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St. Patrick's Day is known as a day of celebration and festivities, but very few people know the true story of St. Patrick and who he really was.
The history of St. Patrick's Day goes all the way back to the late 3rd century when a small boy was born in Roman England by the name of Maewyn.
Maewyn and his family lived in a small town where his father was a soldier in the army and a member of the town government. When Maewyn was only 16, there was a raid on his village from Ireland. The invaders captured many of the villagers including Maewyn and took them as servants and slaves for the Celtic Druids who then ruled Ireland.
As Maewyn was under the authority of a Celtic family, he learned the Celtic language and how to speak it fluently. It was here in captivity that Maewyn accepted God and began to talk to Him. In fact, legend has it that Maewyn often prayed to God as many as one hundred times a day. Six years later, when he was 22, Maewyn escaped from his servitude and ran to France. There, he joined a monastery and studied the Bible under the guidance of the Bishop of France. It was this Bishop who changed Maewyn's name to Patrick. Patrick would spend 12 years in the study of theology and Catholic Laws.
Legend has it that one night while Patrick was in the monastery, he heard angels calling him back to Ireland to help the remaining slaves, so he returned with the firm goal of converting pagans to Christians. Only in his mid-thirties, Patrick became one of the first Christian missionaries in Ireland. Despite being arrested by the Celtic Druids several times, he always managed to escape and was not deterred. He actively baptized and preached Christianity, winning many converts over. He was said to have healed many people and to have even raised some from the dead. Everywhere he went he talked about God, and he built many schools and churches to help promote the Catholic religion.
After about 30 years of evangelistic and missionary work, Patrick died on March 17, 431. This is the day that has gone down in history as St. Patrick's Day, a day of celebration for the patron saint of Ireland.
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