Whether you visit one of the 800 pubs in Ireland on March 17th, or visit your own neighborhood bar, you're sure to hear many toasts, particularly Érin go Bráugh (Free Ireland) to bring St Patrick's Day.

This holiday is totally unique in the United States, where the beer is green, the pubs are overflowing with non-Irish warbling away and trying to tell a tale or two in an awfully bad brogue. Chicago, New York and other cities have elaborate parades, closets are stripped of everything green one can wear, and even coffee drinkers dedicated to the hot black cup willingly sip the brew through a head of cream that makes the whiskey-soaked Irish Coffee such a delight.

These noisy celebrations are light years from the quiet observations that Ireland has celebrated for more than 1,000 years for the man named Patrick who 1- wasn't Irish 2- didn't make the snakes vanish from the Emerald Isle, and 3- didn't even liken the shamrock to the Trinity for he was a Protestant, not a Catholic and others claim he devised an entirely new Celtic religion.

He did write a few books, begin the conversion of the Irish from pagans to Christians, and helped to preserve ancient liturgical texts for a Europe that had become indifferent to these illuminated tomes.

Confession was an autobiographical account of a rather adventurous early life that made a decidedly pious turn, and Letter was a rant to slave owner Coroticus about the slave trade, something he knew keenly. Born Maewyn Succat about 385 AD, most likely in Wales, he was the son of a Roman official, and had a normal pagan upbringing that was the style of the time. (The date, the name, the place of birth are still contested but these details seem to have a consensus among today's scholars.) His life was to take on drama and trauma, however, when barely 16, he was captured by pirates sailing from Wales to Ireland and sold into slavery the moment he hit the lush green shores of this island. From then until about 22-years-old, he led a lonely life as a shepherd, succumbing to visions and dreams in which he heard the Irish people begging for his ministry. Escaping his enslaved shepherd's role, he found passage to France where he studied for the priesthood then returned to Ireland to fulfill his mission.

For the next 30 years, he baptized the pagans of Ireland, ordained other priests to carry on the Word, helped build and establish many churches, and monasteries, where Irish monks copied and preserved classical texts, delivering many to other European monasteries and churches bereft of these precious texts as a result of various conflicts. Most significantly, Patrick's efforts to make a total conversion of the Irish to Christianity (which occurred over the next two centuries) happened without warfare, making Ireland the only European country to convert the masses in a peaceful manner. The loss of paganism meant his despised slavery came to an end, human sacrifices were no longer de rigeur, and the Irish clans stopped warring with one another.

Although referred to as St. Patrick by Catholics world wide, the Protestant minority in Ireland depicts him as anti-Roman Catholic and believes his religious fervor founded the uniquely Celtic church that makes him a national – meaning Irish--hero, versus a religious icon.

Considering all the myths and fables surrounding this "saint," it's enough to make a person run to the kitchen and prepare a hot Irish coffee on the spot, or perhaps a creamy pie, or cake saturated with one of Ireland's many gifts to the world: whiskey. To that we say, Sláinte (Cheers).