3. Voices told him he could escape his captors
Six years into his captivity, St Patrick apparently heard a voice urging him to travel to a distant port where a ship would be waiting to take him back to Britain. During the journey, he was captured again, and taken to France for 60 days where he learned about monasticism.
4. He escaped again, and rose up the early Church's ranks
After making his escape and having found God, he became a priest at the age of twenty, and eventually became a bishop
5. He gained his sainthood by becoming a missionary
15 years later after leaving Ireland, he was tasked with becoming a missionary and returned to Ireland, where he successfully converted many Celtic pagans to Christianity.
6. He gave the shamrock its significance
It was as a preacher that he used the shamrock, now the unofficial national flower of Ireland, as a symbol of the holy trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
7. Snakes never lived in Ireland...
St Patrick has been credited with driving the snakes out of Ireland, although science now suggests that water-locked Ireland did not ever have any snakes.
8. Green wasn't his colour
Like St Nicholas who is mistakenly associated with the colour red - and actually wore green - St Patrick dressed in blue vestments.
9. He was partial to a shot or two of whiskey
Reassuringly for anyone who feels guilty indulging too heavily on a Saint's day, it is believed St Patrick said everyone should have more than just a swig of whiskey on his feast day. He apparently chastised an innkeeper who served him too little of the drink.
10. He died on his feast day
St Patrick is thought to have died on his feast day, 17 March, in 461AD. It is a national holiday in Ireland, and on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean, which was founded by Irish refugees.
- The Independent
