Saint Patrick
So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." Genesis 3:14-15 (ESV)
According to a seventeenth-century account by the priest John Colgan, Patrick was on a hill, being threatened by snakes. He began beating a drum to draw them all toward the sea. When his drum broke, an angel showed up to fix it. In the end, Saint Patrick made the soil of Ireland deadly to snakes—so they never came back. The truth is that there were never snakes on the island of Ireland.
Many believe that this legend originally had a symbolic meaning. The meaning of this is that when the Holy Spirit used Patrick and others to preach the Gospel to the medieval Celts, the sword of the Spirit drove away the forces of darkness. The serpents in this picture are the devil and his cohorts, and the Gospel drove them out by calling many of the people to faith in Jesus.
As amusing as the legend is, I believe that Patrick would rather give the glory to Jesus—our Prophet, Priest, and King. When Jesus suffered and died on the hill of Calvary, He crushed the head of the venomous serpent, just as His Father promised from the very beginning. This victory at the hill of Calvary would resonate like Gospel drumbeats, reverberating to the hills of Ireland and elsewhere. This Good news of Christ Crucified and Risen is the snake repellent every nation needs.
Tho devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us,
We tremble not we fear no ill, they shall not over power us.
This world’s prince may still scowl fierce as he will,
He can harm us none,
He’s judged; the deed is done;
One little word can fell him.
The Lutheran Hymnal 262:3