...was not Irish. He was a British Celt, first enslaved in Ireland as a teen, later a missionary to Ireland.
...was not necessarily the first missionary to Ireland.
No one knows his birth or death date. March 17th is traditionally considered to be one of the two, but there is no documentation for this.
The only documents about Patrick are his Confession and a letter he wrote to Coroticus.
There were never snakes---or other reptiles---in Ireland for Patrick to chase out.
Patrick predates the Roman Catholic Church, and was considered a ``saint'' before the Roman church created its canon (list) of saints (and added him to it).
"a British Celt, first enslaved in Ireland as a teen."
ReplyDeleteI had a photo of St. Patrick's Cross, Cashal, Ireland on my cubicle wall. .Gov employee said "He was Irish, right?" "Nope, he was a slave that escaped and came back to convert his captors." "St. Patrick was Black?!?" Yes, the finest product of modern education and Federal training.
That's funny.
ReplyDeleteWhat's sad is if Hollywood went to do a bio=pic there's a good chance he'd be cast as black to make the movie more inclusive (then in the re-boot St Patrick would be a woman).