The Day of St Patrick and the myth of snakes being cast out of Ireland

Ancient Origins

Today marks Saint Patrick’s Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, a cultural and religious holiday celebrated every year on 17th March in Ireland and by Irish communities around the world. The celebration marks the anniversary of Saint Patrick’s death in the fifth century and represents the arrival of Christianity in the country. The Irish have observed this day as a holiday for over 1,000 years, and while the festival began as a religious feast day for the patron saint of Ireland, today it has become an international celebration of Irish culture.

Over the centuries, the mythology surround the life of Saint Patrick has become ever more ingrained in the Irish culture. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is credited with expelling all the snakes from Ireland, and today, not a single snake can be found there. But the true meaning of the casting away of all snakes runs much deeper.

Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the 4th century AD, into a wealthy family. According to the Declaration, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders at the age of sixteen and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland. There he spent six years working as a shepherd and during this time he “found God”. The Declaration says that God told Patrick to flee to the coast, where a ship would be waiting to take him home. After making his way home, Patrick went on to become a priest.

According to tradition, Patrick returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. The Declaration, a Latin letter which is generally accepted to have been written by St Patrick, says that he spent many years preaching in the northern half of Ireland and converted "thousands". Tradition holds that he died on 17 March and was buried at Downpatrick. Over the following centuries, many legends grew up around Patrick and he became Ireland's foremost saint. While his true name was Maewyn Succat, he later became known as St Patrick, named after his place of burial.

The symbol of the shamrock
On St Patrick's Day it is customary to wear shamrocks and green clothing. St Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three-leaf clover, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish. This story first appears in writing in 1726, though it may be older. In pagan Ireland, three was a significant number and the Irish had many triple deities. The triple spiral symbol, or Triskelion, appears at many ancient megalithic and Neolithic sites in Ireland. It is carved into the rock of a stone lozenge near the main entrance of the prehistoric Newgrange monument in County Meath, Ireland. Newgrange, which was built around 3200 BC, predated the Celtic arrival in Ireland but has long since been incorporated into Celtic culture.

An Irish shamrock on the left, and the triple spiral symbol on the right.

 St Patrick banishes the snakes from Ireland
The absence of snakes in Ireland gave rise to the legend that they had all been banished by St. Patrick chasing them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill. However, all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes. Water has surrounded Ireland since the end of the last glacial period, preventing snakes from slithering over; before that, it was blanketed in ice and too chilly for the cold-blooded creatures. Scholars believe the snake story is an allegory for St Patrick’s eradication of pagan ideology.

The snake was the symbol of the Celts and their spiritual elite, the Druids - who inhabited the island of Ireland long before the arrival of Christianity in the 5th century AD. When Patrick arrived, the only “pesky and dangerous creatures” that St Patrick wished to cast away were the native Celts.

Since snakes often represent evil in literature, "when Patrick drives the snakes out of Ireland, it is symbolically saying he drove the old, evil, pagan ways out of Ireland [and] brought in a new age," said classics professor Philip Freeman of Luther College in Iowa.

An Image depicting St Patrick casting the snakes into the sea. Image source

St Patrick features in many stories in the Irish oral tradition and there are many customs connected with his feast day. Over the centuries, these traditions have been given new layers of meaning – the symbolic resonance of the St Patrick figure stretches from that of Christianity’s arrival in Ireland to an identity that encompasses everything Irish.

Today, St Patrick is a patriotic symbol along with the colour green and the shamrock. St. Patrick's Day celebrations include many traditions that are known to be relatively recent historically, but have endured through time because of their association either with religious or national identity.

Modern-day celebrations of St Patrick’s Day

Featured image: St Patrick banishes the snakes. Image source.

 By April Holloway

Vikings Beheaded English King and Patron Saint Edmund, but What Happened to his Body?

Ancient Origins

It’s a 9th century tale involving Vikings, their beheading of a famous English king, and upheaval that led to the burial and reburial of the king’s remains in an unknown spot. And the story is still playing out today as the remains of King Edmund, patron saint of England, are being sought in the town of Bury St. Edmunds.

The Saxon king ruled the East Angles during a time when the British Isles were under attack from the Scandinavian marauders. The Vikings shot Edmund full of arrows somewhere in Suffolk or Norfolk, the stories say, when he refused to renounce Christianity. After killing him, the Vikings decapitated Edmund’s body to desecrate it.

St Edmund was shot full of arrows (CC by SA 3.0) 

The search has some currency because a few years back the remains of King Richard III were found and given a better burial. 

Edmund at one time was at least as famous as Richard. His place of rest became a pilgrimage site for kings and citizens alike. 

Now historians believe it’s possible Edmund’s remains were reburied under the place where a tennis court now sits. Archaeologists are seeking permission to dig there.

