( The Conversation) – – On March 17, people around the globe will celebrate St. Patrick's Day by parading in green hats, sporting images of shamrocks and leprechauns -- small, grinning, fairy males-- pinned to their lapels. Patrick's photo will adorn welcoming cards: an aged, bearded bishop in streaming bathrobes, grasping a bishop's staff and glaring at a coil of snakes.

The icon refers to one of Patrick's famous miracles in which he is stated to have prayed to banish all snakes from Ireland. However, as a historian of medieval Ireland, I can assure you that the real St. Patrick, who worked and lived in the 5th century, never saw a snake or wore a shamrock.

Patrick's own writings and early accounts of the saint's profession reveal lots of interesting information about the life of this customer saint of Ireland.

Patrick was born around 450 A.D., just when Roman troops withdrew from Britain. His father was a gentleman and a Christian deacon who owned a little estate in a location called Bannavem Taburniae.

Scholars aren't sure where this place was-- it was most likely on the west coast around Bristol, near the southern border of modern Wales and England.

2. Patrick was a slave

Irish servant traders sailed the waters off that same coast, and one day they came ashore to capture the teenage Patrick and his next-door neighbors, to sell back in Ireland. Patrick invested 6 years tending sheep in the west of Ireland.

3. Patrick heard voices

While going after sheep on the hills, Patrick prayed a hundred times a day, in all kinds of weather. It paid off. One night a strange voice called to him, stating, "Look, your ship is prepared!" Patrick knew he wasn't hearing sheep. The time was ideal for his escape.

4. Patrick refused to 'suck a male's breasts'

Patrick made his way to Ireland's east coast and sought passage on a ship bound for Britain. The captain, a pagan, didn't like the appearance of him and demanded that Patrick "suck his breasts," a ritual gesture representing approval of the captain's authority. Patrick declined-- instead he attempted to convert the team.

For some reason, the captain still took him aboard.

5. Patrick had visions

One night Patrick dreamed that Satan tested his faith by dropping a huge rock on him.-- the name of the Greek sun god. Patrick took it as a kind of surprise.

" I believe that I was assisted by Christ the Lord."

Patrick had other strange visions, too. 6.

Years into his objective, someone, it seems, informed an unclean trick about Patrick to his fellow bishops. "They brought up versus me after thirty years something I had currently confessed ... some things I had done one day – – rather, in one hour, when I was young," he wrote.

Patrick did not inform us what he did-- worship idols? Take part in a prohibited sexual practice? Take presents from converts?

Whatever it was, Patrick retrospectively understood his zealous Irish objective to be penance for his youthful sins. While he spread Christianity around Ireland, he was typically beaten, put in chains or extorted.

Two centuries after his death, Irish believers desired more amazing stories of Patrick's life than the saint's own account.

One legend (composed 700 A.D.) described Patrick's contest with native spiritual leaders, the druids. The druids insulted Patrick, attempted to poison him and engaged him in magical battles-- much like students of Harry Potter's Hogwarts-- in which they competed to manipulate the weather condition, damage each other's sacred books and make it through raving fires.

When one druid dared to blaspheme the Christian God, however, Patrick sent out the druid flying into air-- the male dropped to the ground and broke his skull.

8. Patrick made God guarantee

Another legend from around the very same time informs how Patrick fasted for 40 days atop a mountain, weeping, tossing things, and declining to come down up until an angel began God's behalf to grant the saint's outrageous demands. These included the following: Patrick would redeem more souls from hell than any other saint; Patrick, rather than God, would judge Irish sinners at the end of time; and the English would never rule Ireland.

We understand how that last one worked out. Maybe God will keep the other two promises.

9. Patrick never ever discussed a shamrock

None of the early Patrician stories featured the shamrock-- or Irish seamróg-- which is a word for typical clover, a small plant with 3 leaves. Kids in Catholic schools still discover that Patrick used a shamrock as a sign of the Christian Trinity when he preached to the heathen Irish.

The shamrock connection was first pointed out in print by an English visitor to Ireland in 1684, who composed that on Saint Patrick's feast day, "the vulgar superstitiously wear shamroges, 3 leav 'd lawn, which they likewise consume (they state) to cause a sweet breath." The Englishman likewise kept in mind that "really few of the zealous are discovered sober during the night."

10. Patrick did not drive the snakes out of Ireland

As for the amazing snake-charming attributed to Patrick, it could not have happened since there were no snakes in pre-modern Ireland. Reptiles never made it throughout the land bridge that prehistorically linked the island to the European continent.

Most likely, the miracle was plagiarized from some other saint's life and eventually added to Patrick's collection.

Party-goers on March 17 need not fret about ancient historical details, though. Whatever the truth of Patrick's mission, he turned into one of the 3 clients of Ireland, together with Sts. Brigit and Columba-- the latter 2 were born in Ireland.

Wanting you "Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhaiobh"-- Happy Saint Patrick's Day.