St. Patrick’s day is fast approaching with it being this Friday and because St. Xavier is an Irish Catholic university, this holiday is particularly associated with the university.
The first St. Patrick’s day took place on March 17th, 1631, and serves to honor the death of St. Patrick, who was a patron saint of Ireland and was born around 385 A.D.
Originally, the holiday was celebrated with religious feasts that were intended to honor the works of St. Patrick and how his work to spread Christianity influenced the country.
Perhaps the most significant accomplishment attributed to St. Patrick is his being a missionary and spreading Christianity to Ireland.
Despite common belief, he was not born in Ireland but instead in Roman Britain.
He was forced to come to Ireland after a band of Irish pirates kidnapped him when he was around sixteen years old.
It was during this time of captivity that he grew to have a love for the Christian faith and it was the thing that gave him hope during those challenging years of his life. For more information, click here.
After his servitude and capture, St. Patrick was able to return to his home country and reunited with his family.
Despite Ireland being the land where he was held captive, he made his way back there around 433 A.D. in the hopes of spreading his faith to parts of Ireland that were not familiar with it.
Some of the misconceptions that have been disproved about St. Patrick’s life include his driving out the snakes of Ireland to the sea, which is just a myth associated with him, he did not wear green as one would think but wore sky blue, and that he was the first person to bring Christianity to Ireland, despite the first recorded missionary in Ireland was Palladius.
Additionally, while the shamrock is one of the symbols that are associated with St. Patrick’s day, the original story behind it is that it was used by St. Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity to the Celtic people. To learn more about this story, click here.
As well as St. Patrick being a visual representation of St. Patrick’s day, the folklore of leprechauns has also been associated with the holiday. Leprechauns are a type of fairy that is known to be irritable and untrustworthy to ensure that no one who captures them will take away their gold.
When the holiday made its way to the United States around 1600, it became less of a religious observance and more of a cultural celebration of Irish culture.
In the present day, people of all cultures can celebrate the holiday by going to parades, indulging in Irish foods and drinks, and wearing green.
It has been said that the idea of having St. Patrick’s day parades stemmed from Irish soldiers belonging to the British army marching in New York City on March 17th, 1772 to honor St. Patrick. For more elaboration on these events, click here.
The first St. Patrick’s day parade in Chicago took place downtown in 1843.
The practice of dying the Chicago river green began in 1962 when to trace the sewage present in the lake, pollution workers used green dye to accomplish this and have a fun way to celebrate the holiday.
To learn more about the history and evolution of St. Patrick’s day and the life of St. Patrick, you can view the articles “The Evolution of St. Patrick’s Day-Why we Celebrate”, “Who was St. Patrick?”, and “How to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day the Authentic Way’”.
Kateri Golbiw, the Director of Campus Ministry, stated that “everyone is Irish in the US on St. Patrick’s feast day”.
Saint Xavier University was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1846.
The Sisters of Mercy, who were founded by Catherine McAuley in 1831, had their humble beginnings in Dublin, Ireland.
While they grew, they spread their mission of Dignity, Excellence, Justice, Service. and Stewardship. They continued to spread this mission across Ireland and into the United States, under the supervision of Catherine McAuley.