St Patrick’s Day is celebrated by thousands of people across the world, yet there is a lot we don’t know about the saint.
Donna Fox, an Armagh historian and tour guide, said many of the commonly held beliefs we have about St Patrick are false.
“St Patrick is associated with green, but his colours would have actually been blue. His bishop robes would have actually been blue, not green,” she said.
It’s believed that later depictions of St Patrick see him dressed in green due to the colour being synonymous with Ireland — but Ireland isn’t the only country with a connection to the saint.
“Some people think he’s just the patron saint of Ireland, but he is also the patron saint of Nigeria and engineers,” Donna explained.
She said some people believe March 17 was St Patrick’s birthday, but that isn’t true either.
Donna explained: “St Patrick’s Day was the death of St Patrick. People wouldn’t have had birth certificates back in those days. They may have been unsure about the date they were born, but we know that he died on March 17 and that’s why we remember it.”
Most people know that St Patrick originally came to Ireland as a slave and later returned to spread the gospel, but there is confusion surrounding the saint’s birthplace.
“He’s not Irish. He came from a Roman family. We don’t know the exact location — it could be northern Britain, it could have been Scotland or Wales, we just aren’t sure,” she said.
“There is not much of his life that we know about prior to him being kidnapped and becoming a slave in Ireland at the age of 16.”
The idea that St Patrick got the snakes out of Ireland is also false: “There have never been snakes in Ireland, so the story about him banishing the snakes was just a story used to explain him bringing Christianity to Ireland.”
From the stories we do know about St Patrick, we know he studied in France before moving to Ireland to spread the gospel. He built his first church in Downpatrick before building his first stone church in Armagh.
Two of Armagh City’s cathedrals are named after St Patrick: the Catholic and Church of Ireland cathedrals. Donna said this represents the saint’s impact on the city.
“Armagh is a popular pilgrimage for people. St Patrick called Armagh ‘my sweet hill’ and he established monasteries here, which were a magnet to scholars studying the gospels. He actually decreed that only those studying in Armagh could spread the gospel, so Armagh was a very important place to him.”
It isn’t just stories about St Patrick’s life and death that are plagued with misconceptions. Donna said many people don’t understand the history of St Patrick’s Day. Traditionally, it was celebrated a lot more solemnly than it is now.
“We didn’t always have a parade for St Patrick’s Day. In fact, the first St Patrick’s Day parade was in the USA,” she explained.
It’s believed St Patrick’s Day became the celebration it is now thanks to Irish immigrants.
“People who moved abroad wanted a way to remember and honour home. St Patrick’s Day is celebrated in many ways across the world. We see buildings across the world ‘going green’ and there was even a St Patrick’s Day parade in Antarctica.
“It’s such a significant day for so many people across the world. We are always eager to help people learn about St Patrick, whether it’s through our tours or the vigil or any of the St Patrick’s Day workshops that are running in Armagh.”