How To Celebrate St. Patrick’s

This March 17th is St. Patrick’s Day. For many it is a time of carousing, drinking, and partying. The meaning of the holiday is lost behind green beer, leprechauns, and pots of gold. The real person, Patricas or Patrick was a Briton who was captured by Irish pirates.  During his captivity he developed a close bond with Christ who led him fo escape and make 200 Mile trek home. But the story did not end there. Patrick was ordained a priest and to chagrin of his more pompous than pious brethren felt a call to go back to the place of his captivity and preach the gospel to the Irish. 

It is important to understand that Patrick was part of the Anglo Church, one that deviated from Roman Rite, as evidenced in this Q and A: 

“Augustine of Canterbury’s third question: Since there is but one faith, why are the uses of Churches so different, one use of Mass being observed in the Roman Church, and another in the Churches of Gaul?

Answer of the blessed pope Gregory: Your Fraternity knows the use of the Roman Church, in which you have been nurtured. But I approve of your selecting carefully anything you have found that may be more pleasing to Almighty God, whether in the Roman Church or that of Gaul, or in any Church whatever, and introducing in the Church of the Angli, which is as yet new in the faith, by a special institution, what you have been able to collect from many Churches. For we ought not to love things for places, but places for things. Wherefore choose from each several Church such things as are pious, religious, and right, and, collecting them as it were into a bundle, plant them in the minds of the Angli for their use.” (From The Eccleiastical History of the English Speaking People, Book I, Chapters 29-33, Bede, Penguin Publishers, or Fathers of the Church, Registrum Epistolarum, Book XI, Letter 64). To this day St. Patrick is not a canonized saint of the Roman Catholic Church, i.e. he does not belong to them. 

When Partrick returned to Ireland he was not welcomed by the pagan King Laeghaire. Partricas carried a knife as he preached the gospel across Ireland, making coverts everywhere, even King Laeghaire was baptized. 

Patrick’s legacy is claimed by Catholics, but as aforementioned he was not canonized formerly, and there is evidence Irish Christians were closer to the Early Church, simple gospel and pure devotion to Christ until the Roman Church arrived to slaughter them. Patrick wrote letters in defiance of the Roman Bishops, making it impossible to canonize him in The Roman Church.  

If Patrick’s missionary work is to be truly honored, I believe he would point us to Christ. He would be embarrassed by a holiday celebrating him, and would instead point to Christ: 

“Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.”

These lines are contained in a longer prayer on St. Patrick’s Breastplate,but it encompasses Patricas focus, which is Christ. If we are to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, let us focus on Christ. Amen.