The Real Saint Patrick

You Don’t Have to Be Irish to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

~ Midwest Storyteller

After all – and I hate to burst your little green bubble – St. Patrick wasn’t Irish.

No! Wait… What?

If folks could take a moment from pinching one another, guzzling green beer, searching for leprechauns or perhaps, more profitably, for pots of gold, they might be able to get down to the historical facts of the matter. So, now that you’ve taken the deep dive into your closet and found a green outfit for today, we can settle down to find out how the real story went down. We thrive on truth!

I like true stories, especially when I have a personal link to them. My mother loved keeping the family history and her side of the family is full of Irish, Scots and Brits. The more I learn about my fascinating ancestry, the more the British Isles move to the top of my list of places to visit. I don’t know about kissing that Blarney Stone, though. It looks mighty precarious and apparently some ancestor of mine must have kissed it long enough and hard enough to make it last because I’m already blessed with the gift of gab. My time in Ireland would be better spent trying to find and position the perfect headscarf in order to keep this mane of mine looking anything close to reasonable in that amount of wind. If all the hairdressers in Hollywood couldn’t keep Maureen O’Hara’s hairdo looking decent in all those movies, there’s little hope for me on a trip to Ireland!

Back to Patrick, now that I’ve taken the blarney detour. Let’s see, where were we?…

Oh, yes! Patrick wasn’t Irish at all. He was born in Roman Britain. His real name, according to my limited study on that point, was Maewyn Succat, which he wasn’t so fond of, so he called himself Patrick. Can’t say as I blame him. Imagine us all celebrating St. Maewyn’s Day. Nah!

He has nothing to do with leprechauns. Probably, if he ever encountered one, he would throw a few choice verses of Scripture at the vertically challenged little guy and it would go “poof” and disappear. He has nothing to do with pots of gold. People just associate that with leprechaun lore. I’m pretty sure that pinching people lay somewhere outside his personal boundaries, especially if it involved being so petty as to base it on the color of a person’s clothing. Leprechauns – now that’s another story. Should you encounter one, they are the ones who pinch you for not wearing green. The moral here is: Stick with Patrick. Avoid leprechauns.

I have no idea whether Patrick drank beer. He probably did, because he neither grew up nor spent his adult life in the land of teetotalism. I doubt that he bothered to color it green. Somehow, I think (and I’m pretty astute in these matters) this custom seems to be to be one of those that can be attributed to human nature. People who are looking for a great excuse to consume way too much of something will certainly latch on to any novel way to get the party started.

This brings us to snakes. Ireland is one of a handful of countries, including New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica, where snakes are not native in the wild. No snake with an ounce of sense would want to go to these places without a good, warm sweater and you’re probably less likely to meet up with that sight than you are a leprechaun. Saint Patrick had no need to drive snakes out of Ireland because there weren’t any. However, since the Scriptures refer to Satan as “the serpent”, the visual picture brought about by this mythical story is more than appropriate. Patrick, throughout his life, certainly dealt a blow to the wiles of the serpent.

Shamrocks? Yeah, you might want to pin one of those over your heart if you identify with the real Saint Patrick. Read on to discover why you might want to honor Saint Patrick on his special day.

The Real Saint Patrick www.midweststoryteller.com

I’ve heard it said that “the best revenge is a life well lived”. Joseph, after all his trials in Egypt, spoke these words to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20 NKJV). Jesus said, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matthew 5:44 NIV).

Tough stuff, but Patrick, by faith in the One who saved him, was able to do it. What an example!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Honoring Your Irish: There’s More to Patrick than Meets the Eye, So Let’s Eat Trim Healthy Irish!

~ Midwest Storyteller

Before the day closes, I wanted to wish you all a Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!  I never gave it much thought growing up, that is, until I discovered how Irish I am.  Oh, yeah – the Bairds, the Allens, the Glenns – it’s all over my mom’s side of the family.

Learning about our heritage helps us thrive.  It helps you take the good with the bad.  Just about the time you think you’re from a long line of nobodies, you discover that grandmother of noble birth or that war hero that saved his country.  And then, just about the time you get all puffed up from that knowledge, you stumble across the double spy who got hanged for a whole bunch of things you’d rather not talk about.  We’ve all got stories that go back to the beginning of time and it enriches us to learn about them and appreciate those who went before us and the struggles they endured.

In honor of the day, I wanted to post a photo of a recipe I made recently, but now realize that I didn’t.  Well, I did make the recipe and it was delicious, but I didn’t take the photo.  Be that as it may, I highly recommend you give it a try.  “Irish King Trimmy Bisque” (page 169, Trim Healthy Table) is a recipe your family will enjoy and never have a clue that you’re helping them be trim and healthy.  It’s an energizing “E” meal on the Trim Healthy Mama plan, loaded with chicken, leeks (oh, how I love leeks!) and other ingredients that give it a rich, soothing, comfort-food flavor.  I was a little surprised at finding chamomile tea bags in the list of ingredients, but I said, “Well, Serene,” (even though she wasn’t there to hear me, of course), “you haven’t let me down with one of your Trimmy Bisques yet…” and brewed the tea and put it right in there.  And yes, it’s wonderful.

The only thing I like to change in the Trimmy Bisque recipes is that I put less of the ingredients in the blender than recommended.  We don’t like our soup quite that smooth.

If you haven’t picked up the cookbooks by Trim Healthy Mama yet, you can get them from www.trimhealthymama.com or Ebay or even check them out of your public library.  Soon, you’ll be able to get them from me as well.

Making a great soup is a wonderful family activity while we’re all cooped up waiting for this virus to pass and this makes a big pot that will give you plenty of leftovers to freeze.

If you need coaching with Trim Healthy Mama, I’m here to help. Just click on the coaching icon in the right sidebar and you’ll find out about getting started or click here. Also, feel free to email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com

I thought you might like to close out this day by gaining a little appreciation for its namesake.  Saint Patrick should mean much more to us than wearing a green outfit and having one too many green beers.  I’m thinking he probably contributed much to my family’s heritage of faith – and maybe yours, too.

Who was Saint Patrick?

Questions?  Comments?  Just scroll back up to the beginning of this post and click on “Leave a comment” and if you don’t see this till tomorrow, “Top ‘o the mornin’ to ya!”