05/03/2020
☘️St.Patrick: legends and facts☘️
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Getting ready for our St.Patrick's Day Party 21 and 22 March (tickets available via link in bio) we decided it's high time to remember who is the holiday about. Here are some interesting facts (as they're known from Patrick's own spiritual autobiography) and legends:
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☘️Perhaps the best-known legend of Saint Patrick involves the shamrock, the little plant that has gone on to become famous throughout the world as a symbol of Irish heritage. Patrick arrived in Ireland in 432AD and immediately set about trying to covert the pagan Celts who inhabited the island. He used the shamrock, a three-leaved clover which grows all over the island, to explain the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity ie the theory that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are each separate elements of just one entity.
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🦌Attributed to St Patrick, the poem known as The Deer's Cry tells the story of how the saint used a power called féth fíada to transform himself and his companions into wild deer so that they could escape ambush while on their way to preach. Awaiting their arrival, and with every intention of attacking or imprisoning the two Christians, their Celtic adversaries saw only a deer with a fawn roaming across the fields.
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🐍Probably as famous as the story of the shamrock is the legend of Saint Patrick driving all the snakes of Ireland into the sea where they drowned. The message is that there are no snakes in Ireland (save those in zoos) and he alone is responsible for this happy state. It is, however, very unlikely there were ever any snakes in Ireland! This particular legend of Saint Patrick is easy to translate: snakes were sacred to the Druids; their banishment reflects St Patrick's success at removing pagan influence from the island.
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💫Patrick himself wrote that he raised people from the dead, and a 12th-century hagiography places this number at 33 men, some of whom are said to have been deceased for many years. He also reportedly prayed for the provision of food for hungry sailors traveling by land through a desolate area, and a herd of swine miraculously appeared.
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Have you known all of the legends yet? Do you know more? @ Silver's Irish Pub
