How is st patrick

His father was a gentleman and a Christian deacon who owned a small estate in a place called Bannavem Taburniae. Irish slave traders sailed the waters off that same coast, and one day they came ashore to capture the teenage Patrick and his neighbors, to sell back in Ireland. Patrick spent six years tending sheep in the west of Ireland.

While chasing sheep on the hills, Patrick prayed a hundred times a day, in all kinds of weather. It paid off. The time was right for his escape. Patrick refused — instead he tried to convert the crew. One night Patrick dreamed that Satan tested his faith by dropping an enormous rock on him. The rock disappeared. Patrick took it as a kind of epiphany. He later wrote:. Patrick had other peculiar visions, too. Forced to work as a shepherd, he suffered greatly from hunger and cold.

After six years Patrick escaped, probably to France, and later returned to Britain at the age of His captivity had meant spiritual conversion. He may have studied at Lerins, off the French coast; he spent years at Auxerre, France, and was consecrated bishop at the age of His great desire was to proclaim the good news to the Irish. He understood the vision to be a call to do mission work in pagan Ireland. Despite opposition from those who felt his education had been defective, he was sent to carry out the task.

He went to the west and north—where the faith had never been preached—obtained the protection of local kings, and made numerous converts. Natural historians have suggested that there is no evidence of snakes having ever existed in Ireland , as the country was too cold during the Ice Age for reptiles to survive. The earliest depictions of St Patrick show him in blue garments, and the colour also appears on ancient Irish flags.

As the blue symbols became more associated with English rule, green grew in popularity as a symbol of rebellion. Although Patrick was venerated as a saint in Ireland from the seventh century he was never formally canonised. By the late 17th century, Irish people were celebrating the day by wearing crosses, ribbons or shamrocks tradition had it that he had used the three-leafed plant to explain the Holy Trinity.

Initially they were dominated by Protestants loyal to Britain. It was only after American independence, the suppression of the Irish Rebellion and the flood of Irish Catholic immigrants into America in the midth century that the ethos changed.

There was also a change in colour as blue, traditionally associated with St Patrick, was gradually replaced with the Irish green that defines the event today. The first parade has long been believed to be a small celebration by Irish colonists, held in Boston, Massachusetts, in