Forget everything you thought you knew about St. Patrick: Marty Scorsese is here to set the record straight.
On the season two premiere episode of Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints on streaming service Fox Nation, Scorsese and director Matti Leshem dispel all that stuff about snakes and green beer. They get right down to the real reasons Patrick was canonized — he was just a good dude.
“The snakes are a complete myth — since the last ice age, there have been no snakes in Ireland,” Leshem scolded The Hollywood Reporter. “The snakes are a symbol of paganism, and in our episode, the pagans play a big part, so we didn’t need snakes. We have pagans and some ultimately are converted.”
Geez, guy, relax — I’m just playing. (We’re still playing: Leshem wasn’t actually reprimanding me. I don’t think.)
In press notes first shared with THR, Scorsese calls Patrick “probably the best known of the saints,” though that’s mostly due to the drinking holiday.
Saint Patrick’s “story is far less known nowadays,” Scorsese says. “For starters, he wasn’t born in Ireland, or Hibernia, as it was called at the time. He was from Roman Britain, and he was abducted by Gaels and taken to Hibernia to work as a slave.”
“In his confession, he writes something so moving, that he found God in the land of his captivity, where he was forced to work as a shepherd. When he finally escaped, returned to his family in Britain, he no longer felt at home. He longed to return and to spread the faith,” Marty (we’re pals — it’s cool) continues. “Now, we invented a few elements which is something we always have to do because we’re telling stories with these films. And whenever we do invent something, we do it in the spirit of bringing the mystery of faith closer and making it more present and vivid.”
Watch the Saint Patrick episode’s trailer, which is exclusive to THR, below:
