One of the Myths
of St. Patrick

The myth says that when St Patrick’s fast came to an end on the 40th night, he threw a silver bell from the top of the mountain to the ground below. At which point, all the snakes in Ireland slithered away into the sea. Science tells us there were never snakes in Ireland. What the story is really saying is how St Patrick’s mission signaled the end of the pagan Druidic religion in Ireland. Irish druids carried staffs carved with snakes, so St Patrick banishing the snakes is a symbol for the Irish rejecting the Druid religion for Christianity.

Saint Patrick the patron saint of Ireland, lived 1500 years ago. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of sixteen.He later escaped, but returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its people. In the centuries following Patrick’s death (believed to have been on March 17, 461), the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture: Perhaps the most well-known one is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.