The History of Saint Patrick: From Priesthood to Parades and Beer
March 17, 2022
The History of Saint Patrick: From Priesthood to Parades and Beer
By: Living a Stout Life and Galen Smith – Malteurop Malting Company
When you think of St. Patrick’s Day, you may not normally think of malts, but maybe you should. People drink beer on March 17th, and you have a brewery. And while we get it, putting food coloring in your craft beer isn’t an idealistic way of drawing people into your brewery, brewing the beer that otherwise says St. Paddy’s day is a great option.
Beers like Irish reds and Irish dry stouts, for example. After all, today’s party holiday is more about the beer than the green. Which by the way, neither of those meant anything when it all started way back in the 5th century. What do you really know about the history of St. Patrick’s Day?
Who is Saint Patrick?
Saint Patrick didn’t start his life as a saint. And he wasn’t even Irish. He was just a mere boy with a mere name, believed to have been Maewyn Succat. He was born circa 386 A.D. in Great Britain, then controlled by the Romans. He didn’t gain the name Patrick until he started down his religious pathway later in life. And his sainthood was never canonized by a pope. That process hadn’t even been thought of then.
So how did this boy become known as one of Ireland’s most cherished saints? Pirates! Maewyn was kidnapped by Irish pirates when he was 16 years old, brought to Ireland, and enslaved by them for the next six years. Throughout his captivity, it was rumored that he experienced many visions. In one of them, he was apparently told to attempt an escape. He did just that, ultimately making his way back to Britain and his family at 22 years old.
Capitalizing upon his many visions while enslaved in Ireland, he saw this as a sign to turn to religion and became a priest. Apparently one of the visions showed him walking amongst the Irish while bringing Christianity to the pagans that resided there. So, he followed his calling again and returned to Ireland to convert the Irish people where he proceeded to gain quite a religious following, after apparently ridding the Emerald Isle of snakes.
The Legend that is Saint Patrick
Legend has it that Ireland was full of troublesome snakes back in the day, and Patrick alleviated that problem. Easy to see why he became a saint if that were the case. However, scientifically and historically speaking, due to Ireland’s far north location and surrounding icy waters, there were never snakes in Ireland in the first place. There’s not even any to be found in fossilized records.
So while this sounds like a great story and a reason to dedicate a holiday to a mere man, it’s more than likely that the snake story is actually an allegory for paganism. The snakes were a symbol for evil, and Patrick came to Ireland to rid the pagans of their evil and to help convert them to Christianity. While Patrick didn’t rid the island of actual snakes, he did help spread Christianity.
In fact, that’s how the shamrock may have become associated with St. Patrick’s Day, as well. The three leaf clover was supposedly used as a common teaching tool to model Christianity’s Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And to further the lesson, patrons would don shamrocks in honor of the Holy Trinity and the Saint. Shamrocks are still one of the most recognized symbols of the Irish and St. Patrick’s Day today.
Saint Patrick may be considered someone to honor today, but his life in the moment was a typical life. It wasn’t until around the seventh century, some two to three hundred years after his death on March 17, 461 A.D, that these legends began to take place. And another three hundred years later, around the 10th century, that the Irish people began honoring Saint Patrick on March 17.
And even then, it wasn’t until 1631 when the first official feast day took place in his honor.
What is St. Patrick’s Day?
The famous March 17th started over 1,000 years ago, as a way to honor a beloved Saint from Ireland’s past. The celebration then was considered a religious holiday. Historically and today, March 17th often lands right in the middle of Lent. Lent is a 40 day period recognized by the Christian faith that begins before Easter on Ash Wednesday. It is a time of reflection and fasting from both food and festivities.
However, March 17th, aka St. Patrick’s Day became an exception. This was the one day people could put aside the restrictions during Lent and feast and celebrate. And while the celebrations were much more subdued than the raucous parties of today – pubs in Ireland were mandated to be closed on March 17th up until the 1970s – people did celebrate. But it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that Ireland started promoting St. Paddy’s Day as a massive tourist event. It has since become THE place to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day. As it should be.
So how did St. Patrick’s Day come to be the world-renowned party it is today? Community. It is believed that the first St. Paddy’s Day parade took place in a Spanish colony, today known as St. Augustine, Florida, in 1601 under the direction of the colony’s Irish vicar. A century later, homesick Irish soldiers gathered together to march down the streets of New York City in a show of community and camaraderie. That was 1762, and it marked the first of the famous New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade which have occurred annually in one form or another for more than 250 years.
What’s with all the green?
There are many theories explaining the green. From the shamrocks of the legendary Holy Trinity to Ireland’s green rolling hills to that color was already assigned to something else and more. It’s also been said that the green came from Irish soldiers wanting to completely contrast against the red of the British soldiers, so they wore green instead. Whatever the reason, green has stuck. And along with that came green beer.
