Saint Patrick's Day
Feast day of Ireland's patron saint, celebrated globally on 17 March.
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The Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Lutheran Church all mark this day as a Christian feast.[1]
Key facts and history
In 1903, Saint Patrick's Day became an official public holiday in Ireland through the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903.[2] The Declaration, thought to have been authored by Patrick himself, states that he came from a wealthy Romano-British family and was born in Roman Britain during the 4th century.[3] When he was sixteen, Irish raiders kidnapped him and brought him to Gaelic Ireland as a slave; there he tended sheep for six years and came to know God.[3] Luke Wadding, a Franciscan scholar from Waterford, helped secure the placement of Saint Patrick's feast day on the Catholic liturgical calendar in the early 1600s.[4]
Around the mid-1990s, the Republic of Ireland's government launched an initiative to promote Ireland and its culture through Saint Patrick's Day.[5]
What the cited sources add
The St Patrick’s Day White House tradition started in 1952 when President Harry Truman was in the oval office.[6] According to legend, Saint Patrick is said to have spread the faith by using a sprig of shamrock to outline the mystery of the Trinity, though scholars believe it is almost certain that Patrick never used shamrock.[6] Long ago, after wearing the shamrock on St Patrick’s Day, it was removed and put into a glass of alcohol.[6] In 2008, Ireland's bishops shifted the religious feast day to March 15 to avoid a conflict with Holy Week, marking the first time the date had been changed since 1940.[7]
The next conflict with Holy Week is not expected until 2160.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Saint Patrick's Day" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "St Patrick's Day celebrations", Church of Ireland, 12 March 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Saint Patrick's Day" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "James O'Mara", HumphrysFamilyTree.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Saint Patrick's Day" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Confession of St. Patrick", Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Saint Patrick's Day" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Liam de Paor: St. Patrick's World, The Christian Culture of Ireland's Apostolic Age. Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1993; "The Catholic Encyclopedia: Luke Wadding" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Saint Patrick's Day" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The History of the Holiday", The History Channel; "St. Patrick's Festival was established by the Government of Ireland in November 1995", St. Patrick's Festival (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Hickey, "The facts about shamrock", Irish Examiner, 17 March 2014. facts only, no text reused. irishexaminer.com
- "Irish bishops move St. Patrick's Day 2008 over conflict with Holy Week", Catholic News. facts only, no text reused. ewtnnews.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Saint Patrick's Day (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Saint Patrick's Day (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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