This week in religion history: Three cheers to the legendary St. Patrick

http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/03/17/this-week-in-religion-history-three-cheers-to-the-legendary-st-patrick/

Canadian Press | 13/03/17 | Last Updated: 13/03/17 12:23 AM ET



March 17

461: Tradition says St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, died. Patrick was born in Britain around 390 AD into an aristocratic family. When he was 16 he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave for seven years. During that period Patrick underwent a religious conversion and became a devoted Christian. After escaping from captivity, Patrick returned to his family and became a cleric. Patrick felt called to return to Ireland, which he did as an ordained bishop, and spent the rest of his life spreading Christianity throughout the land. As little else is known about Patrick’s life, many myths and legends have come to fill in his story.

1765: St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated for the first time in Canada, in Quebec City.

2000: About 924 members of Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, a doomsday cult, committed suicide by locking themselves in their church and setting it on fire in Kanunga, Uganda.

2012: Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who led Egypt’s Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims, died. He was 88. He battling liver and lung problems for several years.

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