St. Patrick’s Day (March 17)…originally an Irish religious holiday and celebration, was brought to the U. S. by Irish immigrants. Although revered as Irelands’ patron saint, St. Patrick was not Irish; he was born of Roman citizen parents in 385 A.D. in either Scotland or Wales. St. Patrick was captured by pirates as a boy and sold into slavery in Ireland where he tended sheep before escaping to a monastery in England. There he became a Christian and years later returned to Ireland as a missionary bringing Christianity to the Irish. It is said that he used the shamrock with its 3 lobes to illustrate the Trinity. Legend has it that he drove the snakes out of Ireland. In our family my great grandmother, Rena Josephine Glasscock, was born on St. Paddy’s Day in 1885 and spent most of her life interestingly enough in Shamrock, Texas where there is still a big celebration on March 17. Daughter, Alix McAnally Crunk also shares a St. Paddy’s birthday, born 101 years after her great-great grandmother. Sláinte!