Who’s St. Patrick?

March 17, 2013 by Susan Shay 20 Comments

Ever wonder who St. Patrick was and why we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? I thought he was the saint who drove all the snakes out of Ireland with a shamrock.

 

Saint Patrick’s Festival in Dublin. Saint Patrick is getting younger every year … or is it that I am getting older? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was wrong. (Imagine that! LOL.)

Patrick was born a Roman Citizen in Britain 1600 years ago (give or take.) He was kidnapped and taken to Ireland where he was a slave for six years. He turned to Christ during that time, escaped and later went back to Ireland as a missionary. (Now that’s Christian love!)

Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which is the reason why shamrocks are part of St. Paddy’s Day.

St. Patrick DID NOT drive all the snakes from Ireland. (Gasp!) There are no fossil records of there ever being snakes in Ireland. (Sounds like a great place, doesn’t it?) He did, however, drive paganism from her beautiful green shores.

So why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s day on March 17th? Because it was his birthday? The day he was kidnapped? The day he escaped? The day he became a Christian?

Nope.

It’s the day he died. We’re celebrating his death day. (Who knew?)

I’ve never celebrated St. Paddy’s day in a big way. I wore green if I had it and pinched anyone who didn’t, but that’s about it. I’ve found, though, that I have a few very distant relatives who came from Ireland. One, apparently, by way of Scotland.

And with a name like Shay (at one time in the distant past, it was O’Shea) G-Man and our kiddos have a wee bit of Irish blood in them. At least one of my children makes a big deal of the holiday and has learned to cook corned beef and cabbage and a delicious soda bread.

I gave you a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa for CB and Cabbage on St. Paddy’s Day last year.

I doubt if I’ll be making any Irish meals today, unless Susan/Reuben Sandwiches are Irish. After all, most have corned beef on them, so they could be considered Irish, couldn’t they? (Truthfully, the only thing my sammies have in common with a Reuben Sandwich is the rye bread, sauerkraut and the fact that it’s a hot sandwich. But they’re good and not gristly.

Here’s how I make them–

• rye bread
• sauerkraut
• hot pepper cheese
• butter
• peppered turkey pastrami

I make the sandwiches by layering in this order–bread, cheese, pastrami, kraut, pastrami, cheese, bread. Lightly butter the outside of the sandwich and toast in a hot cast iron skillet until the cheese is melted and the bread crisp.

I tried making it in my new Panini maker, but it just melted the cheese from here to T-Town and the bread barely toasted, so it’s back to the old black skillet. 🙂

So, back to Paddy’s Day–will you celebrate?