| Show st patricks laffick ick s dag and tha bg willis F V johnson in B nw vork tribu Is no ground for wondering at the zeal and piety with which tile tho irish people commemorate me the anniversary ot of their patron saint since for reasons based on fact st patrick means more to them end and has for centuries meant more to ireland than any other patron saint in the calen dor dar has meant to the land r reveres his fits name indeed lie he Is the o only afy one who ft ho con can be said to have been associated soc socia ted with his country to such a degree its is to shape its destiny ellid to dominate domI nafe all its subsequent history some of tile mot most famous patron saints have tied had only the most shadowy ond and legendary relations lations il to the countries cli adopted them such conspicuously Is the coso case alth with st SL george who never was ft as jn in angland nor had anything an thing to do with it if we are ac to believe gibbon he wits was a most und undesirable e s find and discreditable e person a gr grafter a after fter a tyrant trant and a heretic who richly deserved the killing which was has administered to him and lie he was vas adopted as it a patron by Itle Ill chard liard occur coeur do lion hon because lie he saw him in a dream before tile lie battle of acre as a precursor of victory butler the catholic historian makes him an entirely different person of saintly life who suffered martyrdom under cl but was never rear near england Un gland finally ally the erudita and reverent sabino baring caring gould doubts if there ever was such a person outside of a sun god myth st t andrew was a real enough person the brother of simon peter of bethsaida Beth solda in Oal lattice but till all that we know of him Is in the new testament and there Is only tile the most legendary foundation for the story that his body was token taken to scotland and interred ft where here now stand the city and cathedral which bear his name david or was a real person too archbishop of Cne Coe rleon and primate of wales but lie he had find no lasting influence over the life of the belsh people and indeed lie was regarded ai belonging more to iceland england it lhnn on to wales especially since lie ho was r reputed e to lime have wrought me miracle alch which created the thermal waters aiters at both bath I 1 dents denis or dionysius was tin nn early curly by n no menns means the first missionary to the bauls 1 and was the first bishop of carls but his mark in french history Is its so slight ns as to beni be almost most negligible perhaps most through tile epigram of the lie irreverently witty lady of the 01 old 1 regime recline who being abeln reminded that hat after s martyrdom by decapitation the saint walked two miles with his fits head under his fits arni before he died observed the distance matter its the ferst step that counts i As for james the elder eider brother broehl r of john and son of zebedee lie ie op pears to have suffered buttered martyrdom tin under agrippa in A D 41 and there la is only legendary authority for the story that he preached in spain and that after his death converts on bore his body back to their coull country where in tho the year he rose from lit bomb te a white horse borie 1 ed t je ie army of king ramiro of teon leon against the moors at and willi till sword mew flew sixty thousand of the infidels and nicholas our old friend santa claus archbishop of layrd perhaps ills his remains were removed to darl bar where those marvelous celebrations in his honor ore are yearly held but it Is quite certain that lie had nothing ng to do with willi russia hut but patrick or buccat in celtic whether of irish blood and birth or not was mas from his boyhood to lit 1 death inseparably identified Iden tilled with ireland and the irish and his teachings and ills his influence have for fifteen centuries been so closely interwoven with etli the intellectual and spiritual life of that li t pool Ico iilo le ns as to bo be bono bone of their done bone flesh of their flesh brain of their brain heart of their heart the very cry map of ireland isn record of ills his life ile iio landed at InnIs patrIck onil and thence went to Holin patrIck converting a chieftain in county down on oil its ills own threshing floor uio the place became known till s and Saul patrick lit in antrim there Is Temp templepatrick lepatrIck and also patrick and a mountain in mayo Is 13 lit in fast meath lie ho founded the abbey of domnich Domna ell patrick in donegal thoro there la Is st patricks Patrick vs purgatory in III Lel lister st patricks wood at cashel st patricks Va tricks rock and there here aro are a dozen st pat ricks wells there Is downpatrick Down patrick where lie he died and head in other lands too his namo Is thus preserved ile iio was said to have been born bom at KlIpati lck lit in dumbarton shire lie ho lived at DaI patrIck in lan barkshire ark shire ho he visited near inverness ho to built churches at kirkpatrick in kirkcudbright at kirk patrick in dumfries and at kirkpatrick in durham lie ho prea died at or patterdale Patte in III west mor cland lie walked into wales over Sarn patrick or patricks causeway tho isle of man binn was called ingils patrack after lie he had visited it and had founded tile tho church of kirkpatrick and lie he galled for franco france from Llan patrick trick in anglesea note N ote too the lie manner in which various notable traditions have come to bo be identified with patrick though existing long before his its time the trefoil was venerated by the ancient persians as emblematic of the triads treads in their religion and in arabic it was called but nobody ever think of f it or of now save 0 ns as the io irish shamrock used hy by st patrick in ills demonstration of tile the Christian Trinity again centuries before his time it was scientifically on as seated that serpents were never seen duliere trefoil grows and that th at herb was it a specific against their bit bite e hut but who thinks now nov of the elder I 1 tiny pliny by tile the side of tho the story of st ra patricks trIcks expulsion of all serpents from the laud land where tile the grows it might indeed he plausibly questioned whether with willi the one obvious exception any other single roan man has hag for centuries recant meant so cucil to the genius and the life of a people as st patrick has to the trish irish race tb throughout rought the world |
