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St. Patrick Was Beloved by Many — But Not by His BishopsIn Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day has traditionally been a religious occasion beginning with Mass. Shops and businesses (excepting restaurants and pubs) were all shut down on that day. During the 1990s however, the Irish government began to take advantage of the opportunity to bring in tourism. Cities and towns throughout Ireland now host parades, sporting events, parades, concerts, fireworks and theater productions on St. Patrick’s Day.Even those without a drop of Irish blood can celebrate St. Patrick with gusto. After all, he was not Irish either. He was born...

IRELAND — Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, expressed great pride that he was able to bring Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons so their descendants could commemorate it each year by gathering in mobs, get fall-down, hammered drunk, and commit various acts of aggravated assault on each other on March 17. "It really makes all of the hard work and sacrifice all worth it," Patrick said when reached posthumously for comment on the holiday named after him. "I really risked life and limb to preach the gospel to an entire nation populated by bloodthirsty, pagan barbarians. It's a real relief to...

Saint Patrick. The legend, the lore of a great story, the edge of an epic: As a young man Patrick was stolen from his home in Britain by Irish raiders. At age sixteen he was sold into slavery in Ireland to a druid priest. He saw the pagan worship of the Celtic traditions, how when the sun was at its lowest zenith and the moon began to wane in November they would wear masks as they drove their excess cattle, which were sure to starve over winter, over the edge of the cliffs. Meat and Hides and other useful parts...

No matter how they identify the other 364 days of the year, on March 17, everyone within the city limits of Chicago considers himself Chirish.As I followed the shuffling crowd toward the green river, I attempted to avoid getting trampled amid the low-toned shouts from drunken teenagers and leering 40-something couples. I stopped in a clothing shop, to be greeted by a police officer singing “Danny Boy” with a surprisingly smooth vibrato voice. “Ah, welcome! We are all Irish today,” he said.As a native Chicago suburbanite who identifies as a Chicagoan on days like March 17, I say there’s nothing...

As a follow up to my last post (God Within Us), I offer this ancient prayer. Most people are probably familiar with it, and some may very well use it in their daily prayers. It began to appear in Orthodox books of prayer over the past few decades, reflecting a rediscovery of the Orthodox Church in the ancient West. This prayer is known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.” I’ve seen numerous translations. There is one set to music that was popular in the Anglican Church (“I bind unto myself today…”). It was often sung as a processional at ordinations. St. Patrick’s...

Is nothing sacred? Protesters desecrated St. Patrick’s Cathedral with graffiti Saturday, staining stairs and spewing hatred on two walls. The graffiti on one wall on Fifth Avenue and 51st Street read “F–k F–k” in red letters. On an adjacent wall, vandals scrawled “BLM” — for Black Lives Matter — along with “NYPDK” in red letters and “No justice no peace” in black letters.

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

PITTSBURGH -- On Friday, James Coen is folding and unfolding, arranging and rearranging the piles of colorful St. Patrick's Day T-shirts he has displayed on folding tables outside one of the three sports retail stores he owns. The stores are all large historic buildings with big, shiny, planked hardwood floors, all snuggled in a three-block radius between assorted assemblages of late-19th-century buildings along what is affectionately called "The Strip" or "Strip District." No one calls him by his given name. He is "Jimmy Yinzer," the unofficial mayor of the city and purveyor of all things Pittsburgh. He's mostly known for...

... Organizers of the Staten Island parade did not respond to messages seeking comment over the past week. But they have publicly argued in the past that L.G.B.T. groups are not appropriate for a parade dedicated to St. Patrick, who is the patron saint of both Ireland and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. Those arguments are similar to ones made for many years by organizers of the New York City parade, which is preceded each year by a special Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. ... Larry Cummings, the president of the Staten Island parade committee, did not respond...

Last Sunday was St. Patrick's Day here in Ireland, and around the world as well. (Did you know that Patrick is the patron saint of Nigeria? I didn't, until my parish priest here in rural County Clare informed us of that during his homily.) In places like New York and Boston, it's a day to celebrate Irish heritage and to get disgracefully drunk, but not in Ireland, where it's also a national holiday; until the 1960s, it was illegal to sell alcohol on Patrick's Day, as it also was to sell booze on Christmas Day and Good Friday. Further,...

