St. Patrick’s Best
The Strangford Lough Brewing Company beer St. Patrick’s Best is one of three Irish beers from our St. Patrick’s range named in honour of Saint Patrick, probably the most famous character in Irish history. He is buried at the Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down.
Our St. Patrick’s Best label portrays an image of Saul church. It is located in the village of Saul, about two miles outside Downpatrick. Saul church is a replica of the ancient Celtic church which previously stood on the site of the stone barn used by St. Patrick- the first Christian meeting place in Ireland.
Saul church
Saul church is a replica of St. Patrick’s first church in Ireland and was erected at the place where Saint Patrick himself built his first church. This church was built in 1932 to commemorate Saint Patrick’s first church in Ireland and to celebrate the 1500th anniversary of the landing of St. Patrick in 432AD. The foundation stone, laid by Charles F. Darcy DD, Archbishop of Armagh on Ascension Day 1933, records that it is on the site given to St. Patrick in AD 432.
The church was designed by Henry Seaver from Belfast, who designed the church in the Celtic tradition. The church was built from Mourne Granite - the same stone used for the slab in Down Cathedral to honour the burial of St. Patrick in the Cathedral grounds. This large granite stone is a memorial to St. Patrick and can be found in the graveyard of the present day Cathedral.
Saint Patrick & Saul
When St. Patrick and his followers came to Ireland in 432AD, their small boat was drawn into Strangford Lough due to the strong tidal currents. They landed at the mouth of the river Slaney.
When they landed, according to Legend, a boy saw Patrick and his followers; he thought that they were robbers or thieves, quickly informing his master Dichu, the local chieftain, that Pirates had landed in his territory. Dichu set his dogs on Patrick and his followers. However, when Dichu saw Patrick he became calm as Patrick spoke the words of the Psalm; he no longer feared the man and his followers. Patrick, able to communicate with Dichu, convinced him that he was a man of peace, eventually converting Dichu to Christianity. As a result, Dichu gave Patrick a small barn for his first church in the Irish Sabbhall (pronounced ‘Saul’ in Gaelic). Saul became one of the most important Christian sites in Ireland.
It was here that St. Patrick’s monastic journey in Ireland began and where he made his first Irish Christian conversions. St Patrick was an important part of Irish History and we have named three of our Irish beers after him; St Patrick’s Ale, St Patrick’s Best and St Patrick’s Gold.
Allegedly, St. Patrick died on 17th March in 461AD at Saul and his actual burial site is within the foundations of the modern Cathedral in Downpatrick where he remains to this day.
For more on St. Patrick visit Irish Secrets.
An appropriate colour
The colour of the droplet on our St. Patrick’s Best label and of the text in our logo is green. We chose the colour green for two reasons: firstly because it is symbolic of our Emerald Isle, and secondly because it is the colour most associated with St. Patrick, even though his true colour is blue. Green is also seen on our St. Patrick’s Ale label and St. Patrick’s Gold label, making all three beers recognisable as our St .Patrick’s range.
