"'You tell us that there are three gods and yet one,' the puzzled Irish said when St. Patrick was preaching the gospel to them in the 5th century AD. 'How can that be?' The saint bent down and plucked a shamrock. 'Do you not see,' he said, 'how in this wildflower three leaves are united on one stalk, and will you not then believe that there are indeed three persons and yet one God?'
Thus according to Irish legend, Ireland's patron saint chose the shamrock as a symbol of the Trinity of the Christian church. To this day the shamrock remains the national emblem of Ireland and is won proudly by Irish people the world over on
St. Patrick's Day (March 17)."
Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
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