San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-08
ABOUT ST. PATRICK.
A FEW OF HIS STRANGE ADVEN.
TLRES AND ACHIEVEMENTS.

The UnembelIished story of the Irish
Saints Life--Few Historical Person
ages Are shrouded i'm as Much Myth
and Interesting Legendary Lore.
'St. Patrick one Irshman was heard
to say to another the other day, twas the
greatest man that ever lived"
''He was" the other replied, 1.-The great
est man that ever lived or died either"
Certain it is that in this time and coun
try the festival of no other saint is so hon
ored as that of st. Patrick on the 18th of
March. Nor could any saint be chosen
whose life popular tradition has surrounded
with a more picturesque variety of Incl
dents. The people whose patron he is are
one of the most absorbingly and roman
tically interesting nations of the world.
They have never been, for reasons that are
well understood, rich or cultivated peo-
pie They are rough and simple in their
character, but they have warm hearts, ten
der, poetic and often grotesque magma
tions, and rich, peculiar and inexhausti-
BILE humor.
All these qualities are strangely mixed
in their national traditions and especially
in the stories of St. Patrick. Sometimes
the result seems to have a SAVIOR of irrev-
erence, but it may be surely trusted that
there is no such intention and that no
saint receives more genuine veneration
from his people than does the patron saint
of Ireland.
The unembellished history of St. Pat
rick is not long. The information about
his life is meager and confused. Wales.
Scotland and France all claim his birth,
with the weight of probability in favor of
Wales. The date was about 1913. When
he was about sixteen years old he was
stolen by pirates or marauders from the
north and sold as slave in Ireland
For seven years he tended swine on
mountain in County Antrim, and then he
escaped to the Continent, where he became
deacon, priest and bishop. He came of
good family and the ecclesiastical name of
Patricius was given him by Pope Celes-
tine, who sent him back to Ireland to con-
vert the people. The accounts differ about
his age at this time. Some of the dates
given indicate that he was about thirty,
others that he was nearer sixty. Before
he returned to Ireland he had visions
Among them was one of a man named
Victorious, who brought him letters. In
one of these were the words, THE voice of
the Irish," and as he read them he heard a
voice say, 'We pray thee, holy youth, to
come and henceforward walk amongst us
After this he spent his life in preaching,
baptizing and working miracles and ac.
complished the practical conversion of the
people of the island. He died at the age of
about 100 and was buried at Downpatrick.
Even in this plain account it may be seen
that there is something which approaches
the border line between history and legend
But when pure legend is considered there
is no end TO the variety and ingenuity of
the tales that are told. Some of them are
so generally known and trusted that they
amount to history in the eyes of the people
of the country, while there are others which
it is hardly possible to suppose were ever
believed by anybody.
When st. Patrick first began to talk to
the Irish of the Trinity they did not be-
heye him, till he picked a shamrock and
illustrated the doctrine by the three leaves
growing on one stem, and then they were
converted and the shamrock became
sacred to St. Patrick. 1t is said by 9th
ers that the shamrock worn on st. Pat
rick's Day represents the cross But the
shamrock was held sacred by the Druids
in Ireland before st. Patrick's time, as
was also the mistletoe, whose leaves, as
well as berries, were likewise arranged in
tbrees, three being sacred number.
st. Patrick's followers once suffered
from cold, when he commanded them to
gather ice and snow. When they had
made a large pile he breathed upon it and
it became bright fire. Two of these sto-
ries are also told in a different form.
When the saint was a child he gathered
some bits of ice, and his nurse told him
that he would be better employed in gath
ering firewOod, whereupon he breathed on
the ice and it took fire. When he was sold
as slave it is said that the price was
Kettle, but it was at once found that the
hotter the fire was made under the kettle
the colder the kettle became, till it was re
turned in disgust, and St. Patrick was re
stored to his former master, when the ket
tie again boiled properly.
Or course the saints most famous
achievement was Kidding Ireland OF
snakes. 1t has been related that he called
the serpents together to the top of a noun
tam and compelled them to swallow one
another till there was none left but this
seems improbable. A more authentic &C.
count is that he drove them out by beat
ing drum, and that in his enthusiasm he
knocked a hole in it, which an angel at
once came and mended. One hugh snake
he chained in Tough Dilveen, telling it to
stay till Monday and even to this day,
every Monday morning, the snake calls
out in good Irish, Its long Monday.
Patrickp'
1t is interesting to note here that Pliny
says that serpents are never seen on trefoil
and that the leaf prevails against the bites
of snakes and scorpions. Not only did St
Patrick drive out the snakes, but, as every
body knows, he made the soil itself inim
ical 70 serpent life, and even the wood thai