Who was Saint Patrick and why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

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Who was St. Patrick and why do we celebrate St. Patrick's Day? We're going to answer that question.

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You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org. Patrick, whom almost everyone calls

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St. Patrick, although he was never canonized by the Catholic Church, was born to a wealthy family in AD 387 and killed

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Patrick, Scotland. His real name was Mewan Sukkot. It was his extensive missionary work in Ireland for which

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Patrick is famous. During the 30 years of work there, he supposedly converted over 135 ,000 people, established 300 churches, and consecrated 350 bishops.

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Patrick died on March 17, 461. For over a millennium, the

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Irish have celebrated St. Patrick's Day on March 17. History records that St.

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Patrick, at age 16, was captured by Irish raiders and spent several years as a slave in Ireland.

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It was during this time that he learned the various rituals, customs, and language of Druids and it was these people that he eventually evangelized.

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Patrick apparently had a dream in which God spoke to him saying, your ship is ready.

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Patrick was then able to escape Ireland by ship. Shortly thereafter, he experienced another dream in which he received a letter that was labeled,

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The Voice of the Irish. When he opened it, he heard the voices of all those whom he had met in Ireland, begging him to return.

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St. Patrick then returned to Ireland to tell people about Christ. Though the task was difficult and dangerous, he persisted and was able to build a strong foundation for Christianity.

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The Irish people were receptive to his teachings, especially in light of the fact that he was able to take several of their

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Celtic symbols and Christianize them. The most well known of Patrick's illustrations is the shamrock, a certain type of clover sacred to the

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Druids, which he used as a symbol of the Trinity. Each year, millions of people celebrate

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St. Patrick's Day. It is a national holiday in Ireland when people do not work, but worship and gather with family.

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In the United States, the first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in New York on March 17, 1762.

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It consisted largely of Irish soldiers. Today, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by wearing green, which symbolizes spring as well as Irish culture.

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What started as a religious holiday has become a secular celebration of all things Irish. Neither St.

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Patrick nor St. Patrick's Day is mentioned in scripture. While we would strongly disagree with some aspects of theology that St.

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Patrick taught, the fact that around 1600 years ago, a man dedicated his life to proclaiming the gospel, resulting in tens of thousands coming to faith in Christ, is most definitely worth celebrating.

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That answers the question, who was St. Patrick and why do we celebrate St. Patrick's Day? On our website, gotquestions .org,

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