Maewyn Succat did not have an easy time embracing the Faith. Although his father Calpurnius was a deacon, Maewyn indulged a spirited youthful rebellion against what he had been taught, and it was only after being kidnapped by superstitious people called Druids that he realized the difference that Christianity makes in the souls of men and the character of cultures. This was in the fifth century, and Maewyn, probably born in the Cumbria part of England near the Scottish lands, was roughly contemporary with the bishop Augustine in North Africa who watched the decay of the Roman Empire. Maewyn eventually...

St. Patrick, as seen in C.E. Kempe's stained glass in St. John the Baptist parish, Burford, UK. Credit: Lawrence OP via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Washington D.C., Mar 17, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Many know that Saint Patrick, bishop and missionary to Ireland, was once a slave – but few know of his heartfelt plea on behalf of girls and boys abducted into slavery. “The pathos of St. Patrick’s description of the fate of his victims is something I think we can identify with now,” said Jennifer Paxton, a history professor who teaches at Catholic University of America’s...

LONDON -- St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, may well have been a tax collector for the Romans who fled to Ireland where he could have traded slaves to pay his way, according to new research by a University of Cambridge academic published on Saturday. The generally accepted account of the saint's life, albeit based on scant evidence, says Patrick was abducted from western Britain as a teenager and forced into slavery in Ireland for six years during which time he developed a strong Christian faith. Afterwards, the account continues, he escaped his captors and went back to Britain before...

If you ask people who Saint Patrick was, you’re likely to hear that he was an Irishman who chased the snakes out of Ireland. It may surprise you to learn that the real Saint Patrick was not actually Irish—yet his robust faith changed the Emerald Isle forever. Patrick was born in Roman Britain to a middle-class family in about A.D. 390. When Patrick was a teenager, marauding Irish raiders attacked his home. Patrick was captured, taken to Ireland, and sold to an Irish king, who put him to work as a shepherd. In his excellent book, How the Irish Saved...

Who was Saint Patrick? Well, for starters, he wasn't Irish. He was born a Roman (Patricius) during the days when Britain was cut off from the empire immediately before the final collapse of Roman power in the west. Though not born an Irishman himself, Patrick had a deep and abiding love for the Irish and dedicated his life to bringing them to Christianity. Amazingly, two works written by Patrick have come down to us from antiquity. The first is his Confessio, which was written about AD 450 under obscure circumstances. Following is an excerpt from this document, where Patrick tells...

St. Patrick Sparked a Fire The holy patron of our archdiocese was a contemporary of St. Augustine. While Augustine of north Africa became one of the greatest Doctors of the church, Patrick of Roman Britain humbly called himself uneducated, even though he was schooled in France by St. Germaine of Auxerre and possibly St. Martin of Tours, and was given books by Pope St. Celestine I. Patrick, after six youthful years as a slave captured by Irish pirates, embarked upon the conversion of the Druid tribes. He did not chase the snakes out of Ireland because there were none, nor...

I arise today Through the strength of heaven; Light of the sun, Splendor of fire, Speed of lightning, Swiftness of the wind, Depth of the sea, Stability of the earth, Firmness of the rock. I arise today Through God's strength to pilot me; God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me, God's hosts to save me Afar and anear, Alone or in a mulitude. Christ...

"Be Thou My Vision"-Traditional Irish (Celtic)

In 2005 after 38 years of crusading for corporations, I began focusing instead on reinvesting my extensive learning to help combat and crater three grave publicly celebrated evils that cry out to heaven for vengeance: Willful Murder; the Sin of Sodom; and the abuse and enslavement of the poor by Godless government.” Christian cowardice is sinful. Christians are called to be soldiers of Christ in order to become heirs to heaven. Christian soldiers fight against evil. Psalm 97:10 says: “The Lord loves those who hate evil…” What ever happened to the “Fighting Irish”? Why have they been transformed into the...

Since it is Lent, who better to stop by and chat with Brigitte Quinn but his Eminence, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York. Dolan sat down with Quinn, a nice Irish girl (by marriage) he noted, and talked about Lenten sacrifices, St. Patrick’s Day and the parade which is tomorrow. By the way, if you’re wondering if Cardinal Dolan is giving up anything for Lent, he is: Beer! Diet root beer is his substitute. BQ: It was only in 2015 that the first LGBT group marched and you caught a little flack for that. CD: Nooo. We caught quite...