The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-05-05
ABOUT ST. PATRICK.
A FEW OF HIS STRANGE ADvEN-
TURES AND ACHIEVEMENTS.

| Inc OueunOeiilSueu story OF the Hist
Saints Life-Few Historical Person
ages Are Shrouded in as Much Myth
and Interesting Legendary Lore.
''St. Patrick" one Irishman was heard
to say to another the other day, twas the
| greatest man that ever lived"
He was" the other replied, "the great
est man that ever lived or died either"
| Certain 1t is that in this time and coun
| try the festival of ne 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 more picturesque variety of Incl
dents The people whose patron he is are
one of the most Accordingly and roman
tically interesting nations of the world.
They have never been, for reasons that are
well understood, rich or a cultivated peo-
pie. They are rough and simple in their
character, but they have warm hearts, ten
der, poetic and often grotesque imagina-
lions, 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 generation
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 tho xyaiohf - ak,l "a
Wales. The date was about 373. 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 a
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
voice say, I'VE pray thee, holy youth, to
come and heneeforward walk amongst u.s."
After this he spent his life in preaching,
baptizing and working miracles and &C
comphshed the practical conversion of the
people of the island. He died at the age of
about 120 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-
lieve him, till he picked a shamrock and
illustrated the doctrine by the three leaves
growing on one stern, and then they were
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
we'll as berries, were likewise arranged in
threes, three being a sacred number
st. Patrick's followers once suffered |
from cold, when he commanded them to |
gather ice and snow. When they had |
made 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-
lie again boiled properly.
OF course the saints most famous |
achievement was Kidding Ireland of |
snakes. 1t has been related that he called |
he serpents together to the top of noun
ain and compelled them to swallow one
another till there was none left, but this
seems improbable. A more authentic &C
,ount is that he drove them out by beat
ng drum, and that in his enthusiasm he
knocked hole in it, which an angel at
,nce came and mended. One hugh snake
lie chained in Tough Dilveen, telling it to
tay till Monday, and even to this day,
very Monday morning, the snake calls
nut in good Irish, ''It's a long Monday
1t is interesting to note here that Pliny
ays that serpents are never seen on trefoil,
md that the leaf prevails against the bites
# snakes and scorpions. Not only did st.
Patrick drive out the snakes, but, as every
'ody knows, he made the soil itself inim-
cal to serpent life, and even the wood that
,rows on it has similar property. for it is
aid that Kings college, at Cambridge, is
,uilt of Irish wood and that snidars gro |