St. Patrick

St. Patrick was a fifth-century British bishop credited with converting Ireland to Christianity.

In George and Polly’s original depiction, the saintly bishop rings the Bell of St. Patrick, a relic believed to have belonged to him, symbolizing the call to conversion. His vestments are decorated with Celtic knots and the cross pattée (an episcopal symbol commonly associated with St. Patrick in art), while a stylized shamrock adorns the crook of his crozier. The Old Gaelic text in the halo is taken from the opening line of the Lorica of St. Patrick, an ancient poem about the Trinity attributed to him.