Rocky Ford enterprise., 1916-03-10
BIRTHPLACE OF
IRELAND'S SAINT
Has Been Ascribed to Scotland
Among Other Countries-His
Lab0rs in the Emerald
Isle.

~. PATRICK. the shamrock and
Ireland are hard to disassociate,
whether the one or another
comes first in mind. 1t is a
common story, Of course, as to the use
that the saint put the shamrock when
converting some Gaelic chieftains,
how they stood by the roadside. with
the emerald fields of Ireland spread
ing out on either side. and the mis-
sionary stopped. plucked a shamrock
and held 1t up before the scoffer, as
typifying the Holy Trinity. 1t is also
commonly told that St. Patrick was Of
fered his mission to the isle by the
pope, and that he was of French or
Genoese extraction.
In a somewhat lengthy biography
an authority recognized as first an
nounces that after much investigation,
research and travel, he is certain st.
Patrick was a native of Scotland, a bit
of a city called Fitzpatrick disputing
with another bit of a city called Dunn
barton for the honor of being his birth
place. The exact year is not debated
upon. though popular writer on mod
ern customs AYERS 3S6 to be correct.
That St. Patricks mother was Gaelic
seems to be generally accredited.
Doubt of his purely Gaelic parentage
is increased by the fact that he is
said to have been obliged to acquire
the Gaelic language" says another
authority. His father, he states in his
confessions, was a farmer and dea-
con of the church, and his grandfa-
ther was a priest, all clergy being al
lowed to marry at that time.
The Isle of Man was one scene of
the saints labors. as was also the west
ern part of Scotland, SO that the Scot
tish theory of his native place may
not be simply theory and no more
Yet it was not until he was forty-five
years old that he was enabled to es-
cape slavery, which he had been
driven into at the age of sixteen, along
with several thousand others, who
were caught and herded together by
Irish pirates and taken into the wilds
of northern Ireland. And 1t was not
until nearly twenty years after this
abduction that he was able to return
from the continent, whittier he had
fed for freedom. That he landed in
France after escaping Britain is def
nitely known; except that he is found
a few years later down in Rome, little
Is known of how or where he acquired
the necessary learning to take the
gospel back to the north country.
Zeal. perhaps. and simple faith, and
not a littl, confidence in the inspira-
tion he believed his. served greater
purposes than the law of litaniee and
the finesse of dogma.
In any event, after he had accompa-
MED SITS. Lupus and Gernanus into
the British isles, ito preach against
the growing Pelagian heresy," and had
retired again to the continent, Ger
manus induced him to go into the pres
ence Of the pontiff and ask for a regu.
lar mission to his old home.
CeIestine was head of the Roman
church in that period, and he had
sent only the deacon, Palladius, and
twelve assistants into Ireland during
the reign, SO he granted the request of
the Zealot who had been named Sue
cat, but now assumed the name of
Patricius or Patrick. Patrick was given
a group of attendants and made haste
to the old familiar fields of his youth.
Having crossed the channel and
come upon the River Dea, he decided
to go ashore there. near Stamford