St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland
THE
feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, is celebrated each year on March 17. The day recalls the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, celebrates that country’s heritage and culture, and honors the saint’s life and work. There will be parades, streets dancing, special food, church service, and wearing of green attire and of the shamrock, the national flower of Ireland. St. Patrick’s is believed to have used the shamrock, a three-leaf plant, to teach the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans.
Many Catholic places of worship, including cathedrals in New York City and Dublin, and small boys are named after Patrick. A popular festival, St. Patrick’s Day is held in cities in Britain, Switzerland, Russia, Canada, Argentina, Malaysia, Japan, United States, and South Korea. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish around the globe.
St. Patrick’s feast day was placed on the universal liturgical calendar due to the influence of Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in early 1600s, when it became a holy day of obligation for Irish Catholics and feast day in the Church of Ireland. In 1903, it became an official public holiday in Ireland. The first Saint Patrick’s Day parade was held in Dublin in 1931.
The first St. Patrick’s Festival was held on March 17, 1996, and it grew in scope and participation in succeeding years. The 2009 five-day festival saw close to one million visitors, who took part in concerts, outdoor theater performances, and dancing.
Accounts of St. Patrick’s life come from his great works – Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, Epistola, a denunciation of mistreatment of Irish Christians, and Declaration. His writings said he was born in the late fourth century to a wealthy Romano-British family. His father was a deacon and his grandfather a priest. At 16, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland. He worked for six years as a shepherd and it was during this time that he “found God.’’ The Declaration tells that God told Patrick to flee to the coast, where a ship would take him home. After making his way home, Patrick went on to become a priest. He is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pegan rites. He converted the warrior chiefs and princes, baptizing them and thousands of their subjects in the “Holy Wells” that still bear this name. The Dublin cathedral stands adjacent to the famous well.
St. Patrick is believed to have died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on March 17, 460 A.D. His jawbone was preserved in a silver shrine and was invoked during childbirth and epileptic fits.