— On Sun, 3/17/13, Chaplain Thomas G. Cole wrote:

> Subject: A GREAT COMPANY OF PRIEST OBEDIENT TO THE FAITH: ONCE DELIVERED UNTO THE SAINTS!!!!!!!

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> Saint Patrick (Latin: Patricius; Proto-Irish: *Qatrikias;[2]
> Modern Irish: Pádraig;[3] Welsh: Padrig;[4] c. 387 – 17
> March c. 460[5] or c. 492[6]) was a Romano-British Christian
> missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the ”Apostle of
> Ireland”, he is the primary patron saint of the island along
> with Saints Brigid and Columba.
>
> Two authentic letters from him survive, from which come the
> only generally accepted details of his life.[7] When he was
> about 16, he was captured from his home and taken as a slave
> to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and
> returning to his family. After becoming a cleric, he
> returned to northern and western Ireland as an ordained
> bishop, but little is known about the places where he
> worked. By the seventh century, he had already come to be
> revered as the patron saint of Ireland.
>
> Most available details of his life are from subsequent
> hagiographies, and these are now not accepted without
> detailed criticism. The Annals of Ulster state that he
> arrived in Ireland in 432, ministered in Ulster around 443,
> and died in 457 or 461.[8] The text, however, distinguishes
> between ”Old Patrick”[9] and ”Patrick, archapostle of the
> Scots,”[10] who died in 492.[8] The actual dates of
> Patrick’s life cannot be fixed with certainty but, on a
> widespread interpretation, he was active as a missionary in
> Ireland during the second half of the 5th century.[11] He is
> generally credited with being the first bishop of Armagh,
> Primate of All Ireland.
>
> Saint Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17, the date of his
> death.[12] It is celebrated both inside and outside Ireland,
> as both a liturgical and non-liturgical holiday. In the
> dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day
> of obligation; outside Ireland, it can be a celebration of
> Ireland itself.
> Background
>
> Most modern scholars of Saint Patrick follow a variant of T.
> F. O’Rahilly’s ”Two Patricks” theory.[13] That is to say,
> many of the traditions later attached to Saint Patrick
> actually concerned Palladius, who Prosper of Aquitaine’s
> Chronicle says was sent by Pope Celestine I as the first
> bishop to Irish Christians in 431. Palladius was not the
> only early cleric in Ireland at this time. The Irish-born
> Saint Ciaran Saighir the Elder lived in the later fourth
> century (352–402 AD) and was the first bishop of Ossory.
> Ciaran the Elder along with Saints Auxilius, Secundinus and
> Iserninus are also associated with early churches in Munster
> and Leinster. By this reading, Palladius was active in
> Ireland until the 460s.[14]
>
> Prosper associates Palladius’ appointment with the visits of
> Germanus of Auxerre to Britain to suppress the Pelagian
> heresy and it has been suggested that Palladius and his
> colleagues were sent to Ireland to ensure that exiled
> Pelagians did not establish themselves among the Irish
> Christians. The appointment of Palladius and his
> fellow-bishops was not obviously a mission to convert the
> Irish, but more probably intended to minister to existing
> Christian communities in Ireland.[15] The sites of churches
> associated with Palladius and his colleagues are close to
> royal centres of the period: Secundus is remembered by
> Dunshaughlin, County Meath, close to the Hill of Tara which
> is associated with the High King of Ireland; Killashee,
> County Kildare, close to Naas with links with the Kings of
> Leinster, is probably named for Auxilius. This activity was
> limited to the southern half of Ireland, and there is no
> evidence for them in Ulster or Connacht.[16]
>
> Although the evidence for contacts with Gaul is clear, the
> borrowings from Latin into the Old Irish language show that
> links with Roman Britain were many.[17] Saint Iserninus, who
> appears to be of the generation of Palladius, is thought to
> have been a Briton, and is associated with the lands of the
> Uí Cheinnselaig in Leinster. The Palladian mission should
> not be contrasted with later ”British” missions, but forms a
> part of them;[18] nor can the work of Palladius be
> uncritically equated with that of Saint Patrick, as was once
> traditional.[19]
> Saint Patrick’s own words
> Slemish, County Antrim, where Saint Patrick is said to have
> worked as a shepherd while a slave.
