The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-16
ST. PATRICK'S DAY.
The Patron Saint of Ireland.
Who He Was and What He Was-HOW
He Has Figured in History
and story, Etc.

after born to be great to have the time, place,
and circumstances of his birth carefully noted
down by some one who happens to be present
on that important occasion. Such precau-
ton will save a vast amount of speculation
and dispute, when the great man has been
slumbering in his grave for centuries. And if
such a precaution had been taken in the fourth
century, we should now be able to state with
precision the nativity of Patrick, Apostle and
Patron Saint of Ireland. AS it is, we are
forced to content ourselves with saying that
he entered upon his earthly career about the
year A. D. 372, while it is quite impossible to
determine whether England, Scotland, Wales,
or France has the best claim to be considered
the country of his birth. Tie high-sounding
name of Patrick, however, is considered as
proving beyond all doubt or cavil that he was
of respectable, and even of arstocratic
parentage. Be that as it may, when but six
teen years of age he was stolen away by a
band of pirates, 10y whom he was sold into
slavery in Ireland. For seven years thereafter
his master compelled him to follow the humble
occupation of a swineherd on Mount Seamish,
in county Antrim. His years of bondage were
not altogether wasted, however, for during
that period he was able to acquaint himself
intimately with the language, manners, and
customs of the heathens who then inhabited
the Emerald Isle.
He contrived in the end to escape from cap
tivity, and after encountering innumerable
perils, both by land and sea, to make way to
the continent, where he entered the Church,
and was successfully ordained deacon, priest,
and bishop. Then, armed with the authority
of Pope Celestine, he returned to the scenes OF
his bondage, and commenced to preach the
Gospel to the unregenerate Irish. At the
close of the fourth century, this task was
somewhat more difficult than it is at present.
Bishop Patrick was obstructed in his Christian
izing labors not only by the inborn obstinacy
of the people to whom he preached, but by
the formidable opposition of the priests of the
old Druidical superstition. These Druids, being
ministers OF false faith, necessarily dealt i'll
magic, mystery, and miracles of the most
astounding character; and they directed their
internal Vaccinations against the good bishop
with so much zeal and success that he was
forced to resort to the same manner of war
fare. Bishop Patrick therefore cursed the
fertile lands of his antagonists, and they be-
came baren he cursed their teeming rivers,
and the fish deserted them; he cursed the pots
in which they concOcted their witching broth,
and after that the fires of the Inferno were not
hot enough to make them boil; and at last,
having eXhaused both patience and charity,
ne cursed IIe very DGuluS themselves, WIeu
the earth yawned and they were swallowed up!
Having once gotten in the way of performing
miracles, Bishop Patrick found himself Oft
times tempted to repeat them. Thus, hap
pening with his followers one cold morning
to be in a mountainous locality, without a
fire wherewith to warm his limbs and cook
his breakfast, the good bishop,
"In order to assuage the weather,
Collected bits OF ice togetheY
hon TrlTo INT hnn II q
When every fragment blazed on fire."
The bishops followers thereupon thawed
themselves and proceeded to cook their
breakfast marveling much
But the greatest achievement of Bishop
Patrick in the miraculous way was his famous
crusade against the snakes and other venom
GUS reptiles which at that time infested the
Emerald Isle. The good bishop procured a
drum, upon which he thumped away with
such hearty zeal, that reptiles of all kinds and
sizes rushed frantcally into the sea. But be-
fore he had entirely driven out these pests, by
an unfortunate stroke hole was made in the
instrument, and his task would have been in
complete, had not an angel OppOrtunely APP
peared and mended it. The drum, patch and
all, was long preserved and exhibited, as a holy
relic of the Deliverer of Ireland from the pes
thence of snakes. While engaged in this
laudable undertaking, it is said that Bishop
Patrick chained a monstrous serpent in the
Lough Diveen, one of the seven lakes of the
Gaultie Mountains, bidding him there remain
till Monday. According to the popular belief
Ofthe neighborhood, the serpent still continues
in bondage at the bottom of the lake, but every
Monday without fail he lifts up his voice and
says-"Tis long Monday, Patrick" Some
years ago, person who was endowed with
more curiosity than good sense turned half a
dozen harmless snakes loose in the very neigh
bOrhOod of one of the bishops burial-places,
A widespread alarm was the result, some
arguing that the unwelcome serpents por-
tended the certain approach of the millennium,
while others were equally certain that the in-
habitants were about to be decimated by the
cholera mOrbus; but before either catastrophe
happened the snakes were remorselessly de-
stroyed
Bishop Patrick continued his labors for the
evangeization of Ireland for long time and
with great success; and, finally, according to
the accepted account, he was called to a better
world while soiourning at Saul, on the 18th OF
March, A. d. 493, being then in the one hun
dred and twenty-frst year of his age. The
place of his burial, like that of many other
wonderful men, is involved in quite rs much
obscurity as that of his birth, more than one
locality laying claim to the high distinction
The weight of the authorities, however, is il
favor of the supposition that he reposes il
Downpatrick, and that side by side with his
remains are those of Saint Bridget and Saint
Columb. For many years past an humble
family residing in the neighbOrhOod o
Belfast have had in their possession
silver shrine, cuTiously embossed anC
evidently of great antiquity, in which
is enclosed the iaw-bOne of the Bishop
Not many years ago there were five teeth at
tached to 1t, but three of them were removed
and given to members of the family who wer,