Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-03-17


Sr. PArRIcK's BIREHDAr-To-day, the
18th Of March, Is celebrated as the BIRTH
day Of one Of the most extraordinary men
Of history, one, who from a condition of
slavery, rose to be one of the first bishops
lot the world, and whose life, passed in
winning the rude and barbarous descend
ants of the Scott and Milesians of the
spanish coasts to a knowledge of the true
God,; .deservedly won for him cannoniza-
tion. His history seems like the stories OF
i early romance or fable.
In one of the piratical excursions made
by Mac Nail, petty King, he landed on
the coast of Brittany. and brought away
lspoil, living as well as dead, human as
well as brute. Among the captives was q
youth of some sixteen years of age, who,
on arriving in Ireland was sold as slave,
and employed in tending sheep. This
youth was afterwards St. Patrick. Natur-
ally of thoughtful turn, the mountain
track and forest glade in which his occu-
patton caused him to pass SO much of
his time, deepened his meditative
habits, and gave zeal and fervor
to native religious Impressions. He looked
upon the land and saw that it was beauti-
full beyond alf his imaginings; but he saw
that it was peopled with idolators and pol
luted by cruelties. Even amid the bitter
ness of his own situation, a captive and
slave in q foreign land, he felt that ig would
be great and CHRISTIAN deed to open the
eyes of the blinded among whom his lot
was cast and save them from false faith,
and their first-born from being sacrificed
in torture at the flaming altars of senseless
and craven idols. Fortunately st. Patrick
had scarcely attained the age of manhood
when he escaped and made his way safely
back to France and for upwards of twenty
years applied himself with diligent de-
termination, to the acquisition of such
knowledge as was then .attainable.s But.
neither lapse of years nor pride of cultiva-
ted intellect could Danish from. his mind
the recollection of the state of the Irish, or
his early determination to make the at
tempt, at least, TO enlighten their minds
and raise their social condition.
Accordingly, in the year 432, when about
forty-five years of age, he applied to the
Pope for permission to preach the gospel
In Ireland. Such permission was freely
and checrfuily accorded, and st. Patrick
accompanied by few French monks whom
he had interested by his descriptions of the
character and condition of the Irish, landed
in Ulster, after an absence of about a quar-
ter of century. The foreign garb and
striking appearance of st. Patrick and his
companions, filled the peasantry whom
they first encountered with the notion that
they were pirates, and, preparations were
made for driving them back to their ves-
sells. But their quiet demeanor, and simple
assurances. given by ST.. Patrick in the
language of the country, that he and his
companions had arrived on a mission of
peace and good will, speedily converted
hostility into admiration and confidence
The hospitality OF the principal people
was heartily bestowed upon the disinter-
ested strangers,and st. Patrick and his COM
panlons presented themselves at Tara, at
tended by a numerous and enthusiastic
cortege. The mild and benevolent appear
ance of the preachers gave full weight to
the sublime and benevolent doctrines they
propounded. Kings and people listened
at first with interest, then with full cred
ence, and in a very brief period idols and
idol worship became hateful to the people;
Christian doctrines were everywhere re-
ceived, and churches and monasteries arose
where flames had but lately licked up the
blood of the shrieking and expiring hu-
man victims of ferocious error.
1t was while preaching on the hill of Tara,
before the five soverigns of Ireland, the
kings of Meath, Leinster, Munster, Con-
naught and Ulster, St. Patrick by way of
Illustrating the doctrine of the Trinity
with a clover leaf, made the Shamrock the
national emblem OF Ireland. One of the
kings-of Connaught. if we remember
rightly-could not understand how there
could be three persons and but one God-
The eye of the preacher rested on the clover
at his feet. Hastily plucking one he said:
''Lo, here is the Trinity. Three leaves and
but one plant."4 Tue rude understanding
of the king was reached and the Shamrock
became the emblem of Irish faith and Irish
nationality. -
\ Why the 18th of March is selected as the
birthday of the Saint, we have been un-
able to discover. Sam. Lover accounts for
It in the following poem with more of an
Irishman's wit than an Irishman's philoso-
phy:r s sss9. 5s.., 5g.
sses-s SAINT PATRICK's BIRTHDAY.
On the eighth day of March as som, people say,
st. Patrick, at midnight. he first saw the day.
Whilst others assert on the ninth he was born, ap
That twas all mistake betune midnight and morn.
For mistakes will occur 'twixt the hurry and shock,
And some blamed the baby, whilst some blamed
But with ali their cross questions. sure. no one
could know
If the clock was too fast ct the babe was too slow
Tho first faction fight in Old Ireland they say,
Was all on account of st. Patrick's birthday.
Some fought for the eighth-for the ninth. more
would die,
And who wouldn't say right. sure they blackened
his eye:
At last both parties so positive grew.
Each one kept a birthday-so Paddy had two;
Till Father Mulcahey. ashame of their sins,
SsysS.Nobody could have two birthdays. except
Then boys don't be fghtin' for eight or for nine.
Don't be always dividin'. but sometime combine
Combine eight with nine-seventeen is the mark.
So let that be his rthday."-''Amen.' says the
IF 10 had not two birthdays. sure history will
He was worth any s,Do other Saints that we know y
Then the boys got blind drunk. which completed
49, their bliss, as.L f.a-5 y Z
And we keep up the custom from that day to this.
A MATTER FOR REGREr.-The editor of
the Bucyrus Journal was in attendance on
| the Republican State Convention On his