>
> Two Latin letters survive which are generally accepted to
> have been written by St. Patrick. These are the Declaration
> (Latin: Confessio) and the Letter to the soldiers of
> Coroticus (Latin: Epistola).[20] The Declaration is the more
> important of the two. In it Patrick gives a short account of
> his life and his mission.
>
> St. Patrick was born in Roman Britain at Banna Venta
> Berniae, a location otherwise unknown,[21][22][23] though
> identified in one tradition as Glannoventa, modern
> Ravenglass in Cumbria.[24][25][26] Calpornius, his father,
> was a deacon, his grandfather Potitus, a priest. When he was
> about sixteen, he was captured and carried off as a slave to
> Ireland.[27] Patrick worked as a herdsman, remaining a
> captive for six years. He writes that his faith grew in
> captivity, and that he prayed daily.[28] After six years he
> heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home, and
> then that his ship was ready. Fleeing his master, he
> travelled to a port, two hundred miles away,[29] where he
> found a ship and, after various adventures, returned home to
> his family, now in his early twenties.[30]
>
> Patrick recounts that he had a vision a few years after
> returning home:
>
> I saw a man coming, as it were from Ireland.
> His name was Victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he
> gave me one of them. I read the heading: ”The Voice of the
> Irish”. As I began the letter, I imagined in that moment
> that I heard the voice of those very people who were near
> the wood of Foclut, which is beside the western sea—and
> they cried out, as with one voice: ”We appeal to you, holy
> servant boy, to come and walk among us.” [31]
>
> A. B. E. Hood suggests that the Victoricus of St. Patrick’s
> vision may be identified with Saint Victricius, bishop of
> Rouen in the late fourth century, who had visited Britain in
> an official capacity in 396.[32]
>
> Much of the Declaration concerns charges made against St.
> Patrick by his fellow Christians at a trial. What these
> charges were, he does not say explicitly, but he writes that
> he returned the gifts which wealthy women gave him, did not
> accept payment for baptisms, nor for ordaining priests, and
> indeed paid for many gifts to kings and judges, and paid for
> the sons of chiefs to accompany him. It is concluded,
> therefore, that he was accused of some sort of financial
> impropriety, and perhaps of having obtained his bishopric in
> Ireland with personal gain in mind.[33]
>
> From this same evidence, something can be seen of St.
> Patrick’s mission. He writes that he ”baptised thousands of
> people”.[34] He ordained priests to lead the new Christian
> communities. He converted wealthy women, some of whom became
> nuns in the face of family opposition. He also dealt with
> the sons of kings, converting them too.[35]
>
> St. Patrick’s position as a foreigner in Ireland was not an
> easy one. His refusal to accept gifts from kings placed him
> outside the normal ties of kinship, fosterage and affinity.
> Legally he was without protection, and he says that he was
> on one occasion beaten, robbed of all he had, and put in
> chains, perhaps awaiting execution.[36]
>
> Murchiú’s life of Saint Patrick contains a supposed
> prophecy by the druids which gives an impression of how
> Patrick and other Christian missionaries were seen by those
> hostile to them:
>
> Across the sea will come Adze-head,[37] crazed
> in the head,
> his cloak with hole for the head, his stick
> bent in the head.
