In case you are wondering…  The dude we now think of as St. Patrick died over 1500 years ago on March 17th in 460 A.D.   He was the son of wealthy Englishmen who was kidnapped into slavery by Irish traders.  After escaping from his captors he went into seminary training for 15 years and became a priest.  After completing his training he chose to go back to Ireland to try to “convert” the very nation that had enslaved him, to Christianity.  Probably because of his experience as an “involuntary” Irishman Patrick was very successful in presenting the story of Christ in a culturally relevant way.  

Today we celebrate “Patrick’s”  success at telling a nation about God by drinking green beer or wearing a ridiculous green t-shirt that says “kiss me I’m Irish”  to work…kinda like the way we celebrate the birth of Jesus by putting too much stuff on our Credit cards or his resurrection by hiding chocolate eggs and eating too much ham :-)  I’m just sayin’…