Last Updated on January 27, 2017
For years now, people have been assuming St. Patrick’s four-leaf clover was the true symbol of St. Patrick’s Day. But St. Patrick himself used a three-leaf clover.
When it came to those little clovers, St. Patrick himself preferred the three-leaf variety.
Yes, you read that right: St. Patrick used the shamrock, which is a three-leaf variety of clover, and it was this shamrock that became associated with Ireland. What’s more, St. Patrick used the shamrock in ministry, using each of the three leaves of the shamrock to illustrate the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, the Holy Trinity.
It became a simple way to explain a complicated Christian concept. The shamrock wasn’t worshipped, but it was simply used to help teach about God.
By the way, St. Patrick was not actually Irish. He was Romano-British, from a part of Britain that was controlled by the Romans when the Romans ran the world. He had been captured by Irish pirates at age 16 and forced into hard labor for six years before he managed to escape. Years later, he would return to Ireland as a Christian missionary.
In any case, legends and supernatural beliefs surrounded the four-leaf clover (which is not a shamrock).
The Druids of early Ireland believed they could see evil spirits coming whenever they carried a shamrock, which meant they could get away in time! They considered a four-leaf clover, however, as one that had additional magical powers that could actually ward off those evil spirits.
The four-leaf clover began to be viewed as a sign of good luck. Even Christians embraced the four-leaf clover because it resembled the four arms of the cross.
The odds of finding a four-leaf clover (in a patch of three-leaf clover) is about 10,000 to one. So if you find one, you can be considered “lucky”  because of the rarity of the event; it doesn’t necessarily mean that finding one should lead you to go buy a lottery ticket, but if you do and win, donations are always happily accepted.
