St. Patrick is credited with driving all the snakes from Ireland. He was born c. 387 c.e. (common era), and is supposed to have died on March 17th, 461 c.e., though there is large debate over these dates.

Regardless, while he is venerated as a patron saint of Ireland, he has never actually been canonized by a Pope. Which is a damned good thing because the Celtic Irish (that is, those who are neither Catholic nor Protestant, but instead still follow the Old Ways) would probably rise up in revolt and finally conquer the world.

(Old joke: God invented booze to keep the Irish from taking over the world.)

And that stuff about driving the snakes from the Emerald Isle? Bullshit. There is no scientific evidence that there have ever been snakes in Ireland since the last ice age. Might as well have said he drove away all the kangaroos, lions and penguins.

So where does this legend come from? Well, let us remember that like all religion and philosophy, points are most often illustrated with metaphor and parable. And none prove this so much as Christianity. (Save your arguments, Catholicism follows the tenants of Jesus Christ, and believe him to be the Son of God and the Savior of Man, thereby making them Christian.) In this case, history (not to be confused with religious legend or myth) tells us that "Saint" Patrick was single-handedly responsible for the greatest amount of destruction of ancient Celtic record and literature.

How did he accomplish this? By personally seeing to the burning of more than 180 books of Celtic and Druid lore, forever "purging" the history and teaching of these heretics (according to Christian dogma) and heathens from the world. Nevermind that the Celts pre-dated the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans and that modern historians believe that they were every bit as culturally advanced as these societies.

So why did he do this? Well it's a well-known and acknowledged fact that the church has a history of killing those who are a threat to its power (see the Inquisition, the Crusades, the history of the Mormons in the US, etc.). As Christianity was gaining popularity (Emperor Constantine is thought to have converted c. 337, very close to his death) some 50 years before Patrick's birth, the Catholic church was grabbing all the power it could.

It is widely accepted by religious historians that Constantine was primarily responsible for the co-mingling of pagan beliefs with Christianity, many of which are still practiced today (Christmas is 4 days after the pagan holy day Yule, and many popular Christmas carols still mention this; holly, ivy, pine and mistletoe are all sacred plants to the Celts and Druids; Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring...the Spring Equinox is a holy day to most Pagans known as Ostara, a celebration of the fertility and new life of nature at this time symbolized by...eggs (fertility) and rabbits (procreation)).

Celebrate his life and the great things he did as a "Saint" and missionary in the British Isles. Celebrate his death and the end of an era of purging a rich and ancient culture from the earth. However you celebrate, designate some poor son-of-a-bitch as a designated driver. Preferably someone licensed, but still too young to drink. (They can sit in the car and play DS or something! )