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St. Patrick, c.389-461AD, who is commemorated on 17 March, was not an Irishman but was born at a place in western Britain usually named as Bannavem Taberniae. His father was a Roman official and deacon. As a boy Patrick was captured in a Pictish raid and sold as a slave in Ireland. He escaped to Gaul, where he probably studied in the monastery of Lerins before returning to Britain.
[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 17th Edition]
@BenCotterill @Binder Now I want to learn more about what "excesses caused the pilgrimage to be banned and the cave blocked up by order of the pope on St Patrick's Day in 1497."
@BenCotterill @Binder the Wikipedia entry says it might have been a sweat lodge, but the cave has been sealed up since 1632 and never excavated. The references lead to one heck of a rabbit hole.
https://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/sweathouses.htm
Pay no attention to Satan in the groin!
@BenCotterill @Binder a remarkable account of Sir Owen's (Owain's) visit to the cave, as well as other tales about the place
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Curious_Myths_of_the_Middle_Ages_(1876)/S._Patrick%27s_Purgatory
The Knight Owain, who had served under King Stephen, had lived a life of violence and dissolution; but filled with repentance, he sought by way of penance S. Patrick’s Purgatory.
Sir Owain was locked in the cave, and he groped his way onward in darkness, till he reached a glimmering light, and he came out into an underground land, in which men with shaven heads and white garments told him how he was to protect himself against the assaults of evil spirits.
He then visits the different places of torment. In one, the souls are nailed to the ground with glowing hot brazen nails; in another, they are fastened to the soil by their hair, and are bitten by fiery reptiles. In another, again, they are hung over fires by those members which had sinned, whilst others are roasted on spits. In one place were pits in which were molten metals. In these pits were men and women, some up to their chins, others to their breasts...
The knight was pushed by the devils into one of these pits, and was dreadfully scalded, but he cried to the Saviour, and escaped. Then he visited a lake where souls were tormented with great cold; and a river of pitch, which he crossed on a frail and narrow bridge. Beyond this bridge was a wall of glass, in which opened a beautiful gate, which conducted into Paradise.
This place so delighted him that he would fain have remained in it had he been suffered, but he was bidden return to earth and finish there his penitence. He was put into a shorter and pleasanter way back to the cave than that by which he had come; and the prior found the knight next morning at the door, waiting to be let out, and full of his adventures. He afterwards went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and ended his life in piety.