St. Patrick's Day - The Lost Facts

I was asked by Monica to do some research on St. Patrick's Day to come up with some unknown facts about the holiday for a team building exercise at the hospital. I'm not sure what type of team building exercise they are doing but when asked to do something I typically find myself doing what I am told. Anyways, I came across some unknown or lost facts about St. Patrick's day that I though would be interesting to share.

• St. Patrick was not Irish and his name was not Patrick either. The man we know as St. Patrick was born in Great Britain and was actually named Maewyn Succat. He was not religious at all. While he was a young boy he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. When he was 16 he formed his religious beliefs while enslaved. After escaping he became ordained as a priest and returned to Ireland to convert the Irish Celtic pagans to Christianity.  

• St. Patrick actually wore blue! Everyone now celebrates St. Patrick's day by wearing green and  eating and drinking green anything and everything green. The fact is that St. Patrick actually wore blue. The tradition of green is used to commemorate St. Patrick's use of the shamrock in his religious teachings. 

• St. Patrick is celebrated for driving  snakes out of Ireland which is still snake free. However, biologists now believe there were never snakes is Ireland to begin with. The legend of the snakes is most likely a metaphor for St. Patrick driving paganism out of Ireland and converting so many people to Christianity.

Happy St. Patricks Day Everyone!

All facts were found on AM 1240 WJON website. 

Stay At Home Dad