Yep, it’s that time again…time to sport the green t-shirt and raise your pints to wish your companions “Slainté!.”  But what is this holiday really about?  Here’s a quick history lesson:

St. Patrick’s Day marks the Roman Catholic feast day for Ireland’s patron saint. Irish brigands kidnapped St. Patrick at 16 and brought him to Ireland. He was sold as a slave in the county of Antrim and served in bondage for six years until he escaped to Gaul, in present-day France. He later returned to his parents’ home in Britain, where he had a vision that he would preach to the Irish. After 14 years of study, Patrick returned to Ireland, where he built churches and spread the Christian faith. After 30 years of taming the wild Irish, Saint Patrick died on March 17, 461 A.D. and was buried at Downpatrick, Ireland.
 By the ninth century, the people of Ireland were celebrating his death as sacred, and in 1600 it was put on the churches liturgical calendar.
 In 1903, St. Patrick’s Day was made an official Holiday by the Republic of Ireland’s government.