The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1916-03-22
ALL IRISHMEN, GOOD AND
TRUE, CELEBRATED nth

ALL lKlSHMEN, GOOD AND
TRUE, CELEBRATED nth
Last Friday, Was the Birthday of
Ireland's Patron Saint Observed
Throughout tho World.
The Celtic race and it's descend
ants celebrated Friday in all coun-
tries of the world. From the Emer-
aid Isle men have gone far and wide
in search of fortune and liberty, and
have cherished in their children the
memory of St. Patrick, the patron
saint. In America Friday, as in the
quaint villages and mighty cities Of
Ireland, as in the battle ranks and
warships' turrets under Britain's flag,
the shamrock was worn and the
good st. Patrick is remembered.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific,
every town and hamlet has its Irish
man or its man of Celtic blood. Ev-
cry city witnessed the gathering of its
Irish citizens to pay honor to the
saint. While in some the rancor of
saint. While in somethe rancor of pol
itics stirred up by those who would
cause, the gatherings are mainly
patriotic and religious, expressing
more than ever the profound hope
for liberty and progress in the green
isle.
Despite the fact that authentic rec
ords of st. Patrick are to be had,
some dating back almost to his own
time, the average reader will prob
ably admit that all he knows about
st. Patrick is that he drove the
snakes out of Ireland and is beloved
by the Irish. But st. Patrick is more
deserving of honor and fame for
turning the Irish from their worship
of idols and hobgoblins to Christian
ity than for ridding the Emerald Isle
of creeping things. He was the apos-
tie of the Irish, and there was no in
fuence so great as his in the his
tory of the race.
The date of St. Patrick's birth is a
mooted question, some writer's plac-
ing it at 377, and others five years
earlier. He undoubtedly lived to
ripe age, and historians place his
death on March 18th, asa.
He was captured by pirates when
he was sixteen years old and taken
to Ireland from France. He was set
to work tending sheep in the noun
tains, and while doing so prayed fer
vently day and night "in the snow,
in the frost and in the rain" After
six years of slavery, St. Patrick es-
capped from Ireland in a small boat
and returned to France, where he
was again captured. Some few years
later he again made his way to Ire
land where he began his long work of
cambatting the Druids at Tara.
There is story to the effect that
when he was first taken to Ireland by
the pirates, he was sold into slavery
in exchange for an old kettle. When
this kettle was filled with water and
placed over the fire, the water be-
came colder and colder as the fire
increased instead of hotter, and
would not boil until St. Patrick him
self prayed over it.
There are several versions of the
banishment of snakes from Ireland.
One is that while St. Patrick was on
Mount Eagle, he was attacked by SER
pents, which he drove headlong into
the sea. Another historian declares
that an Egyptian prince visited Ire
land and expelled the reptiles, and
that toward the close of st. Patrick's
life there was a certain huge snake
that had not been expelled. st. Pat
rick procured huge oak chest, so
the story goes, into which he enticed
the big serpent by suggesting it
would be more comfortable than the
hard ground. The lid was bolted
down and the serpent begged for his
release. But St. Patrick was obdur-
ate and said he would release him
tomorrow" Then he tossed the
chest into the lakes of Killarney. The
legend further runs that fishermen
ever afterward heard the willy old
snake crying to know if tomorrow
had come yet. And they said his
writhing was what caused the waves
of the sea and his pleas for release
the oceans roar.
The ruins of Slane Abbey on Tara
Hill is the greatest memorial to his
labor. Throughout Ireland are many
"standing stones" with a cross grav-
en- on them by order of st. Patrick,
symbolic of the consecrating of the
Emerald Isle to Christianity. Be-
fore St. Patrick's time these stones
were fetishes Of the pagan belief;
but he placed the cross upon them
to typify the triumph of Christianity.
The Cathedral of St. Patrick at Dun
Patrick is filled with monuments and
memorial tablets. There is a covered
well within the enclosure believed to
have been used by the saint himself.
St. Patrick's body is buried under
q huge rock adjacent to this cathe-
dral. On the rock is engraved the
single word "Patrick."