> He will chant impieties from a table in the
> front of his house;
> all his people will answer: ”so be it, so be
> it.”[38]
>
> The second piece of evidence that comes from Patrick’s life
> is the Letter to Coroticus or Letter to the Soldiers of
> Coroticus, written after a first remonstrance was received
> with ridicule and insult. In this, St. Patrick writes[39] an
> open letter announcing that he has excommunicated Coroticus
> because he had taken some of St. Patrick’s converts into
> slavery while raiding in Ireland. The letter describes the
> followers of Coroticus as ”fellow citizens of the devils”
> and ”associates of the Scots [of Dalriada and later Argyll]
> and Apostate Picts”.[40] Based largely on an eighth century
> gloss, Coroticus is taken to be King Ceretic of Alt
> Clut.[41] Thompson however proposed that based on the
> evidence it is more likely that Coroticus was a British
> Roman living in Ireland.[42] It has been suggested that it
> was the sending of this letter which provoked the trial
> which Patrick mentions in the Confession.[43]
> Death
>
> According to the latest reconstruction of the old Irish
> annals, Patrick died in AD 460 on March 17, a date accepted
> by some modern historians.[44] Prior to the 1940s it was
> believed without doubt that he died in 420 and thus had
> lived in the first half of the fifth century.[45] A lecture
> entitled ”The Two Patricks”, published in 1942 by T. F.
> O’Rahilly, caused enormous controversy by proposing that
> there had been two ”Patricks”, Palladius and Patrick, and
> that what we now know of St. Patrick was in fact in part a
> conscious effort to blend the two into one hagiographic
> personality. Decades of contention eventually ended with
> most historians[who?] now asserting that Patrick was indeed
> most likely to have been active in the latter half of the
> fifth century.[46]
>
> While Patrick’s own writings contain no dates, they do
> contain information which can be used to date them.
> Patrick’s quotations from the Acts of the Apostles follow
> the Vulgate, strongly suggesting that his ecclesiastical
> conversion did not take place before the early fifth
> century. Patrick also refers to the Franks as being pagans.
> Their conversion is dated to the period 496–508.[47]
>
> There is plentiful evidence for a medieval tradition that
> Patrick had died in 493. An addition to the Annals of Ulster
> states that in the year 553 (approximately two hundred and
> fifty years before the addition was made):
>
> I have found this in the Book of Cuanu: The
> relics of Patrick were placed sixty years after his death in
> a shrine by Colum Cille. Three splendid halidoms were found
> in the burial-place: his goblet, the Angel’s Gospel, and the
> Bell of the Testament. This is how the angel distributed the
> halidoms: the goblet to Dún, the Bell of the Testament to
> Ard Macha, and the Angel’s Gospel to Colum Cille himself.
> The reason it is called the Angel’s Gospel is that Colum
> Cille received it from the hand of the angel.[48]
>
> The reputed burial place of St. Patrick in Downpatrick
>
> The placing of this event in the year 553 indicate a
> tradition that Patrick’s death was 493, or at least in the
> early years of that decade, and the Annals of Ulster report
> under 493:
>
> Patrick, arch-apostle, or archbishop and
> apostle of the Irish, rested on the 16th of the Kalends of
> April in the 120th year of his age, in the 60th year after
> he had come to Ireland to baptise the Irish.
>
> This tradition is also seen in an annalistic reference to
> the death of a saint termed Patrick’s disciple, Mochta, who
> is said to have died in 535.[49]
>
> According to the Annals of the Four Masters, an early-modern
> compilation of earlier annals, his corpse soon became an
> object of conflict in the Battle for the Body of St.
> Patrick.
> Seventh-century writings
>
> An early document which is silent concerning Patrick is the
> letter of Columbanus to Pope Boniface IV of about 613.
> Columbanus writes that Ireland’s Christianity ”was first
> handed to us by you, the successors of the holy apostles”,
> apparently referring to Palladius only, and ignoring
> Patrick.[50] Writing on the Easter controversy in 632 or
> 633, Cummian—it is uncertain whether this is the Cummian
> associated with Clonfert or Cumméne of Iona—does refer to
> Patrick, calling him our papa, that is pope or primate.[51]
>
> Two works by late seventh-century hagiographers of Patrick
> have survived. These are the writings of Tírechán, and
> Vita sancti Patricii of Muirchu moccu Machtheni.[52] Both
> writers relied upon an earlier work, now lost, the Book of
> Ultán.[53] This Ultán, probably the same person as Ultan
> of Ardbraccan, was Tírechán’s foster-father. His obituary
> is given in the Annals of Ulster under the year 657.[54]
> These works thus date from a century and a half after
> Patrick’s death.
