every March 17th people the world over
dawn their best green attire and
celebrate what it means to be Irish in
honor of st. Patrick's Day but who was
st. Patrick and was he even Irish the
answer might surprise you in fact the
beloved apostle and patron saint of
Ireland was not born on the Emerald Isle
but that's about all we know for sure in
Patrick's autobiography he writes that
he was born in a village called bond of
M tabernae but you won't find that name
on any map of Britain today
experts disagree about where exactly it
was located it may have been in England
Scotland or Wales what is clear is that
Patrick was born an aristocrat and his
family had a large estate they were
Christian but the young boy showed
little interest in religion soon all
that would change at the age of 16
Patrick was kidnapped by a group of
Irish Raiders and would spend the next
six years in captivity working as a
sheep herder lonely and scared
Patrick turned to his family's religion
for solace and became a devout Christian
as the story goes one day he heard a
voice which he believed to be God
telling him it was time to leave Ireland
after walking nearly 200 miles to
Ireland's eastern coast Patrick found
passage on a ship he sailed home to
Britain and his family but could not
forget Ireland than the Irish people in
a dream an angel told him to return to
Ireland as a missionary after years of
study
Patrick was ordained as a priest and
headed back to the island he had come to
know as a prisoner
for the next 40 years he would travel
far and wide across Ireland working to
spread the Christian faith among the
Celtic pagan population after Patrick's
death on March 17 461 his legend only
spread thanks to a mixture of truth and
myth passed down through the centuries
he became a superhero of the Christian
Church and a symbol of Irish pride
[Music]
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