the real st. patricks day

Many people believe that St. Patrick’s Day is about leprechauns and a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but what they do not know is that this holiday started because of St. Patrick himself. St. Patrick was born in England about 1,600 years ago. His parents moved from Rome because his father, an official in the Roman government was sent to help rule there. Patrick’s life was happy and peaceful until the day the Irish invaded England, defeating the Romans taking them and some English as prisoners. Patrick among one of the prisoners was forced to live his life as a shepherd. His life became depressing and he had no family to keep him company. To cope with his life he turned to the only thing he had faith in, Religion. He prayed hard and dreamed. One of his dreams being a ship ready to set sail. He interpreted this dream to mean he should escape and run away and he did just that. When he reached the shore line there was in fact a ship ready to departure. He spent three days at sea, sailing eastward hoping to find a new and better life in Europe, but what he found was far from good. Warriors ruined and destroyed crops. All he had left was his religion, Christianity. He devoted his life to it spending most of his years in European monasteries. He heard a voice telling him to “walk among us again,” thinking god was telling him to guide the people of the era into Christianity. Before he could do this he spent ten more years studying and became a Bishop. He moved back it Ireland and spread the word of Christianity. Soon after he got leaders to turn to this religion and more and more churches started practicing Christianity. Ireland became one nation under one god which many people celebrate today through St. Patrick’s Day.