>
> Tírechán writes
>
> ”I found four names for Patrick written in the
> book of Ultán, bishop of the tribe of Conchobar: holy
> Magonus (that is, ”famous”); Succetus (that is, the god of
> war); Patricius (that is, father of the citizens);
> Cothirtiacus (because he served four houses of
> druids).”[55]
>
> Muirchu records much the same information, adding that
> ”[h]is mother was named Concessa.”[56] The name
> Cothirtiacus, however, is simply the Latinized form of Old
> Irish Cothraige, which is the Q-Celtic form of Latin
> Patricius.[57]
>
> The Patrick portrayed by Tírechán and Muirchu is a martial
> figure, who contests with druids, overthrows pagan idols,
> and curses kings and kingdoms.[58] On occasion, their
> accounts contradict Patrick’s own writings: Tírechán
> states that Patrick accepted gifts from female converts
> although Patrick himself flatly denies this. However, the
> emphasis Tírechán and Muirchu placed on female converts,
> and in particular royal and noble women who became nuns, is
> thought to be a genuine insight into Patrick’s work of
> conversion. Patrick also worked with the unfree and the
> poor, encouraging them to vows of monastic chastity.
> Tírechán’s account suggests that many early Patrician
> churches were combined with nunneries founded by Patrick’s
> noble female converts.[59]
>
> The martial Patrick found in Tírechán and Muirchu, and in
> later accounts, echoes similar figures found during the
> conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity. It may be
> doubted whether such accounts are an accurate representation
> of Patrick’s time, although such violent events may well
> have occurred as Christians gained in strength and
> numbers.[60]
>
> Much of the detail supplied by Tírechán and Muirchu, in
> particular the churches established by Patrick, and the
> monasteries founded by his converts, may relate to the
> situation in the seventh century, when the churches which
> claimed ties to Patrick, and in particular Armagh, were
> expanding their influence throughout Ireland in competition
> with the church of Kildare. In the same period, Wilfred,
> Archbishop of York, claimed to speak, as metropolitan
> archbishop, ”for all the northern part of Britain and of
> Ireland” at a council held in Rome in the time of Pope
> Agatho, thus claiming jurisdiction over the Irish
> church.[61]
>
> Other presumed early materials include the Irish annals,
> which contain records from the Chronicle of Ireland. These
> sources have conflated Palladius and Patrick.[62] Another
> early document is the so-called First Synod of Saint
> Patrick. This is a seventh-century document, once, but no
> longer, taken as to contain a 5th century original text. It
> apparently collects the results of several early synods, and
> represents an era when pagans were still a major force in
> Ireland. The introduction attributes it to Patrick,
> Auxilius, and Iserninus, a claim which ”cannot be taken at
> face value.”[63]
> Symbols and legends
> St. Patrick uses shamrock in an illustrative parable
> St. Patrick depicted with shamrock in detail of stained
> glass window in St. Benin’s Church, Kilbennan, County
> Galway, Ireland
>
> Legend (dating to 1726, according to the OED) credits St.
> Patrick with teaching the Irish about the doctrine of the
> Holy Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leafed
> plant, using it to illustrate the Christian teaching of
> three persons in one God.[64] For this reason, shamrocks are
> a central symbol for St Patrick’s Day.
>
> The shamrock had been seen as sacred in the pre-Christian
> days in Ireland. Due to its green color and overall shape,
> many viewed it as representing rebirth and eternal life.
