Eleven Things You Should Know About Saint Patrick

 During March,
we hear much about leprechauns
and pots of gold
and rainbows
and green beverages
but there is more to Saint Patrick's Day than that--
 there's Saint Patrick himself!
 Here are eleven things you should know about Saint Patrick.

1. Patrick wasn't Irish.
He was born and raised in Britain
and called Patricius.
When he was sixteen
he was taken to Ireland by Irish pirates,
or as they say on the Emerald Isle,
"Oirish" pirates.
He was sold as a slave to Miliucc
and watched sheep.

2. Patrick prayed. A lot.
While he watched Miliucc's sheep
he was hungry.
Cold.
Alone
(except for hundreds of sheep)
and lonely.
Patrick says that he sometimes
prayed a hundred times
day and night.
The bad news is:
Patrick was a slave.
The good news is:
while being a slave,
Patrick met God.

3. Patrick trusted God for miracles.
A voice said, "Look, your ship is ready!"
so he left the sheep,
ran away,
and got on a ship leaving Ireland.
It landed in a desolated place
with no food.
The ship's captain taunted Patrick:
"How about it, Christian?
Pray for us.
We're starving to death!"
Patrick prayed
and a herd of pigs appeared.
Pork chops!
Though sadly, probably no bacon.

4. Patrick loved his enemies.
Even though he loved seeing his family again,
in a dream,
a voice from Ireland
said, "We beg you to come."
And. He. Went. Back.

5. Patrick used what the Irish already believed
to teach them about God.
The people in Ireland
had been worshipping the sun.
Patrick told them
about the God who created the sun
and sent his Son, Jesus
who died
on a cross
for them.
The two symbols,
the circular sun
and the traditional cross
were combined to make a Celtic cross.

6. Patrick's followers taught stories from the Bible
by carving pictures on the Celtic crosses.
They did this
because most people couldn't read.

This carving of the feeding of the five thousand is going to take all night!

 7. The part about Patrick
chasing the snakes out of Ireland
is not true.
Have you ever tried to chase snakes?
It's almost as hard as herding cats!
Actually,
there were no snakes in Ireland
but he devil is sometimes portrayed as a snake
and Patrick did all he could
to chase the devil out of Ireland.

8. The part about Patrick
using a shamrock
to teach about the holy trinity
may not be true, either.
But shamrocks grow in Ireland
and sometime he may have used a shamrock
in his teaching
and just didn't write it down.

9. We celebrate Saint Patrick's Day on March 17,
but March 17 is not Patrick's birthday.
It's his death day.
Though that's KIND OF like a birthday
because Patrick look his first breath in Heaven that day.

10. Patrick may have written a famous prayer
now called "Saint Patrick's Breastplate."
Some people have turned parts of it into a song.
Want to hear it?
Click Christ Be All Around Me.





11. Actually, I was kidding about there being eleven things.
There are only ten.
Or maybe twenty-three.
You can learn more about Saint Patrick
by reading
How the Irish Saved Civilization
by Thomas Cahill

 or Saint Patrick of Ireland
by Philip Freeman

or
if you like pictures
and are short on time,
the children's book
Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland
by Tomie dePaola.

Many blessings,
Irish blessings,
this season and always.

Sue

PS. Don't want to be done yet with Irish thoughts?
Try Robin Mark's Irish worship song Ancient Words.
Den and I have visited Robin Mark's church in Belfast
and have sung this song in worship.
It ties us in to the centuries.

How about celebrating with traditional Irish music?
The Chieftains play O'Sullivan's March,
a music video whose opening shots
are of the above-mentioned Celtic cross
and Croagh Patrick,
Saint Patrick's mountain
that Den and I climbed
but not barefoot like some traditionally do.
Sharp rocks!

Or a song from my growing-up years,
the Irish Rovers'  Unicorn Song.

Or Northern Irishman James Galway's  Danny Boy.

Still reading?
I close with the traditional Irish blessing:

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
the rain fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may GOD hold you in the palm of his hand.

Now go eat a potato.
                        

Birthday Weekend

This weekend I turned 57.
I think I will remember how old I am this year
without the usual subtraction
because I was also born in '57.
I usually celebrate with ice cream
and a wade in a local creek,
but his year 
we celebrated by going south.
Not the balmy breezes south,
just far enough south to see daffodil buds
and hear spring peepers.
While Den visited friends
and looked at campers
and bought a book about early exploration in Pennsylvania,
I attended a SCBWI conference
(Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators)
near Frederick, MD.
Did you know that you can get free books
if you will write reviews of them?
And that leprosy is now totally curable?
True.
I had lunch with a woman who worked for the Washington Post
and NPR
who is writing a children's book about leprosy.
I had supper with Den.
Crab linguine.
Travel rule number 16:
Always have crab when in Maryland.

We came home through Gettysburg.
On the Culp's Hill drive,
I spied a creek near Spangler's Spring
that was perfect for wading,
or as perfect as it gets at 37 degrees and raining.

My feet warmed
in Ronn Palm's Museum of Civil War Images
where Abe Lincoln's bronze life mask and hands
hung above the door.
I was moved by his hands.
Abe's right hand
held a piece of broomstick
to make his fingers curl;
he had been unable to make a fist
as shaking hands with hundreds of people
had swollen his right hand. 
We then went down the block
to Lord Nelson's Gallery
and came out with a Bev Doolittle print.
Den had thought it was impossible for a picture
to show the majesty of the Great Plains,
but found he was wrong.
Rolling landscape.
Blowing prairie grass.
Amazing skies.
Indians on horseback.
Bison herds.

Lucy and four of the five black olives

I felt the dry breeze in my hair
and heard the rumble of thunder.

A State College stop where family and friends
big and small,
on and off key,
restrained and enthusiastic,
sang "Happy birrrrrrrthday dear Graaaaaaaaaammy"
while three candles burned
on an ice cream cake,
followed by a supper that had,
joy of joys,
black olives.
It was as perfect
as a rainy cold spring weekend can be.
And the fun is not over.
Tomorrow is Ugly Sweater Day!