Who was St. Patrick?

If you are a Christian educator like me, holidays like St. Patrick’s Day or Halloween can be a little difficult to navigate. Maybe your school limits certain celebrations, or maybe you have your own convictions for abstaining from the holiday. But here’s the thing… St. Patrick’s Day started out as a sacred holiday to celebrate one of the most influential missionaries in Christian history.

So who was St. Patrick, and why do we celebrate him every March 17th?

As always, I start my lessons with books! Here are the ones I used:

*If you’re a VeggieTales fan – believe it or not they have a short lesson on St. Patrick! It’s featured in the episode “Sumo of the Opera”, but you can find it by itself of YouTube.

St. Patrick is among the most influential figures in Christian history. God used him to bring the gospel to Ireland over 1,500 years ago. He is well known for his teachings on the Trinity – a concept that can be tricky to wrap our heads around.

While we usually see 4 leaf clovers in March, St. Patrick originally used the common 3 leaf clover to teach people about the Trinity. Just as a clover has 3 leaves to 1 stem, God is three persons in one – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And though there’s no earthly thing that can accurately represent the Triune God, this can help kids begin to understand the concept of “three-in-one”.

Clover Craft

Here’s a classic and simple craft to reinforce the concept of the Trinity. The heart represents God the Father, the cross represents God the Son, and the dove represents the Holy Spirit. If you don’t have a computer and printer available, you can draw the clover and symbols by hand. If you are feeling crafty, follow the instructions below for creating your own printable using Microsoft PowerPoint.

First, open up PowerPoint. On the menu, click “Design” then “slide size”. Make sure it’s set to Standard 4:3 for printing on regular paper.

Next, select “Insert” on the menu and click on “Icons”. In the search bar type in “clover” and insert the 3 leaf clover. Now you need to resize it – I went with 2 clovers per page.

Now click on “Icons” again, but this time search for “bird” and select the dove. Resize it to fit on one of the clover leaves and then move it to a new page. (With the dove selected, type control + x, then select “Home”–> new slide –> blank –> control + V). Copy and paste the dove as many times as desired on this page.

Next we need a heart. Select “Insert” on the menu again but this time click on “Shapes” and select the heart. Change the fill color to white and the outline to black. I also like to make my line a little thicker. Resize the heart to be about the same size as the dove, then copy and paste it.

Finally we need a cross to represent Jesus. Go to “Shapes” one more time and select the plus sign. This is where you have to get a little more technical. Adjust your plus sign to the desired width using the little yellow dot. Then, with the shape selected, click on the red “Shape Format” on the menu. On the left, you’ll see “edit shape”. Click on this, then “edit points”. Your shape will turn red and you will be able to adjust the lines. Take the two dots at the bottom and drag them down to make the bottom half of the plus sign longer. (This might take a bit of adjusting) Now you can change the fill and outline color on the cross and copy and paste it.

If you are able to print in color, you can edit the fill colors accordingly. You can also do one page per icon so that you can print it on colored paper. We opted to print the shamrocks on green paper and color everything else.

Have fun!

Even though it can be hard to navigate these holidays, I believe all things can be redeemed! We all have different convictions – maybe you want to stay away from the rainbows and pots of gold and that’s ok! In our home we don’t mind unicorns and rainbows, so Leprechauns and gold coins don’t really feel that far off. My girls have learned about the real St. Patrick and the real significance of the shamrock. They understand the difference between blessings and luck, so I don’t mind having a little fun.

I hope this was encouraging for you! As always, have a great week and happy teaching!

-Sarah