Thursday, March 17, 2011

St Patrick's day

Today is St Patrick's Day. How many of you actually know anything about St Patrick? I know I sure didn't but today I learned a little about this man. The most amazing thing is that he lived 1,550 years ago. That is actually quite amazing. I'm pretty sure no body will know my name 1,550 years from now. As I understand it Mr Patrick was a Roman citizen who lived in Gaul (now known as England) in the 400's. When he was sixteen years old he was captured in a raid by a bunch of Irish barbarians and held as a slave for six years before he escaped and returned to his family. Later in his life he fully embraced Christianity and returned to Ireland as a missionary where he almost single handedly converted the country to Christianity. By the time he died he left more than 300 churches in Ireland. A pretty amazing guy don't you think?

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The Mormon Church is the largest buyer of carpet in the world second only to the US military.
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4 comments:

Brandon J. Leavitt said...

I dont know if St. Patrick originally lived in Gaul or not but Great Britain certainly wasn't known by the Romans as Gaul. It was called Britania. Gaul was a confederation of "barbarian tribes" in Western Europe centered primarily around France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany.

Interestingly, the French (who at the time of Napoleon saw themselves as heirs to the Gauls) justified their European expansion to be a "reclamation" of the ancient Gaul territory at the time of the Romans.

Kira said...

what an example!!!! We could all learn something from him.

Lynn said...

Yes. I did know that. However, I need to find out where all this "green" stuff, leprechauns, shamrocks, and rainbows with gold came from. ; D

Maren Romney said...

I even asked Peter yesterday who St. Patrick was? Thanks Fred! (see ya tomorrow)