16. Sorry to Break it To You, But St. Paddy wasn’t an Actual Saint
The most inaccurate bit about Saint Patrick’s legend is that he banished snakes from the Emerald Isle. It is true that Ireland is free of snakes, but it has been that way throughout human history. The Ice Ages that began about three million years ago drove snakes to extinction there. When the Earth eventually warmed up, Ireland was surrounded by water, so snakes were unable to slither over and re-inhabit the island. Another famous but inaccurate Saint Patrick account is that he popularized the shamrock to the point that it became a symbol of Ireland. Patrick supposedly used the shamrock’s three leaves to explain the Trinity of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to the pagans, with each leaf representing a facet of God.
However, shamrocks had been popular in Ireland for a long time. The island’s ancient Celts believed that many important things came in threes. For many centuries before Saint Patrick’s arrival, they had used the shamrock to symbolize such groupings of three. Another inaccurate narrative about the beloved holy’s man concerns the “Saint” in his name. Ironically, one of Catholicism’s most famous saints is not even technically a “Saint”. Patrick lived before the Church established the legal process for sainthood, so he was never formally canonized as a Saint. Nonetheless, Saint Patrick is venerated as one in both the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches.