> Three was a sacred number in the pagan religion and there
> were a number of ”Triple Goddesses” in ancient Ireland,
> including Brigid, Ériu, and the Morrigan.
> St. Patrick banishes all snakes from Ireland
>
> The absence of snakes in Ireland gave rise to the legend
> that they had all been banished by St. Patrick. [65] chasing
> them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day
> fast he was undertaking on top of a hill.[66] This
> hagiographic theme draws on the mythography of the staff of
> the prophet Moses. In Exodus 7:8–7:13 , Moses and Aaron
> use their staffs in their struggle with Pharaoh’s sorcerers,
> the staffs of each side morphing into snakes. Aaron’s
> snake-staff prevails by consuming the other snakes.[67]
>
> However, all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland
> never had snakes, as on insular ”New Zealand, Iceland,
> Greenland and Antarctica… So far, no serpent has
> successfully migrated across the open ocean to a new
> terrestrial home” such as from Scotland at one point only
> eight miles from Ireland, where a few native species have
> lived, ”the venomous adder, the grass snake, and the smooth
> snake”, as National Geographic notes,[68] and although sea
> snake species separately exist.[66][69] ”At no time has
> there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so
> [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish”, says
> naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the
> National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched
> extensively through Irish fossil collections and
> records.[66]
>
> The only biological candidate species for appearing like a
> native snake in Ireland is the slow worm, actually a legless
> lizard, a non-native species more recently found in The
> Burren region of County Clare as recorded since the early
> 1970s, as noted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service
> of Ireland, which suspects it was deliberately introduced in
> the 1960s. So far, the slow worm’s territory in the wild has
> not spread beyond the Burren’s limestone region which is
> rich in wildlife.[68]
>
> One suggestion, by fiction author Betty Rhodes, is that
> ”snakes” referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids[70]
> during that time and place, as evinced on coins minted in
> Gaul. Chris Weigant connects ”big tattoos of snakes” on
> Druids’ arms as ”Irish schoolchildren are taught” with the
> way in which, in the legend of St. Patrick banishing snakes;
> the ”story goes to the core of Patrick’s sainthood and his
> core mission in Ireland.”[71]
> St. Patrick’s crosses
> Main article: List of Saint Patrick’s Crosses
>
> There are two main types of crosses associated with St.
> Patrick, the cross pattée and the saltire. The cross
> pattée is the more traditional association, while the
> association with the saltire dates from 1783 and the Order
> of St. Patrick.
> Logo of Down District Council showing the cross pattée
>
> The cross pattée has long been associated with St. Patrick,
> for reasons that are uncertain. One possible reason is that
> bishops’ mitres in Ecclesiastical heraldry often appear
> surmounted by a cross pattée. [72][73] An example of this
> can be seen on the old crest of the Brothers of St. Patrick.
> [74] As St. Patrick was the founding bishop of the Irish
> church, the symbol may have become associated with him. St.
> Patrick is traditionally portrayed in the vestments of a
> bishop, and his mitre and garments are often decorated with
> a cross pattée. [75][76][77] [78] [79]
>
> The cross pattée retains its link to St. Patrick to the
> present day. For example,it appears on the coat of arms of
> both the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh[80] and the
> Church of Ireland Archdiocese of Armagh. [81] This is on
> account of St. Patrick being regarded as the first bishop of
> the Diocese of Armagh. It is also used by Down District
> Council which has its headquarters in Downpatrick, the
> reputed burial place at St. Patrick.
>
> Saint Patrick’s Saltire is a red saltire on a white field.
> It is used in the insignia of the Order of Saint Patrick,
> established in 1783, and after the Acts of Union 1800 it was
> combined with the Saint George’s Cross of England and the
> Saint Andrew’s Cross of Scotland to form the Union Flag of
> the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. A saltire
> was intermittently used as a symbol of Ireland from the
> seventeenth century, but without reference to Saint
> Patrick.
> Photograph of eight home-made badges composed of variously
> coloured crosses and saltires.
