St. Patrick

Donor: Mrs. Johanna Ivory, Rawlins Cross

Builder: Louis Koch, Beauvais, France

Bishop and apostle to Ireland, Patrick came from a highly religious family in Britain (his father was a deacon, his grandfather a priest) who spent time as a slave among pagan raiders. After his ordination, he dedicated himself to evangelize Northern Ireland from Armagh, where he may have run a school. St. Patrick is given the credit for essentially converting all of Ireland to Christianity.

Christian iconography typically represents St. Patrick driving snakes before him, trampling on snakes, with a serpent (coiled around the base of his bishop's staff), or with a shamrock.

A popular folk tale has Patrick driving all of the snakes out of Ireland and into the ocean. Some versions of the legend depict Patrick doing this after a sermon or after fasting for 40 days. There is no historical evidence to support this tale, but it may have been meant to symbolize Patrick driving out paganism and the Druids when converting the Irish people to Christianity.