St. Patrick Day's Christian History

Not many people know that St. Patrick was actually British. He was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to a Christian family that owned plenty of slaves.
At 16, Patrick was kidnapped and sent to tend sheep as a slave for seven years in the countryside of Ireland.
According to legend, a voice came to Patrick in his dreams, telling him to escape. He found that escape on a pirate ship back to Britain, where he reunited with his family. The same voice then told him to go back to Ireland.
St. Patrick gets ordained as a priest from a bishop, and goes back and spends the rest of his life converting many Irish to Christianity.
Patrick's work in Ireland was rough—he was constantly being jumped by thugs, intimidated by Irish royalty, and rebuked by his British superiors. After he died on March 17, 461, Patrick was pretty much forgotten.
According to folklore Patrick used the three leaves of a shamrock to explain the Christian holy trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Another St. Patrick day legend is that St. Patrick drove out snakes from Ireland. Snakes often represent evil in literature, when Patrick drives the snakes out of Ireland, it is symbolically saying he ran the old, evil, pagan ways out of Ireland.
Now St. Patrick's is a day when folks drink green beer and dye rivers green. Let's not forget St. Patrick's Christian roots and remind our fellow Christians about the man's legacy.