This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, March 18, 2025
As I am sure you are aware, we had a holiday yesterday, St Patrick’s Day. That’s a day we celebrate every March 17. So who is St Patrick and why are we celebrating him? I am glad you asked.
Long before the whole day turned into a drunken mess, St Patrick was a real person. We are not sure the exact years of his birth and death, but based on his writings, we know he lived during the 5th century. He was also born somewhere in Britain near the end of the Roman occupation. As the Romans withdrew, it left Britain vulnerable from attack from the north, which meant that pirates were a constant problem. When Patrick was around 16, he was abducted by Pirates. He was taken to Ireland and sold as a slave. He served as a shepherd for around 6 years before he escaped and made his way home to his family.
After returning home, he studied to become a priest. After ordination, he voluntarily returned to Ireland to spread the Gospel. Since most of the religion in Ireland at that time was pagan, he ran into considerable opposition. But through his work, Ireland was largely converted. Today most Irish people identify themselves as Christian. In modern times, there are some very serious disagreements between the Catholics and protestants, but those divisions came over 1000 years later. When St Patrick passed away, Christianity had become the dominant religion in Ireland largely thanks to him.
It is interesting to me that St Patrick’s day is a celebration of Irish culture and it centers around a man who was not Irish, and took his first trip to Ireland as a slave. The only accounts we have of Patrick’s life come from 2 books that survived that he wrote and a third book that was apparently dictated by him. No details about his time in captivity were recorded but given the fact that he returned to evangelize Ireland tells me a lot about how much grace this man had. He went to save the souls of people who bought him in a slave auction.
The celebration of St Patrick’s day came to America in the 1840s. It followed Irish workers who came to North America during the potato famine which hit Ireland at that time. The celebration of Irish culture began to show itself around 100 years later when St Patrick’s day parades began to spring up here in the United States. Then the tradition of St Patrick’s Day parades spread back to Ireland.
Today, St Patrick’s day is celebrated with wearing green, often there are parades, and shamrocks as a sign of luck. March 17 is 3 days before the spring equinox, also known as the first day of spring. That is the day that the weather begins to warm up and the grass gets green and the clover begins to grow which is my working theory as to why the shamrock is a part of this celebration. The fact that people were looking for a reason to get out and have a parade and be outside and celebrate nature getting green at this time of year is not so hard to understand. In fact, the whole central theme of Christianity is renewal, it makes sense that this man who was responsible for Christianity showing up in Ireland would be celebrated around springtime.
But here is the one thing I have not addressed. Why is St Patrick’s Day associated with drinking? The reason is that March 17 falls during the season of Lent, which is celebrated with fasting and sobriety. Associating St Patrick’s Day with alcohol gave everyone an excuse to indulge during this season. Admittedly, that is a terrible excuse, but this seems to be the reason.
So I in no way encourage you to drink. However I do think that associating a celebration of a man who brought Jesus to Ireland during springtime is a worthy remembrance. Christianity was the central calling of St Patrick’s life so much so that he set out to save the souls of the same people who owned him as a slave for 6 years. St Patrick’s Day is much more than a silly holiday, it is remembering a man who deserves to be remembered for his work to build the Kingdom of God.