This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is our American stories, and being that it's that time of the year, St. Patrick's Day,

we figured we'd give you the story behind the story,

which is what we love to do here on our American stories.

Here's Greg Hengler with the story of St. Patrick.

R.P.C. Hansen wrote in his book about St. Patrick

that the tragedy with all the myths and legends,

such as Patrick driving all the snakes out of Ireland, his association with using Shamrock

to explain the Trinity, and the preconception that he's Irish, is that these actually hide the truth.

What we are about to do is get rid of the myths and the legends and go

to the primary source, the words of Patrick himself. In fact, his fifth century writings and letters

known as the Confession are one of the earliest surviving documents in Irish history. Here's Dr. Tim Campbell,

director of the St. Patrick's Center in Downpatrick, Ireland.

Ego, Patricius, Paccato, Rassicismus,

I, Patrick is sinner, least faithful of many.

Those are the words that begin the history of Ireland.

Patrick was born into a well-off family and lived in a country estate on the western coast of what was Roman-occupied Britain in the very last days of the Roman Empire.

As Roman legions abandoned Britain in order to protect themselves in other regions of the Roman Empire,

order and authority fell into disarray, and Britain's West Coast became vulnerable to frequent plundering by Irish slave raiders.

Patrick was a teenager living a very comfortable life as the son of a government official and church

cleric, though he himself had very little interest in anything pertaining to his father's faith.

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