St Patrick

Not that much is known about the life of St Patrick, but he was probably not the first missionary brought to Ireland (Pope Celestine sent Palladius to Ireland in 431). Most stories state that he was brought from Britain against his will to look after sheep, he then escaped to France to study Christianity. In 432 St Patrick returned to Ireland to Saul in County Down where he quickly converted the local chieftain. he then travelled around Ireland converting other Celtic tribes the new truths about the new religion. It is said that it was St Patrick who drove all the snakes out of Ireland and into the sea.

St Patrick aided the preservation of the social structure and maintain many of its customs even though the conversion of the peoples beliefs. When he ascended the holy mountain, Croagh, which was sacred to the pagan god Crom. when he descended after spending 40 days and nights fighting evil spirits that included the Devil's mother, he came down declaring the mountain to be sacred to the Christian God, and so people were to continue homage but to a new God. tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over Ireland and beyond converge to Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday of July (a.k.a. Black Crom's Sunday in Irish language). The National Museum in Dublin has a splendid casket that is said to have held the tooth that St Patrick lost when he tripped over the entrance stone in the 10th century Church, Killaspugabone, at Strandhill beach. In Downpatrick, there is a cathedral that is supposedly built on the site of St Patrick's first stone church, and is said to be buried there too, the spot is marked with a 20th century granite slab with the inscription 'Patric'.