> Traditional St. Patrick’s Day badges from the early 20th
> century, from the Museum of Country Life, Castlebar.
>
> It was formerly a common custom to wear a cross made of
> paper or ribbon on St Patrick’s Day. Surviving examples of
> such badges come in many colours[82] and they were worn
> upright rather than as saltires.[83]
>
> Thomas Dinely, an English traveller in Ireland in 1681,
> remarked that ”the Irish of all stations and condicõns were
> crosses in their hatts, some of pins, some of green
> ribbon.”[84] Jonathan Swift, writing to ”Stella” of Saint
> Patrick’s Day 1713, said ”the Mall was so full of crosses
> that I thought all the world was Irish”.[85] In the 1740s,
> the badges pinned were multicoloured interlaced fabric.[86]
> In the 1820s, they were only worn by children, with simple
> multicoloured daisy patterns.[86][87] In the 1890s, they
> were almost extinct, and a simple green Greek cross
> inscribed in a circle of paper (similar to the Ballina crest
> pictured).[88] The Irish Times in 1935 reported they were
> still sold in poorer parts of Dublin, but fewer than those
> of previous years ”some in velvet or embroidered silk or
> poplin, with the gold paper cross entwined with shamrocks
> and ribbons”.[89]
> St. Patrick’s walking stick grows into a living tree
>
> Some Irish legends involve the Oilliphéist, the Caoránach,
> and the Copóg Phádraig. During his evangelising journey
> back to Ireland from his parent’s home at Birdoswald, he is
> understood to have carried with him an ash wood walking
> stick or staff. He thrust this stick into the ground
> wherever he was evangelising and at the place now known as
> Aspatria (ash of Patrick) the message of the dogma took so
> long to get through to the people there that the stick had
> taken root by the time he was ready to move on.
> St. Patrick speaks with ancient Irish ancestors
>
> The 12th century work Acallam na Senórach tells of Patrick
> being met by two ancient warriors, Caílte mac Rónáin and
> Oisín, during his evangelical travels. The two were once
> members of Fionn mac Cumhaill’s warrior band the Fianna, and
> somehow survived to Patrick’s time. In the work St. Patrick
> seeks to convert the warriors to Christianity, while they
> defend their pagan past. The heroic pagan lifestyle of the
> warriors, of fighting and feasting and living close to
> nature, is contrasted with the more peaceful, but unheroic
> and non-sensual life offered by Christianity.
> Saint Patrick’s Bell
> The Shrine of St. Patrick’s Bell
>
> The National Museum of Ireland in Dublin possesses a bell
> first mentioned, according to the Annals of Ulster, in the
> Book of Cuanu in the year 552. The bell was part of a
> collection of ”relics of Patrick” removed from his tomb
> sixty years after his death by Colum Cille to be used as
> relics. The bell is described as ”The Bell of the
> Testament”, one of three relics of ”precious minna”
> (extremely valuable items), of which the other two are
> described as Patrick’s goblet and ”The Angels Gospel”. Colum
> Cille is described to have been under the direction of an
> ”Angel” for whom he sent the goblet to Down, the bell to
> Armagh, and kept possession of the Angel’s Gospel for
> himself. The name Angels Gospel is given to the book because
> it was supposed that Colum Cille received it from the
> angel’s hand. A stir was caused in 1044 when two kings, in
> some dispute over the bell, went on spates of prisoner
> taking and cattle theft. The annals make one more apparent
> reference
> to the bell when chronicling a death, of 1356, ”Solomon Ua
> Mellain, The Keeper of The Bell of the Testament, protector,
> rested in Christ.”
>
> The bell was encased in a ”bell shrine”, a distinctive Irish
> type of reliquary made for it, as an inscription records, by
> King Domnall Ua Lochlainn sometime between 1091 and 1105.
