St. Patrick: Myths and legends
March 13, 2015
Patrick Tally
He wasn’t even Irish and yet St. Patrick could be considered the most famous
person from Ireland.
St. Patrick was born in Britain. At 16 he was captured by Irish raiders and
held as a slave. He escaped several years later, became a priest, returned to Ireland
and, according to CU-Boulder historian Patrick Tally, dedicated his life to convert
the Irish to Christianity.
CUT 1 “He made it his life’s work to go back and convert the Irish. There were
already some Christians in Ireland but very few. At the time, most Irish people were
polytheistic and did not believe in Christianity.” (:12)
And while St. Patrick did succeed in converting many Irish to Christianity, he
wasn’t the only successful missionary in Ireland at that time, says Tally. But after
his death, Tally says, his legend grew beyond compare.
CUT 2 “He wasn’t, as far as we know, the most successful of all the missionaries. He
was pretty successful. He establishes lots of churches. He converts lots of people, but
there are other people that did just as good of a job but they aren’t remembered in
quite the same way. (:15) It was after his death the myth of him was built up. And so
the legend sort of grew up and he became, in the early medieval period, the patron
saint of Ireland through retelling of legends about him.” (:28)
Stories such as St. Patrick using the three-leafed shamrock to explain the
Holy trinity might be true, says Tally, but the legend that he banished all the snakes
from Ireland with only a wooden staff at his side, can’t be true since there have
never been snakes in Ireland.
CUT 3 “And there are many legends about what he did -- driving the snakes out of
Ireland -- there never weren’t any snakes in Ireland. But it means driving out the
pagan religion. It’s a metaphor for driving the snakes out of Ireland. (:14) And
teaching the trinity of one god, three person’s, he used the Irish shamrock which is,
of course, one plant with three leaves.” (:24)
According to the latest reconstruction of the old Irish annals, St. Patrick died
in A.D. 460 on March 17, a date accepted by some modern historians but difficult to
prove since there is no documented proof. Legend has it that St Patrick is buried at
Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland alongside St. Brigid and St.
Columba, although this has never been proven .
-CU-