Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1892-07-28
A VERY OLD SAINT
For Eleven Hundred Years Ireland
Has H0nored One Great
Man.
The Memory of st. Patrick Has Been
Cherished by Irishmen and Their
Descendants.
A Consistency That Has Proved I'M
swerying Trough Many
Years.

ltuISs
America, so far as we know, has no
patron saint Columbus was never can.
onized, and George Washington lived
too late for such honors. But she has
compensation for this lack in the num-
Der of saints brought with her settlers.
st. Nicholas, st. David, st. Andrew, St.
George and we know not how many
more have become dominciled, each
bringing his quota of history, legend,
poetry, song and genial association, but
they are incidental-thrown in with the
bargain, as it were-:and our republic
has no Ono patron saint. 'S'''> - :':ss'''
We would not willingly say depre-
ciatoly word of those distinguished per-
sonages whom we mentioned, but simple,
modest, historic truth compels us to say
that no one Of them is more than "cir-
cumstance" on American soil to him
whose anniversary day, crisp, breezy
and bracing, calls out the long process
sion, the hurp-decorated green flag and
the indestructible shamrock which re-
appears in fresh verdure every year.
For something like / 100 years the 18th
of March has been observed as St. Pat
rick's Day.
And yet it is curious how entirely this
eminent saint has been overlooked in
naming places. You have saints all
through the alphabet, from St. Adams
to st. Vincent, but no ST. Patrick. The
Scotch have got in their st. Andrew, in
the cold north, to be sure, as was fit.
The Anthonys, Augustines, Bernards,
Charleses, Christophers, Glars, Francis
es, Johns, Josephs (run into Joes pro-
fanely), Lawrences, Louises, Marys,
Pauls, Peters and all the rest have their
names linked with towns, parishes or
streams, but there is not notable St.
Patrick's anywhere This can only be
explained by the modesty of those who
hold him in regard, and it is wrong
that ought to be redressed.
1t is to be lamented that so 1uuch of
the poetry, song and drollery of lively,
mirthful, mercurial and imaginative
people have gathered around this name
that the historical character is lost sight
of, and there stands up to the popular
eye legendary figure, exercising the
snakes and displaying the shamrock.
Nothing can be further from the reality
than this picture. A great amount of
real scholarship has been expended on
the investigation of st. Patrick's his
tory, and while differences of opinion
exist as to details, st. Patrick, unlike
St. George, of England, is recognized by
all as a true man with definite record
and solid claim to the generation of
the good.
According to history, Patrick was
farmers son, either on the coast of
France or Of Scotland, most of the early
church authorities representing him as
being born about 40, in the neighbor-
hood OF what is now Boulogne. His
original name was Succath, which the
early writers of the Irish Christian
church stated meant "brave in heart"
and the Latin name Patricius was later
given to him.
AT sixteen he was carried captive into
Ireland and was i'll slavery for six years
While serving as herder in compare
tive loneliness in woods aud wilds the
Christian truth of his early days came
to his mind. He prayed, meditated. be-
lieved; and when liberated returned to
his home what would now be called q
converted, actively religious man. He re-
membered with pity the heather among
whom he lived, and returned to them as
q Christian teacher. That is supposed
to have been about the year 4a2. He
preached the Gospel with singular elo-
quence and such extraordinary effect
that he established Christianity SO
strongly in Ireland that it could not be
overthrown. He baptized the kings Of
Dublin and Munster and the sons Of the
king of Connaught. He also established
numerous monasteries.
st. Bernard testifies that St. Patrick
fixed his metropolitan ses at Armagh.
He devoted much attention to the sup
preston Of slavery, one of the conse-
quences of the piratical expeditions Of
the age. He died in Down, Ulster, ON
March II. of either the year 1893 or 495.
Here are his own words rendered into
English from the stiff Latin, tinged with
Celtic, in which his Confessions. are
written:
II am greatly debtor to God, who
has bestowed his grace 50 largely
upon me, that mulitudes should be
born again to God through me, and that
of these, clergy should be everywhere
ordained for people lately coming to
the faith, whom the Lord took from the
extre1nities of the earth. The Irish,
who never had the knowledge of
God, and hitherto worshiped only idols
and unclean things, have lately become
the people of the Lord. and are called
the SONS of God"
The Confessions" the shortest, the
genuine work, without later interpola-
tions-is in the Book of Armagh" one
of thu richest literary treaSrros of 4ho