St. Patrick’s famous three leaf clover wasn’t his original metaphor, according to new scholarship out this week.
St. Patrick successfully used the three leaf clover as an analogy for the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity in preaching to the pagan Irish. But recent evidence suggests his first sermon was preached instead about the three parts of a good Guinness beer.
“There’s three persons in the Holy Trinity,” the original fifth-century sermon reads, “Much like there’s three parts to this delicious, delicious Guinness.”
Historical accounts say the concept of three Persons in a single God was met with skepticism by the pagan Celts until they saw the glass of brown stout in St. Patrick’s hand.
The Saint continued, “See how you’ve got the dark, rich, brown in the same beer as the light, creamy froth? That is like the Father and the Son existing together yet with distinct Persons.”
“And notice the nitrogen bubbles proceeding from the dark Stout into the froth? In just the same way the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, joining them together in one wonderful beverage. I mean God.”
Archeological evidence indicates that this sermon was wildly successful, converting even the Druids who were in attendance. St. Patrick went on to preach it again and again everywhere he traveled, making many converts.
The sermon may have been too successful, however, as apparently afterwards no one could remember what he had said. St. Patrick was forced to redo the metaphor with a less-appealing shamrock the following year, with milder success.
