The Story of St. Patrick's Day

The story of St. Patrick's Day begins around 385 AD with a man named Maewyn. At age 16, the Pagan Maewyn was sold into slavery, which brought him closer to God. He finally managed to escape slavery six years later and headed to a monastery in Gaul to study, where he adopted the Christian name "Patrick." Upon ending his studies, he moved to Ireland, where he felt his calling in life was to convert Pagans to Christianity. For the next 30 years, he traveled throughout the country, setting up monasteries and converting the natives. After his death in 461 (on March 17¦when else did you expect?), he was declared a saint.

So what happened from there? How did a man who spent his entire life converting Pagans to Christianity result in a day devoted to rowdy songs, parades, and drinking green beer, a day when everyone is just a wee bit Irish? The first St. Patrick's Day Parade was in America, not Ireland. It took place in New York City in 1762, and consisted of Irish soldiers in the English military marching through the city. This was a chance for the soldiers to reconnect with their heritage. Eventually, as more Irish immigrants came to America, the parades were a show of strength for Irish-Americans and political candidates had to make an appearance at them. Now a regular annual event, people of all backgrounds celebrate this day.

Ireland, on the other hand, does not have such a long history of St. Patrick's Day celebrations. Prior to the 1970s, it was a religious occasion and, indeed, Irish law mandated that pubs be closed on March 17! Apparently, there was no green beer for those in Ireland. This changed around 1995, when the government made a push to use St. Patrick's Day as a way to drive tourism and to showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. Parades and celebrations are now common in Ireland around this day (in fact, their celebrations last several days) and some one million people took part in last year's festivities in Dublin.

Where Are You From?

When I lived in Southern California I had the opportunity to have a young teacher as a roommate. She decided that during her summer break from teaching she wanted to travel to the homeland of her parents. She was just about as Irish as one can be. Her name is Kelly Ann Hoolihan, a name which kind of rolls off your tongue with an Irish accent without even trying. Before she left she wanted to do a wee bit of research to discover what part of Ireland her family was from. I thought it might be a hoot to look into my family roots, too, so she and I visited the Mormon Temple in Los Angeles to utilize their Family History Library.

It took her about ten minutes to figure out where her family had originated. Well, maybe a little longer than that, but very quickly. I found myself traveling back again and again, spending many long hours in the dark microfiche room, scrolling through page after page of old United States census records. While I did discover some information, it was only satisfying in spits and spurts.

After I moved back to Northern California, it wasn’t until a friend here became interested in tracing her genealogy that I again pulled out my binders (yes, binders) and started searching again. My friend Pam and I took a trip over the Northern California Mormon Temple in Oakland to their Family History Library and, of course, Pam had great luck and even found photos, stories, and more. I even found one more link in the chain of my family history.

In 2000 I stumbled onto Ancesty.com and thought I had hit the Mother load. I didn’t need to travel to a Family History Library; I could spend endless hours online searching. I’m happy to report I did locate my mother’s father’s connection to their homeland. Not too hard to figure out they are from Ireland. Next I discovered my 3 times great grandfather was from Antrim, Ireland, just north of Belfast. The photo at the top is from there. But then the path grew cold; it had been just a wee moment of glee.


Fast forward eight years and I happened on a new genealogy website and was overwhelmed at what can be found online now; photos of gravestones, ship passenger records, history of little known people, maps, and tons more. This time I knew I would reach my goal of tracing all my grandparents back to their homeland. After two weeks of intensive searching I have located my mother’s mom's family back to about 1208 in Tideswell, Derbyshire, England. The last name was changed in about 1635.

On my father’s mother’s side, I was able to trace the family back to 1674 to Saint Ninians, Stirling, Scotland. You remember the movie Brave Heart about William Wallace? He lived a few miles from Saint Ninians, Stirling. This is a photo of the Wallace Monument in his honor.



My father’s father was the hardest of all. I just can’t get the family out of the colonies. The line is stuck in Mississippi in 1849. I’m still searching, but that is for another time.

If you are interested in starting your own search, I have a list of great websites I’ve found extremely helpful. (Becasue of the overwhelming amount of interest I have posted the websites on this blog for all to enjoy and benefit from.)

I guess in a way if you’re a Christian you already have the source book to know exactly where you are from. We just need to return to a very familiar verse in John 6:9, Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Yes, our heritage is much greater than Ireland, South American, Africa, New Zealand, etc. Our homeland is heaven and our Father lives there.

Let me end with a passage from Galatians 4:4-7 that explains our ultimate heritage much better than I ever could. But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.