Since the other major holidays get the greater share of attention, let's look at St. Patrick's Day. Who was St. Patrick and what does he have to do with the modern holiday?
Patrick the Scot, slave and missionary
After receiving a vision from God, Patrick bravely returned to the land of his captors, with his knowledge of their culture, language, and religion, and successfully spread the Gospel among the still pagan Irish and planted many churches. It is said that he was able to communicate orthodox Christianity by using symbols and analogies the Irish could understand, most notably the three-leaf clover which symbolized the Trinitarian God who is one substance in three person.
Patrick's legacy [2]
Patrick should be celebrated by Christians for a number of reasons. His missionary work to the Irish exemplifies incredible boldness, obedience, forgiveness, and love.
Patrick's mission has had far-reaching effects for all of the church, not just the Scotch-Irish. Because Christianity had become so firmly rooted in Ireland, it became a place of great theological learning and preservation of ancient Christian writings and practices. Later in the 5th century A.D., as the pasty-white barbarian tribes of North Europe (Goths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Huns, etc...) swept down and dismantled all of the Roman Empire in Europe, Britain, and North Africa, much of the legacy of ancient Christianity was destroyed. Ireland, however, being just outside the edge of the Empire, was largely spared. It was one of the few places in Christendom where the resources were untouched. In the following centuries, as the barbarians themselves became Christianized, Medieval Europe was re-introduced to the Christianity of antiquity through the resources preserved in Ireland. If Patrick had not witnessed to the power of Christ in Ireland just before the barbarian onslaught, much of the greatness of ancient Christianity would have been lost.
Another reason to celebrate and understand Patrick is that his type of contextualized evangelism is needed more than ever in modern western culture. Think of the parallels. Patrick was evangelizing a violent, pagan culture with little regard for life and no regard for God. This is the pre-Chritsian home to which much of post-Christian Western culture is returning. Celtic paganism specifically is experiencing something of a renaissance today. Modern paganism needs the Gospel just as badly as it did in Patrick's day. We must learn to contextualize the Gospel for our neighbors.
Patrick the drunken Irish snake charmer?
Patrick was not Irish, and there is no evidence that he had anything to do with driving snakes out of Ireland. In fact, there is no evidence that there were even any snakes on the island at all. It is not clear where the snake myth began, but it is possible that snakes represented something Satanic and pagan.
It seems that Patrick has been caught up in modern religion-centered Irish nationalism. Catholic Irish religion (for which Patrick is credit) is lumped together with all other things Irish (leprechauns, green stuff, and beer). [3] In reality, the drunken parties and parades that fill the streets of Chicago, Boston, and Dublin have more to do with popular Irish culture than with the legacy of Patrick himself. It is something like wrapping Jesus himself in the American flag, confusing American patriotism with Christian faith. It would be better if we simply "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto the Lord what is the Lord's."
Let St. Patrick's Day be a day that you thank the Lord for the great cloud of faithful missionaries who surround us. If, by chance, you find yourself in a bar or near the party on this St. Patrick's Day, use this knowledge as an opportunity to share the Gospel of God's love with the revelers. "Hey friend, did you know that St. Patrick was actually Scottish? Let me tell you about him..."
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[1] excerpts from St. Patrick's Confession (see below).
[2] For an excellent biography of St. Patrick, check out St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography by Philip Freeman.
[3] Keep in mind that, in ancient and early Medieval times, everyone was "Catholic," a word which simply means "universal". Today's Roman Catholicism (particularly of the Irish flavor) is very different. Read Patrick's Confession below to get a better sense of what he believed and felt.
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"I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many… did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our presbyters who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.
And there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied my youth and ignorance. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.
Therefore, indeed, I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper, so many favours and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity. For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him, our way to repay him is to exalt him and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven:
For there is no other God, nor ever was before, nor shall be hereafter, but God the Father, unbegotten and without beginning, in whom all things began, whose are all things, as we have been taught; and his son Jesus Christ, who manifestly always existed with the Father, before the beginning of time in the spirit with the Father, indescribably begotten before all things, and all things visible and invisible were made by him. He was made man, conquered death and was received into Heaven, to the Father who gave him all power over every name in Heaven and on Earth and in Hell, so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, in whom we believe.
And we look to his imminent coming again, the judge of the living and the dead, who will render to each according to his deeds. And he poured out his Holy Spirit on us in abundance, the gift and pledge of immortality, which makes the believers and the obedient into sons of God and co-heirs of Christ who is revealed, and we worship one God in the Trinity of holy name." - St. Patrick’s Confession
