This Tuesday is St. Patrick’s Day. Although many celebrants have no clue about the Patrick of that day, learning a little about his story has enriched my life. I pray that it can benefit you as well.
I won’t tell his whole story here. You can read about his life in other places, and I’ll post a couple helpful links at the end of this message.
Patrick was born in Britain sometime toward the end of the fourth century AD to a wealthy family who owned slaves. He was kidnapped as a teenager, shipped to Ireland, and forced to work as a slave there for seven years. He escaped and returned to Britain, became a minister, and went back to Ireland as a missionary and was highly instrumental in establishing Christianity on that island. He died in 461 on March 17, which is now the annual date of St. Patrick’s Day.
After Patrick died, his life and work were largely forgotten. However, several myths about him developed through the following years. Today, if we hear anything about him in the midst of green and Guinness, that information is likely mythological.
One myth about Patrick is that he banished all snakes from Ireland. John Roach of National Geographic News reports that Ireland is an island that “is surround by icy ocean waters–much too cold to allow snakes to migrate from Britain or anywhere else.” Roach’s article references the historian Philip Freeman, who points out that snakes never existed on the island.
Although this story is most likely legendary with no literal truth, it has some value as a metaphor. Roach writes, “But since snakes often represent evil in literature, ‘when Patrick drives the snakes out of Ireland, it is symbolically saying he drove the old, evil, pagan ways out of Ireland [and] brought in a new age,’ Freeman said.”
While the story about Patrick’s banishing of snakes is not historically valid, it metaphorically speaks a verified fact. Patrick took the message of Christ to a people who did not know him. The namesake of St. Patrick’s Day played a large role in reversing Ireland’s fifth-century evil, the full extent of which we will never know in this realm.
Surely Patrick read and attempted to live these words from the Fourth Gospel about Jesus Christ: “In him was life, and the life was the light of [people]. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (1:4-5, ESV).
May you, like Patrick, live and minister in ways that shine the light of Christ and banish various forms of “darkness.” That is my prayer for you on this St. Patrick’s Day.
For more information about Patrick, explore these links:
