May the Road Rise to Meet You
Dear all
On Monday we launched the third of our House weeks, where we raise awareness of and funds for a range of worthy causes. During our last House Week, we considered the history of the colour purple (of Merrymeade House). This time around, there was only one colour we could choose – the green of School House – given that Monday was also St. Patrick’s Day.
St. Patrick wasn’t actually born in Ireland, but somewhere in the British Isles, around the year 390AD. His father was a Christian Deacon and, according to traditional narratives, at the age of 16, he was captured by raiders who held him captive in Ireland for the next six years, during which time he is believed to have become deeply religious. Supposedly inspired by a dream he escaped by walking 200 miles across peat bogs and through forests to Wexford, where he managed to get on a boat back to England. He is then said to have been inspired by another dream to return to Ireland as a missionary. He spent the rest of his life there, eventually dying on 17th March 460AD.
His approach to this missionary task was to incorporate traditional pagan rituals into his lessons about Christianity, such as using bonfires to celebrate Easter, which the Irish were used to from worshipping their Pagan gods. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what became known as a Celtic cross. In these ways, he was able to persuade many Irish people to convert to Christianity.
This also perhaps explains St. Patrick’s close connection with the three-leaf shamrock, which he is said to have used to explain the Holy Trinity, again using something with which the Irish were familiar.
Possibly the most famous story associated with St. Patrick is that he once stood on a hillside and delivered a sermon that drove all the snakes in Ireland into the sea, never to return. While it is true that there are no snakes in Ireland, there is no evidence they were ever there, as Ireland has been surrounded by water since the glacial period and before that it was ice-bound.
It’s also the case that despite being widely referred to as a saint, Patrick was never actually canonized by the Catholic Church. That hasn’t stopped him from being remembered on 17th March every year in what is probably the most celebrated Saint’s Day in the world, a tradition that first became popular with Irish communities in America.
St. Patrick’s Day is now celebrated in over 200 countries, with the largest parade taking place in New York involving over 150,000 people, and the shortest taking place in Hot Springs, Arkansas at a distance of just 98 metres. The close connection between Ireland and America is also symbolised annually when the Irish Prime Minister presents a Waterford crystal bowl featuring a shamrock design to the US President in the White House.
I introduced today’s reading by talking about the colour green but initially, it was blue that was associated with St. Patrick. When Henry VIII formalised his control of Ireland he granted the country its Coat of Arms – a golden harp on a blue background. Then in 1783, King George III created a new order of chivalry for the Kingdom of Ireland called the ‘Order of St. Patrick’ and its official colour was known as St. Patrick’s Blue, which was slightly lighter than Scotland’s equivalent, the Order of the Thistle.
It was only in the 18th Century that green took over, influenced by the story of St. Patrick’s use of the Shamrock and also the 1798 Irish Rebellion, when it became a symbol of nationalism, with people starting to wear green symbols to show their support, which soon spread to the uniforms they wore. Combined with a natural landscape that has led to the country being known as ‘The Emerald Isle’, this explains the evolution from blue to green as the colour most associated with St. Patrick.
One thing is undisputed, however: wherever you find yourself in the world on 17th March, it’s unlikely that you’ll be far from someone who is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.
Have a great weekend
Best wishes
Michael Bond
