Saint Patty's Day

Being raised Catholic, I was exposed to Saint Patrick at an early age. In Dallas, my family went to Saint Patrick's Catholic Church from the time we moved there in 1971 until I graduated from high school and left for college in 1980. Every week, the bulletin showed his name with the clover, and the church colors were green. So just how did Saint Patrick happen to be associated with March 17, the clover and the color green?

It's been said that Patrick, a Brit, was a young man of just sixteen who was captured by Irish pirates and enslaved in Ireland. He saw in a dream that he was to escape, and when he was successful, he joined the church and studied to become a priest. Even though it would have been much easier for him to stay and preach in England, he opted to return to Ireland to spread the good news of Christ.

The clover is said to be St. Patrick's way of teaching the holy trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, because if you observe a usual clover leaf shape - it does have the three leaves extending from the stem. How the four leaf clover became associated with St. Patrick  another story. Blue was the original color used to represent St. Patrick, but the connection to green with the saint is said to have come from the relation to the shamrock. March 17, 461 is the day that St. Patrick died.

The St. Patrick holiday was declared in early 1600 by the Catholic church, and today, it is celebrated all over the world with green clothing and four leaf clovers, parades and corned beef and cabbage (an Irish treat). So this Sunday, on March 17, wear your green and eat your meat to celebrate a man who strove to Christianize the pagan Irish.