St. Patrick’s Lore

April 5, 2009

St. Patrick’s Lore

I thought I posted this a few weeks ago — in time for St. Patrick’s Day. The post was still in ‘draft’ this whole time. Sorry.

We all know St. Patrick supposedly got all the snakes out of Ireland, but here are a couple more apocryphal claims about St. Pat.

According to various legends, St. Patrick of Ireland:

• Personally created the first Waterford crystal.
• Chased Finn MacCool over the Irish Sea.
• When challenged by the Devil, played the violin with such technique and gusto that the Devil handed the saint a version of the instrument made of the purest gold.
• Introduced the garden slug to the island.
• Of the four patron saints of the British Isles (George, Patrick, Andrew and David), was known as ‘the quiet one’.
• As an act of ascetic devotion, lived on nothing but raisins for 17 years.

Advertisements

Permalink