How Saint Patrick’s Day Came to Be
When you hear someone say “Saint Patrick’s Day”, what comes to mind? Jacob Steger, a student
from the Erie Institute of Technology, says that St. Patrick’s Day “is a day to drink green beer
and celebrate.” While this may be true, Steger also states that he has never actually gone out for
drinks on St. Patrick’s Day. Abbey Jantzi, a sophomore here at Penn State Behrend, says “I think
of shamrocks and four-leaf clovers because they are important symbols to the St. Patrick’s Day
holiday.”
Who is Saint Patrick?
Oddly enough, most people who celebrate St. Patrick’s Day have no idea who St. Patrick is, or
are even Irish, for that matter. But not to worry! St. Patrick himself was not Irish. In case you
were not aware of how St. Patrick’s Day came to be, the legend of St. Patrick goes as follows:
Maewyn Succat, or familiarly known as St. Patrick, was born sometime in the fourth or fifth
century A.D. This has been argued over many years because nobody knows the exact date. Most
of the information that can be found on St. Patrick was taken from his “spiritual autobiography”
called El Confessio, or The Confession. From this autobiography, people know that St. Patrick
was brought up as a Christian, which will be an important factor later in the legend.
When St. Patrick was a small child, a band of pirates, also called raiders, came to Britain where
