The national emblem of Ireland is a plant, the leaf of which has three
small leaflets. This is called the Shamrock. It is beloved by Irish
folks at all times, but most of them wear it conspicuously upon the 17th
day of March. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, and that is
St. Patrick's Day. There are very good reasons why the Saint should be
honoured by Irishmen, yet it is a curious fact that he was not born in
Ireland. Indeed, there is some doubt regarding both the time and place
of his birth. Some people think that the Saint was born in France, while
others hold that his birthplace was at Kilpatrick, near Dunbarton, in
Scotland.
But this we know for certain that St. Patrick, when he was a lad of
sixteen years of age, was captured by pirates on his father's farm and
carried by them to Ireland, where he was sold into slavery. The Irish
Chief who bought the lad lived in County Antrim, near Sleamish
Mountain, and he employed Patrick in herding swine. All the people who
lived in that part of Ireland at this time--about the end of the 4th
century--were heathen. Now, young Patrick had been trained by his father
and grandfather in the Christian religion, and it made him very unhappy
to think that his master, and the people of Ireland, were ignorant of
the true faith; he was also unhappy when he thought of his home and his
friends. But after six years he escaped from slavery, and sailed away
from Ireland.
He went to another country, either Scotland or France, and there became
a priest and a preacher of the Christian religion. Patrick was very
successful, and after many years he was made a Bishop. But all this time
he kept in remembrance the people of Ireland who had never heard the
Gospel, and at last he determined to go and preach the good news in the
country where he had been a slave and a swineherd. He was sixty years of
age when he landed in Wicklow as the apostle of Christianity to Ireland,
but Patrick was a strong old man and he had great faith in his message.
Up and down the country he travelled converting the heathen Chiefs and
their followers. As many as 12,000 people were baptised with his own
hands, and by his efforts the Christian religion was firmly planted in
Ireland. A great many marvellous stories are told about the Saint. It is
said, for instance, that on one occasion he made a heap of snow-balls
blaze up into a fire by simply breathing upon them; and there is also
the well-known legend that he drove all the snakes from Ireland by the
beating of a drum. The year of his death is uncertain, but we know that
he must have been a very old man, and that he was buried at Downpatrick.
This is the man who is held in honour by Irishmen in all parts of the
world. On St. Patrick's Day they give themselves a holiday, and make
merry,--those of them, at least, who still remain in the old Catholic
Church. Surely that is well. For in honouring St. Patrick the Irish
people do honour to themselves, and to all that is noble and brave in
their long sad history.