The tennis courts under which the king may be buried. (Credit: SWNS)

The St. Edmundsbury Borough Council has indicated it may approve the excavations. The council owns the Abbey Gardens and tennis courts near the grounds of St. Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Edmund’s remains had been in a Benedictine abbey, but they were lost when the abbey was wrecked during the religious upheaval under King Henry VIII. It’s believed the body may have been moved to the Abbey Gardens, perhaps underneath what are now the tennis courts. Under there is also a monks’ graveyard.

But the king’s burial may stand out from the monks’ because it’s said he was reburied in an iron coffin. Presumably the monks did not have such a distinction for their burials.

 Historian Francis Young told The Telegraph a commission dissolved the Benedictine abbey in 1539. Records indicate the commissioners did not mention the body of the king. But Young said it’s likely they allowed the monks to quietly remove it and rebury it elsewhere because Edmund was king.

The ruins of the Abbey of St. Edmund with the more recent cathedral in the background. (Creative Commons/Bob Jones photo)

Mr. Young said:

“According to a third-hand account from 1697, St. Edmund was placed in an iron chest by a few monks but sadly the account does not give the location within the Abbey precincts where he was buried. On balance, however, the monks' cemetery is the most likely location.”

The councilor in charge of the project, Robert Everitt, told The Telegraph:

“It would be an incredibly important historical discovery if he was found under there. It is something the borough want to do and the cathedral are in agreement as well, but we need to ensure we replace the courts. We are looking at St James Middle School courts, which are not being used [as the school is closed]. They would be ideal and would ensure people can play tennis right next to the Abbey Gardens.”

After killing him, the Vikings decapitated Edmund’s body to desecrate it. But the myth tells of a wolf that called out to the king’s followers saying “here, here, here,” leading them to the head and allowing them to bury the body with it.

Not long after Edmund died, people built a shrine for his body in the abbey of the town then known as Bedericesworth. That name later changed to Bury St. Edmunds. Edmund was so famous that the town became the most popular pilgrimage site in England. Many kings visited. Eventually St. Edmunds became patron saint.

Top image: Image from ‘Vikings’, a medieval drama series airing on The History Channel. By Mark Miller

HISTORY OF ST. PATRICK’S DAY

History.com

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17, the saint’s religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years. On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feast–on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.

 ST. PATRICK AND THE FIRST ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE
Saint Patrick, who lived during the fifth century, is the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16. He later escaped, but returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its people. In the centuries following Patrick’s death (believed to have been on March 17, 461), the mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture: Perhaps the most well known legend is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.

 Since around the ninth or 10th century, people in Ireland have been observing the Roman Catholic feast day of St. Patrick on March 17. Interestingly, however, the first parade held to honor St. Patrick’s Day took place not in Ireland but in the United States. On March 17, 1762, Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as with fellow Irishmen serving in the English army.

 GROWTH OF ST. PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATIONS
Over the next 35 years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called “Irish Aid” societies like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes (which actually first became popular in the Scottish and British armies) and drums.

 In 1848, several New York Irish Aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one official New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Today, that parade is the world ‘s oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, nearly 3 million people line the 1.5-mile parade route to watch the procession, which takes more than five hours. Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Savannah also celebrate the day with parades involving between 10,000 and 20,000 participants each.

 ST. PATRICK’S DAY, NO IRISH NEED APPLY AND THE “GREEN MACHINE” Up until the mid-19th century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to 1 million poor and uneducated Irish Catholics began pouring into America to escape starvation. Despised for their alien religious beliefs and unfamiliar accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country’s cities took to the streets on St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.

 The American Irish soon began to realize, however, that their large and growing numbers endowed them with a political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the “green machine,” became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick’s Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman attended New York City ‘s St. Patrick’s Day parade, a proud moment for the many Irish Americans whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in the New World.

 THE CHICAGO RIVER ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY As Irish immigrants spread out over the United States, other cities developed their own traditions. One of these is Chicago’s annual dyeing of the Chicago River green. The practice started in 1962, when city pollution-control workers used dyes to trace illegal sewage discharges and realized that the green dye might provide a unique way to celebrate the holiday. That year, they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river–enough to keep it green for a week! Today, in order to minimize environmental damage, only 40 pounds of dye are used, and the river turns green for only several hours.

 Although Chicago historians claim their city’s idea for a river of green was original, some natives of Savannah, Georgia (whose St. Patrick’s Day parade, the oldest in the nation, dates back to 1813) believe the idea originated in their town. They point out that, in 1961, a hotel restaurant manager named Tom Woolley convinced city officials to dye Savannah’s river green. The experiment didn’t exactly work as planned, and the water only took on a slight greenish hue. Savannah never attempted to dye its river again, but Woolley maintains (though others refute the claim) that he personally suggested the idea to Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley.

 ST. PATRICK’S DAY AROUND THE WORLD Today, people of all backgrounds celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, especially throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest productions, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated in many other locations far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore and Russia.

 In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day was traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use interest in St. Patrick’s Day to drive tourism and showcase Ireland and Irish culture to the rest of the world. Today, approximately 1 million people annually take part in Ireland ‘s St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions and fireworks shows.

Stolen Ring Owned by Joan of Arc Finally Returned to France

Ancient Origins

Joan of Arc, also known as the Maid of Orleans (or, in French, la Pucelle) was a military hero of the first half of the 15th century. This French saint, whose feast is celebrated on the anniversary of her death, May 30, led the army of Charles VII in the Hundred Years' War to oust the English from France - when she was only 17 years old. Now, after spending nearly six centuries in England, Joan of Arc’s treasured ring returns to France, thanks to the work of the Villiers family, who will exhibit it at the famous Puy de Fou theme park.
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The ring was stolen by Bishop Cauchon in Rouen when the brave Joan was caught in 1431. When it was taken, Joan shouted at the Bishop “Return it to me!” But the ring was not given back to its owner. Some say that perhaps Joan of Arc confirmed that the ring possessed magical powers.
Cauchon went down in history for having presided over the trial and martyrdom of Joan of Arc, and having been paid by the English. After the robbery, the precious ring was left in the hands of what some people call “Perfidious Albion.”

The ring was stolen from Joan of Arc by Bishop Cauchon before the trial which ended with Joan being sentenced to the stake. (Figaro Magazine/Timeline Auctions)
According to information published in Figaro Magazine, the repatriation of the ring began to take shape on February 24. That day, the lawyer Jacques Trémolet de Villers, who has just published a book about the trial of Joan of Arc, learned that the ring would be auctioned on February 26 in London. After he advised Philippe De Villiers, a politician, businessman, and creator of the Puy du Fou theme park, of the auction, they decided to raise the necessary funds to get the relic back to France. However, the auction house had put a starting price of 19,051 euros (20,984 USD).

"We suspected that the sale would beat all records. […] The Puy du Fou Hope Foundation could reach up to €80,000, but not beyond. Then we turned to potential donors and managed to collect the sum of €350,000," explained Nicolas de Villiers to Le Parisien.

• Speaking of Angels and Saints: The Story of Joan of Arc
• Pope Joan: The Female Pope whose Real Gender was Revealed after she Gave Birth in a Procession
• Marguerite de La Rocque: 16th Century Noblewoman Stranded on the Isle of Demons

The day of the bid, despite the dizzying auction, Nicolas de Villiers took the ring for a total of 376,833 euros (415,063 USD). The ring was a gift that the parents of the unforgettable Joan had made for her on the day of her First Communion in the church of her hometown, Domremy. Thanks to the Villiers family, it will now return to its home country.

Nicolás de Villiers won the precious ring in a recent auction in London. The ring, accompanied by its own reliquary, cost 376,833 euros. (PhotoPQR/« Ouest-France »/Franck Dubray/Timeline Auctions)

Joan of Arc used to wear the ring on the index finger of her left hand. It is forged in brass, decorated with three crosses and is engraved with the initials “JM”. According to legend, Joan had a habit of staring at her ring moments before entering combat.
The Puy du Fou theme park wrote on its official website that it “aims to contribute to the brilliance of France, its history, its wonders, and its achievements.” It states that it was their “duty to end the exile of this symbol that belonged to the greatest heroine of the history of France.”
Nicolás de Villiers told Figaro Magazine that on March 20 a presentation ceremony will be held for the ring and that the relic will be on display to the public later in a special place in the park.

"Joan of Arc dies at the stake", painted in 1843 by German artist Hermann Anton Stilke (1803-1860). Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. (Public Domain) Joan of Arc was eventually condemned to die at the stake, and the ring that her parents had given her for her First Communion spent nearly 600 years in English hands.

Featured image: “Joan at the coronation of Charles VII”, painted in 1854 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Louvre Museum. Source: Public Domain
By: Mariló T. A.
This article was first published in Spanish at http://www.ancient-origins.es and has been translated with permission.

History Trivia - Thomas Seymour executed

March 20

 43 BC, Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), the most versatile of the Roman poets, was born.

141: 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

235 Maximinus Thrax was proclaimed emperor. He was the first foreigner to hold the Roman throne.

 687 Saint Cuthbert, a shepherd and hermit who achieved fame as a holy man, healer, and bishop, died.

851 Ebbo of Reims, Bishop in the Carolingian empire and evangelist to Denmark, died.

1345 Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction was thought to have been the caused the plague epidemic.

1413 King Henry IV of England died and was succeed by his son Henry V.

1549 Thomas Seymour was executed. Seymour had married Henry VIII's widow Katherine Parr and pursued the young princess Elizabeth without success. When his piratical activities were discovered he was arrested, tried, and executed.