Author Archives: I. E.

That was his whole thing, right? Turns out Patrick wasn’t the first Christian proselytizer to set foot on Irish soil.

I mean, it’s in the name, right? But here’s the thing: “Saint” Patrick was never formally canonized by a pope.

He’s the patron saint of engineers, but did Patrick ever roll up those green sleeves and get his hands dirty?

Before he became a preacher, St. Patrick had another vocation. Granted, it was not one he chose himself.

No image of St. Patrick would be complete without a pastoral staff (a.k.a. shepherd’s crook a.k.a. crozier) in his hand. But where did he get it?

The world now knows him as Patrick, but his family knew him as Maewyn Succat. Why the rebrand?

“The wearing of the green” is a time-honored St. Patrick’s Day tradition. But did the man himself actually get decked out in emerald?

It’s become the official symbol of *his* day, but did St. Patrick really teach Irish pagans about the Trinity with the help of a shamrock?

Driving the snakes out of Ireland is one of St. Patrick’s biggest claims to fame, but does this serpentine story hold up?

Many assume that Ireland’s patron saint must have been Irish. The reality of St. Patrick’s nationality is more complicated.