St Patrick

EoghanIRL

I saw online the international buildings being lit up for st Patricks day. It reminded me of a documentary i saw about st.patricks day. In the documentary all the historians concluded that st.patrick didn't exist (can't find it now ) .

For someone who in my opinion never existed , I find it humorous that he is celebrated all over the world .

Do you think he existed?

Pablo Sanchez

What makes you think he did not exist?

Cookie_Monster

EoghanIRL wrote: »

For someone who in my opinion never existed , I find it humorous that he is celebrated all over the world .

you mean like god or santa or the easter bunny or the tooth fairy?

Absolam

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

you mean like god or santa or the easter bunny or the tooth fairy?

:eek: Hang on. What exactly are you saying here?

GerB40

Gods are celebrated all over the world yet there's not the slightest bit of evidence any of them ever existed. St Patrick existing sounds infinitely more plausible than any of the 2500+ that humanity has mustered up.

3rdDegree

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Do you think he existed?

No. I believe a different man, who by complete coincidence was also called Patrick, converted the Irish.

shedweller

Im sure he existed but would question the supposed peaceful conversion of the Irish to christianity. Surely there was some bloodshed?

orangesoda

I would have guessed that he converted the kings and then the people followed suit as they didn't wish to go against their king. I do believe he existed

Witcher

The problem with Patrick is that most of the writings about him were made after his death and are embellished. Also his predecessor Palladius is often overshadowed and his work attributed to Patrick.

The only sources you can really count on for his life are the two pieces he wrote himself; his Confessio and his letter to the soldiers of Coroticus.

As orangesoda said, his Confessio suggests that he worked from the top down i.e. he converted kings first.

ScumLord

shedweller wrote: »

Im sure he existed but would question the supposed peaceful conversion of the Irish to christianity. Surely there was some bloodshed?

The thing about christianity of the time was that it was more than just a religion, it was a way of life that included reading, writing, medicine, Europe wide cultural links. In the same way barbarians wanted into the Roman system because it was so prosperous I'm sure Irish kings saw all the prosperity that would come with the christian religion. Ireland boomed after Christianity was introduced so their switch to christianity worked out.

I've never heard anything saying St. Patrick didn't exist. He arrived in ireland before records were kept so everything about him had to be recorded verbally and I'm absolutely sure the Irish back then embellished the story as much as we surely would today.

dar100

St Patrick was actually a metaphor for witches been burned at the stake. It's not snakes, he drove out, it was witches

Torakx

Would Druids fall into that class?

Toby Take a Bow

I thought the general consensus was that there was two Patricks.I think one of them was called Paladius but the stories about both of them were condensed into the one person.