The origins of St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's birth name was Maewyn Succat. He was born around 395 in a village called Bannavem of Taburnia. At the age of sixteen, he was captured and sold into slavery in Ireland -- where he served a Druidic chieftain named Milchu. At twenty-two Succat managed to escape from his captors and return to Britain.

Although a self-avowed pagan before his capture, Succat's faith had dramatically increased during his six-years of enslavement: after his escape, he joined the priesthood and took the name Patricius ("Noble"). Patrick then returned to Ireland as one of its first Christian missionaries. Christianity had only recently been taken on as the Roman Empire's officially sanctioned religion. It had been carried with the Roman troops up to their outposts in the British Isles but had not crossed the Irish Sea. Ireland (called Éire by the Irish, Hibernia by the Romans) was a Celtic stronghold -- one of their last remaining strongholds.

The Celts were a widespread group of tribesmen stretching from the British Isles down to Anatolia (Turkey). They had an advanced civilization and certain groups of them, such as the Gaul, even attacked Rome. The Celtic tribesmen living in Ireland at the time of Patrick's coming were known as the Gael. They were pagans who worshipped using a form of Druidism.

Patrick's mission lasted thirty years, during which time he was arrested many times by the druidic overlords. Nonetheless, he founded monasteries, schools, and churches all across the land and converted many Celtic nobles. Patrick is also noteworthy in that he was (surprise, surprise) one of the first writers to advocate the abolishment of slavery.

Patrick fought against the early Christian heresy of Arianism, which preached separate identities of God and Christ, by using the shamrock to explain the Trinity. There is also a popular myth that Patrick gave a sermon from a hilltop which chased all of the snakes out of Ireland, though this was probably a metaphor for Patrick defeating Druidism (with its use of the ritualistic serpent) in Ireland.

After his mission, St. Patrick returned to County Down and died on March 17, 461, which is now his Catholic feast day, St. Patrick's Day. Patrick became the patron saint of Ireland and so his festival day is associated with all things Irish. St. Patrick's followers took to wearing the shamrock in their lapels on his feast day as a remembrance to the saint. And as for the color emerald green -- it is the tradition color of Ireland.

Leprechauns have more to do with Ireland than with St. Patrick. They are considered "faerie folk" or, in Gaelic, members of the Tuatha Dé Danann -- people of the goddess Danu. The Tuatha Dé are the quasi-historical inhabitants of pre-Celtic Ireland, considered to be half-gods by the Gaels ... hence the name luprachán, which means half-bodied. According to legend, the Tuatha Dé were invaders themselves who defended Ireland from subsequent Spanish invaders. They brought Druidism and chariots to Ireland, gave Érie its name (after one of their goddesses, Ériu), and left earthworks which were later thought to be fairy rings.

It is important to note that, with one exception, the Tuatha Dé were not worshipped by the Celts; they were merely thought of as half-humans from the Golden Age of Ireland.

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post-script:

The Tuatha Dé Danann were actually the fifth group of invaders of Ireland. The invasions of Ireland are chronicled in a book of poems and myths compiled in the 11th Century called Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland).