Many people venerate St Patrick, yet do not follow his practices and beliefs as a man

Patrick as a God-fearing man would not approve of the level of veneration accorded him, or of having a saint’s day named after him, nor would he condone the revelry and secular partying that accompanies the occasion.

Many pilgrims follow routes like St Patrick’s or the Columban Way (St Columbanus) but do they really follow the ways in which they lived and believed?

Patrick died c 493 on March 17, and is believed to be buried in Downpatrick. In the 12th century a headstone was erected which was removed during the time of the disestablishment of the Church in Ireland.

At the turn of the last century a large slab of Mourne granite was placed in the grounds of the Cathedral where it remains today. One word is written, only Patrick’s name, and that is enough.

St Patrick, like Jesus Himself, would not join you for your bacon buttie or your prawn cocktail.

Realising that the first source of coronavirus was apparently from a seafood market that sold many kinds of wild meat, it reminded me of the Biblical food laws that provide a list of animals that are considered ‘unclean’ to eat.

I always thought that these laws were exclusively for Jewish people, but then I read in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, where Noah boards the animals on the Ark, the unclean animals in twos, purely for breeding purposes, and then clean animals that could be eaten in sevens as they were to supply food.

If Noah knew the distinction between clean and unclean animals long before the commandments written in Leviticus and he was not Jewish, then it was obviously to protect all of mankind.

The early Celtic Christians that followed on from Patrick did not eat pork or shellfish as they kept the Biblical food laws.

Such animals were not bad, or they would not have made it onto the Ark.

They were created as an ecological necessity to clean and replenish the planet, but were not to be eaten as their flesh would have high levels of toxins due to their scavenging all kinds of waste.

If the guidelines of the loving Creator were upheld there would be no contagion passed on to human beings by ignoring these rules, or at least the risks would be greatly reduced.

Even in catering college I was told that pork and shellfish were ‘high risk.’

Patrick was a God-inspired visionary who brought about radical change across Ireland among people who neither cared about God or obeying His rules.

In the end by sheer perseverance and determination these brave Celtic missionaries founded communities that welcomed those among them who once rejected such strange ideas.

They kept the Sabbath and Passover of the early Jerusalem Church before the Roman system of Sunday and Easter overtook.

If Patrick were here in 2020 I think he would be happy to see the parades cancelled, but he may have difficulty having an Ulster Fry with churchgoers of today who keep a whole lot of customs he would never have entertained.

He wouldn’t need to self-isolate, as he’d be branded as a heretic anyway for having such pure Biblical beliefs and observances, as opposed to the man-made customs that exist in the churches today.

Many people venerate Patrick as a man, yet ignore his actual practices as a person.

Sometimes the truth hurts.

l Colin Nevin, who was chef of the Hilton Tel-Aviv, Israel 1991-2002, describes himself as Sabbath-keeping Christian