And leave it up to the Americans to create green beer. On a typical St. Paddy’s Day in 1914, a doctor by the name of Thomas Curtin paid a visit to the Schnerer Club in New York City, a popular place to celebrate the holiday. By then it was already about the drinking and the green, so Dr. Curtin figured why not green beer, too.
He placed a dropper or two worth of wash blue, an iron-based laundry whitener in a glass of beer, and well, as they say, the rest is history. Although, thankfully wash blue is not what turns our beer green today. (If it was, we’d be spending more time in the ER instead of the bars.) Just a couple drops of blue food coloring will do the trick. Yes, green works too, but blue works well with the yellow hues of lighter beers, giving it the vibrant green color we expect from a beer on St. Patrick’s Day.
Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with Beer!
But wait, is that what we really want on St. Paddy’s day? A green beer? Or would you rather celebrate with beers full of tradition and history?
Honestly, we probably don’t want to celebrate with historical beers from that time, either. The malting process then isn’t anything like it is now. And the beers? Well, let’s just say we’ve come a long way since the 10th century. So while it’s unclear as to what was drunk in the early days of honoring Saint Patrick, it’s clear that beer is drunk today. In fact, about 13 million pints of Guinness will be consumed in honor of this saint. That’s an 819% increase on any other given day.
And while you may not brew Guinness, you do brew great beer, and with 45% of Americans consuming craft beer, well, you better have some beers ready for St. Paddy’s day. This is not the party to miss!
An Irish Red Ale is Better than a Green Beer
Need something to get you started for your celebrations? Feel free to start here. But you’re a brewer, so we expect you to add your special touch, making this a recipe unique to you and your celebrations. We’re hoping that you save the food coloring for Easter.
Irish Red Ale
Grain Bill:
72% – Malteurop Pale Ale
20% – Malteurop Munich
1% – Castle Malting Château Chocolat
Hops:
Use an English hop, such as Fuggle at 60 minutes for balanced hop bitterness, targeting a bitterness to gravity ratio of about 0.55.
Yeast:
Use a yeast that is moderately attenuative with low to moderate ester production, such as LalBrew Windsor.
To experience all of Malteurop’s malts that will help you brew a great beer for St. Paddy’s Day and every day, click here or contact your local Malteurop Craft Sales Manager today.
Sláinte!
PRO TIP: Is it St. Paddy’s Day or St. Patty’s Day? According to Merriam Webster, to sound like you know what you’re talking about, it’s all about the Paddy. St. Paddy, that is. “St. Paddy’s Day, where ‘Paddy’ is the shortened form of Patrick, which itself comes from Pádraig. While the holiday is sometimes spelled ‘St. Patty’s Day,’ some find this to be offensive as ‘Patty’ is a shortened form of the female name ‘Patricia.’” Now you know!
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References
BBC. (2009, June 22). Lent. BBC. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/lent_1.shtml
The Beer Community. (2019, February 25). Why Do We Drink Green Beer On St. Patrick’s Day? Just Beer. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from
https://justbeerapp.com/article/why-do-we-drink-beer-on-st-patricks-day
Biography. (2017, April 27). Saint Patrick. Biography. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://www.biography.com/religious-figure/saint-patrick
Cohen, Jennie. (2021, March 17). St. Patrick’s Day Legends and Myths Debunked. History. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://www.history.com/news/st-patricks-day-myths-debunked
Find Me a Brewery. (n.d.). Green Beer: The Official Party Punch of St, Patricks’ Day. Find Me a Brewery. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://www.findmeabrewery.com/green-beer/
Grindell, S. (2021, March 17). The History Behind St. Patrick’s Day. Insider. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from https://www.insider.com/the-history-behind-st-patricks-day-2020-2
History. (2021, March 16). History of St. Patrick’s Day. History. Retrieved January 26, 2022, from, https://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/history-of-st-patricks-day
Matthias, A.K. (2022, January 7). A Crash Course for Making Green Beer for St, Patricks’ Day. Parade. Retrieved, January 25, 2022, from https://parade.com/1173303/aliceknisleymatthias-2/how-to-make-green-beer/
Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Making a Fuss Over St. Patty’s Day. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/st-paddys-day-vs-st-pattys-day
National Today (n.d.). St. Patrick’s Day. National Today. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://nationaltoday.com/st-patricks-day/
Nelson, D. (2021, March 16). Everything You Need to Know to be a Guinness Expert for St. Patrick’s Day. Thrillest. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/guinness-st-patricks-day
Steam Whistle. (2020, March 4). The History of St. Patrick’s Day and Beer. Steam Whistle. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://steamwhistle.ca/blog/history-of-st-patricks-day-and-beer/
Total Wine & More. (n.d.). Irish History: Why Do We Drink on St. Patrick’s Day? Total Wine & More. Retrieved January 25, 2022, from https://www.totalwine.com/collections/saint-patricks-day/irish-history
You can link to the full history of malting story once it’s live on the site.