Patron
Saints deserve a very special celebration and where better to be on St.
Patrick's day than in Ireland? While the world may celebrate the feast
of St.
Patrick, there's only one truly green corner of the globe and there are
so many
highlights to Dublin's St. Patrick's Festival, it takes almost a week
to fit
them all in! There are street parties, exhibitions, a fairytale
funfair, a
Ceili, the awesome Skyfest fireworks display, a treasure hunt and of
course,
the world famous parade. Face painters, fire eaters, street performers
and
outdoor concerts make up the spectacular program which will really
guarantee
you have the time of your life. For further details log on to: www.stpatricksfestival.ie
Saint
Patrick's Day (March 17th) is an Irish holiday
honoring Saint Patrick, the missionary credited with converting the
Irish to
Christianity (in A.D. 400). Saint Patrick was not actually Irish.
Historical
sources report that he was born around 373 A.D. in either Scotland or
in Roman
Britain. His real name is believed to have been Maewyn Succat. He was
kidnapped
at the age of 16 by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. During
his 6-year
captivity, he began to have religious visions, and found strength and
in his
faith. He finally escaped and went to France, where he became a priest
and
later a bishop.
Saint
Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, was seized from his native Britain
by Irish marauders when he was sixteen years old. Though the son of a
deacon and a grandson of a priest, it was not until his captivity that
he sought out the Lord with his whole heart. In his Confession, the
testament he wrote towards the end of his life, he says, "After I came
to Ireland - every day I had to tend sheep, ...and many times a day I
prayed - the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my
faith was strengthened. And my spirit was so moved that in a single day
I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night,
and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and
I would rise for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost,
through rain, and I felt no harm." After six years of slavery in
Ireland, he was guided by God to make his escape, and afterwards
struggled in the monastic life at Auxerre in Gaul, under the guidance
of the holy Bishop Germanus. Many years later he was ordained bishop
and sent to Ireland once again, about the year 432, to convert the
Irish to Christ. His arduous labours bore so much fruit that within
seven years, three bishops were sent from Gaul to help him shepherd his
flock, "my brethren and sons whom I have baptized in the Lord - so many
thousands of people," he says in his Confession. His apostolic work was
not accomplished without much "weariness and painfulness," long
journeys through difficult country, and many perils; he says his very
life was in danger twelve times. When he came to Ireland as its
enlightener, it was a pagan country; when he ended his earthly life
some thirty years later, about 461, the Faith of Christ was established
in every corner.
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