If you read this blog, you know how much I’m enamored of mythology and how easy it is to trace just about all Christian myths to more ancient sources.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and you might not know that the purported St. Patrick was born in Scotland of two Roman parents, which makes him actually Italian.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and the following statements are excerpted from here:
Today we raise a glass of warm green beer to a fine fellow, the Irishman who didn’t rid the land of snakes, didn’t compare the Trinity to the shamrock, and wasn’t even Irish. St. Patrick, who died 1,507, 1,539, or 1,540 years ago today—depending on which unreliable source you want to believe—has been adorned with centuries of Irish blarney. Innumerable folk tales recount how he faced down kings, negotiated with God, tricked and slaughtered Ireland’s reptiles.
New Age Christians revere Patrick as a virtual patron saint. Patrick co-opted Druid symbols in order to undermine the rival religion, fusing nature and magic with Christian practice. The Irish placed a sun at the center of their cross. “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” Patrick’s famous prayer (which he certainly did not write) invokes the power of the sun, moon, rocks, and wind, as well as God. (This is what is called “Erin go hoo-ha.”)
And, to have some fun with St. Patrick trivia, go here.