mission to be penance for his youthful sins. While he spread Christianity around Ireland, he was often beaten, put in chains or extorted. \u201cEvery day there is the chance that I will be killed, or surrounded, or taken into slavery,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/etexts\/confessio_english\">he complained<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>7. Patrick duelled with druids<\/h2>\n<p>Two centuries after his death, Irish believers wanted more exciting stories of Patrick\u2019s life than the saint\u2019s own account.<\/p>\n<p>One legend (written 700 A.D.) described Patrick\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.confessio.ie\/more\/muirchu_english\">contest<\/a> with native religious leaders, the druids. The druids insulted Patrick, tried to poison him and engaged him in magical duels \u2013 much like students of Harry Potter\u2019s Hogwarts \u2013 in which they competed to manipulate the weather, destroy each other\u2019s sacred books and survive raging fires.<\/p>\n<p>When one druid dared to blaspheme the Christian God, however, Patrick sent the druid flying into air \u2013 the man dropped to the ground and broke his skull.<\/p>\n<h2>8. Patrick made God promise<\/h2>\n<p>Another legend from around the same time tells how Patrick fasted for 40 days atop a mountain, weeping, throwing things, and refusing to descend until an angel came on God\u2019s behalf to <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/stream\/tripartitepatrick00stokuoft#page\/119\/\">grant the saint\u2019s outrageous demands<\/a>. These included the following: Patrick would redeem more souls from hell than any other saint; Patrick, rather than God, would judge Irish sinners at the end of time; and the English would never rule Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>We know how that last one worked out. Perhaps God will keep the other two promises.<\/p>\n<h2>9. Patrick never mentioned a shamrock<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 237px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/208969\/original\/file-20180305-146655-kqf1o7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"Illustration of a green shamrock.\" width=\"237\" height=\"258\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Patrick\u2019s Day shamrock. Maiconfz, CC BY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>None of the early Patrician stories featured the shamrock \u2013 or Irish seamr\u00f3g \u2013 which is a word for common clover, a small plant with three leaves. Yet children in Catholic schools still learn that Patrick used a shamrock as a symbol of the Christian Trinity when he preached to the heathen Irish.<\/p>\n<p>The shamrock connection was first mentioned in print by an <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/journal15irelgoog\">English visitor to Ireland in 1684<\/a>, who wrote that on Saint Patrick\u2019s feast day, \u201cthe vulgar superstitiously wear shamroges, 3 leav\u2019d grass, which they likewise eat (they say) to cause a sweet breath.\u201d The Englishman also noted that \u201cvery few of the zealous are found sober at night.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>10. Patrick did not drive the snakes out of Ireland<\/h2>\n<p>As for the miraculous snake-charming attributed to Patrick, it could not have happened because there were <a href=\"https:\/\/news.nationalgeographic.com\/news\/2008\/03\/080313-snakes-ireland_2.html\">no snakes in pre-modern Ireland<\/a>. Reptiles never made it across the land bridge that prehistorically linked the island to the European continent.<\/p>\n<p>Most likely, the miracle was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/atheology\/2017\/03\/st-patrick-snakes-forging-ancient-modern-myth\/\">plagiarized<\/a> from some other saint\u2019s life and eventually added to Patrick\u2019s repertoire.<\/p>\n<p>Party-goers on March 17 need not worry about ancient historical details, though. Whatever the truth of Patrick\u2019s mission, he became one of the three patrons of Ireland, along with Sts. <a href=\"https:\/\/monasticmatrix.osu.edu\/commentaria\/st-brigit-ireland\">Brigit<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sourcebooks.fordham.edu\/basis\/columba-e.asp\">Columba<\/a>\u2013 the latter two were born in Ireland.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 754px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/208968\/original\/file-20180305-146700-ca2blu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"Photo of people in a St. Patrick's Day parade. Many are wearing green hats and clothing.\" width=\"754\" height=\"503\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade. (Ardfern (Own work)., CC BY-SA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/lisa-bitel-418308\">Lisa Bitel<\/a>, Professor of History &amp; Religion, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/university-of-southern-california-dornsife-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences-2669\">University of Southern California \u2013 Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a>. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/10-things-to-know-about-the-real-st-patrick-92253\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/who-is-ireland-patron-saint-brigid\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >St. Brigid, the compassionate, sensible female patron saint of Ireland, gets a lot less recognition than St.\u00a0Patrick<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/ancient-irish-get-too-much-credit-for-halloween\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >The ancient Irish get far too much credit for Halloween<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/children-of-the-cosmos\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Children of the Cosmos: What the Ancients Knew<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many myths associated with St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. But Patrick&#8217;s own writings and early biographies reveal the person behind the legend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":4458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[71,766,104,855],"class_list":["post-4455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","tag-history","tag-lisa-bitel","tag-religion","tag-st-patricks-day"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>10 things to know about the real St.\u00a0Patrick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are many myths associated with St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. 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