> The shrine is an important example of the final,
> Viking-influenced, style of Irish Celtic art, with intricate
> Urnes style decoration in gold and silver. The Gaelic
> inscription on the shrine also records the name of the maker
> ”U INMAINEN” (which translates to ”Noonan”), ”who with his
> sons enriched/decorated it”; metalwork was often inscribed
> for remembrance.
>
> The bell itself is simple in design, hammered into shape
> with a small handle fixed to the top with rivets. Originally
> forged from iron, it has since been coated in bronze. The
> shrine is inscribed with three names, including King Domnall
> Ua Lochlainn’s. The rear of the shrine, not intended to be
> seen, is decorated with crosses while the handle is
> decorated with, among other work, Celtic designs of birds.
> The bell is accredited with working a miracle in 1044 and
> having been coated in bronze to shield it from human eyes,
> for which it would be too holy. It measures 12.5 × 10 cm at
> the base, 12.8 × 4 cm at the shoulder, 16.5 cm from base to
> shoulder, 3.3 cm from shoulder to top of handle and weighs
> 1.7 kg.[90]
> St. Patrick and Irish Identity
>
> St. Patrick features in many stories in the Irish oral
> tradition and there are many customs connected with his
> feast day. The folklorist Jenny Butler[91] discusses how
> these traditions have been given new layers of meaning over
> time while also becoming tied to Irish identity both in
> Ireland and abroad. The symbolic resonance of the St.
> Patrick figure is complex and multifaceted, stretching from
> that of Christianity’s arrival in Ireland to an identity
> that encompasses everything Irish. In some portrayals, the
> saint is symbolically synonymous with the Christian religion
> itself. There is also evidence of a combination of
> indigenous religious traditions with that of Christianity,
> which places St Patrick in the wider framework of cultural
> hybridity. Popular religious expression has this
> characteristic feature of merging elements of culture. Later
> in time, the saint becomes associated specifically with
> Catholic Ireland and synonymously with Irish national
> identity. Subsequently, St. Patrick is a patriotic symbol
> along with the colour green and the shamrock. St. Patrick’s
> Day celebrations include many traditions that are known to
> be relatively recent historically, but have endured through
> time because of their association either with religious or
> national identity. They have persisted in such a way that
> they have become stalwart traditions, viewed as the
> strongest ”Irish traditions”.
> Sainthood and modern remembrance
> The neo-gothic St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, as
> seen from Rockefeller Center.
>
> March 17, popularly known as St. Patrick’s Day, is believed
> to be his death date and is the date celebrated as his feast
> day.[92] The day became a feast day in the universal church
> due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan
> scholar Luke Wadding, as a member of the commission for the
> reform of the Breviary[93] in the early part of the 17th
> century.
>
> For most of Christianity’s first thousand years,
> canonisations were done on the diocesan or regional level.
> Relatively soon after the death of people considered very
> holy, the local Church affirmed that they could be
> liturgically celebrated as saints. As a result, St. Patrick
> has never been formally canonised by a Pope; nevertheless,
> various Christian churches declare that he is a Saint in
> Heaven (he is in the List of Saints). He is still widely
> venerated in Ireland and elsewhere today.[94]
>
> St. Patrick is honored with a feast day on the liturgical
> calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) and with a
> commemoration on the calendar of Evangelical Lutheran
> Worship, both on March 17. St. Patrick is also venerated in
> the Orthodox Church, especially among English-speaking
> Orthodox Christians living in Ireland, the UK and in the
> USA.[95] There are Orthodox icons dedicated to him.[96]
>
> St. Patrick is said to be buried at Down Cathedral in
> Downpatrick, County Down, alongside St. Brigid and St.
