ST. PATRICK.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 69, 16 March 1877, Page 2

ST. PATRICK.

The incidents of the life and work of the Patron Saint of Ireland are much more interesting than the histories of the generality of patron saints. The legendary and religious ballads of Ireland are rich in stories of great beauty describing the missionary zeal, simple faith, and ultimate success of the founder of Christianity in Ireland. It is difficult to separate the pious belief which grew up in connection with the life of St. Patrick from the really reliable circumstances of his history. His very birth-place is a matter of uncertainty. It is probably neither Scotland or Ireland, but France that can claim the honour of his birth. He was born about the year 372, and when sixteen years old was carried off by jjirates and sold as a slave in Ireland. His master, who lived at Mount Sleamish, in the County Antrim, employed him as a swine-herd, and while there employed he learned the Irish language, and made himself acquainted with the character of the people. After seven years slavery he escaped, made his way to Sligo, where he entreated the master of a ship to give him a passage to France. The master refused, as young Pal rick told him he had no money but that Christ would pay him. The ship went to sea, but was driven back by a dreadful gale, upon which Patrick was taken on board, arid having been safely landed in France, found friends in Tours, whore he was educated for the church and was ordained deacon and priest. Burning with misisionary zeal to convert the Irish, he was consecrated Bishop, and returned to Ireland to' preach the gospel by authority of Pope Celestine. His "great sermon preached at Tara before the King of Ireland and the Druid priests, was the means of connecting many to the true faith. It was at Tara St. Patrick used the shamrock in illustration of the doctrine of the Trinity—stooping down while he was preaching, he picked up a sprig of shamrock (the small white trefoil) that was growing at his feet, and holding it up, pointed out that even nature illustrated the truth of the "Three in One." The shamrock ever after became the emblem

of Ireland, and is always worn by Irishmen on St. Patrick's Day, as a token of their , nationality. There is a custom "more honored in the breach than in the observance" of " drowning the shamrock" in whisky punch on the evening of the Saint's festival; but this method of commemorating the memory of St. Patrick derives no authority from his own habits, for if not a teetotaller he was a strict promoter of temperance. As it is recorded he forbade his disciples to abstain from any kind of beverage until the vesper bell rang. Whatever truth there may be in the legend that St Patrick banished all reptiles from Ireland, and made the land so obnoxious to them that they cannot live in it, it is a fact that no snakes, toads, or venemous reptiles are found in Ireland. The peasantry believe that all the snakes were drowned in Lough Dilveen in the Gaiter mountains, but that one monster serpent was placed there with a promise he should be liberated on Monday morning. The people say he can be heard every Monday calling out, " It's a long Monday Patrick," and this saying has become a proverb of the South of Ireland. St Patrick died at Saul on the 17th March, 493, in his 121 st year.