Although it’s now become a happy and joyous celebration of all things Irish, with green as far as the eye can see and the copious consumption of alcohol, the history of St. Patrick’s Day is somewhat less joyous but certainly quite thrilling.
St. Patrick had it rough right from the beginning, originally from Great Britain we was brought into Ireland as a slave at the tender young age of sixteen during the Roman occupation of Britain. Defying all odds, the young St. Patrick managed to escape slavery in 432 and became a force for Christianity. In what was then a very pagan Ireland, Sat Patrick converted a considerable following to Christianity and established monasteries and places of worship. Legend has it he died on March 17th, 493, which would have made him over 100 years old, but historians tend to agree a more likely year of death was 461.
The action didn’t stop there, however, as rival factions in Ireland fought over his body, each believing they had the proper rights to the corpse. An account of the battle in Annals of the Four Masters describes the end of the battle which ended up on a river. Allegedly, the river rose high and flooded both factions, and the resulting confusion led both sides to believe the were walking away with the body of St. Patrick, sparing countless lives.
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