> Columba, although this has never been proven. Saint Patrick
> Visitor Centre is a modern exhibition complex located in
> Downpatrick and is a permanent interpretative exhibition
> centre featuring interactive displays on the life and story
> of Saint Patrick. It provides the only permanent exhibition
> centre in the world devoted to Saint Patrick.[97]
> Places associated with Saint Patrick
> Slemish, County Antrim
> St Patrick’s statue at Saul, County Down
> St Patrick’s Oratory at the top of Croagh Patrick, County
> Mayo
>
> Slemish, County Antrim and Killala Bay, County
> Mayo
>
> When captured by raiders, there are two
> theories as to where Patrick was enslaved. One theory is
> that he herded sheep in the countryside around Slemish.
> Another theory is that Patrick herded sheep near Killala
> Bay, at a place called Fochill.
>
> Saul, County Down (from Irish: Sabhall
> Phádraig, meaning ”Patrick’s barn”)[98]
>
> It is claimed that Patrick founded his first
> church in a barn at Saul, which was donated to him by a
> local chieftain called Dichu. It is also claimed that
> Patrick died at Saul or was brought there between his death
> and burial. Nearby, on the crest of Slieve Patrick, is a
> huge statue of Saint Patrick with bronze panels showing
> scenes from his life.
>
> Hill of Slane, County Meath
>
> Muirchu moccu Machtheni, in his highly
> mythologized 7th century Life of Patrick, says that Patrick
> lit a Paschal fire on this hilltop in 433 CE in defiance of
> High King Laoire. The story says that the fire could not be
> doused by anyone but Patrick, and it was here that he
> explained the holy trinity using the shamrock.
>
> Croagh Patrick, County Mayo (from Irish:
> Cruach Phádraig, meaning ”Patrick’s stack”)[99]
>
> It is claimed that Patrick climbed this
> mountain and fasted on its summit for the forty days of
> Lent. Croagh Patrick draws thousands of pilgrims who make
> the trek to the top on the last Sunday in July.
>
> Lough Derg, County Donegal (from Irish: Loch
> Dearg, meaning ”red lake”)[100]
>
> It is claimed that Patrick killed a large
> serpent on this lake and that its blood turned the water red
> (hence the name). Each August, pilgrims spend three days
> fasting and praying there on Station Island.
>
> Armagh, County Armagh
>
> It is claimed that Patrick founded a church
> here and proclaimed it to be the most holy church in
> Ireland. Armagh is today the primary seat of both the
> Catholic and Protestant Churches in Ireland and both
> cathedrals in the town are named after Patrick.
>
> Downpatrick, County Down (from Irish: Dún
> Pádraig, meaning ”Patrick’s stronghold”)[101]
>
> It is claimed that Patrick was brought here
> after his death and buried in the grounds of Down
> Cathedral.
>
> Other places named after Saint Patrick include:
>
> Ardpatrick, County Limerick (from Irish: Ard
> Pádraig, meaning ”high place of Patrick”)[102]
> Patrickswell or Toberpatrick, County Limerick
> (from Irish: Tobar Phádraig, meaning ”Patrick’s
> well”)[103]
> St Patrick’s Chapel, Heysham
> St Patrick’s Island, County Dublin
> Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, Scotland from
> ”Cill Phàdraig,” Patrick’s Church, a claimant to his
> birthplace
> St Patrick’s Isle, off the Isle of Man
> St. Patricks, Newfoundland and Labrador, a
> community in the Baie Verte district of Newfoundland
> Llanbadrig (church), Ynys Badrig (island),
> Porth Padrig (cove), Llyn Padrig (lake), and Rhosbadrig
> (heath) on the island of Anglesey in Wales
> Templepatrick, County Antrim (from Irish:
> Teampall Phádraig, meaning ”Patrick’s church”)[104]
> St Patrick’s Hill, Liverpool, on old maps of
> the town near to the former location of ”St Patrick’s
> Cross”[105]
>
> In literature
>
> Robert Southey wrote a ballad called Saint
> Patrick’s Purgatory, based on popular legends surrounding
> the saint’s name.
>
> Stephen R. Lawhead wrote the fictional
> Patrick: Son of Ireland based on the life of the celebrated
> Saint.[106]
>
>