Celebrating St. Patrick and the Irish

by Joseph Nangle, OFM
Pax Christi USA 2023 Teacher of Peace

“Rejoice, again I say it, Rejoice.”

Each year about the middle of Lent, the Church gives us a kind of “shot in the arm” with Laetare Sunday. The word is Latin for “rejoice,” recalling St. Paul’s encouragement to the early Christian community at Philippi (4:4). The idea is that we should be consoled as we approach the dark days of Holy Thursday and Good Friday because we know the end of the story.

In recent years, however, Laetare Sunday and its counterpart, Gaudete (also “rejoice”) Sunday in Advent, are practically overlooked as a kind of historical footnote in the liturgical year.

However, there is an unofficial but real “Laetare” moment every Lent on March 17, the feast day of Saint Patrick. Not only Catholics of Irish descent but millions of others acknowledge Irishness in our midst – green is its color and it is virtually omnipresent that day.

There are geographical and historical reasons for the “wearing of the green” on that feast day. Ireland has been called “the Emerald Isle” due to excessive rainfall there with resulting verdant landscapes.

Less remembered is the fact that this color is part of the legend that St. Patrick pointed to shamrocks to shed light for then-pagan Ireland on the Christian Mystery of the Holy Trinity – three green leaves, one flower.

In addition, other aspects of Irish culture and history influence the widespread acknowledgment and celebration of Ireland’s patron saint.

There is delight in the joyous nature of Celtic culture: its songs (“When Irish Eyes are Smiling”); its poetry (“May the road rise with you and may the wind always be at your back…”); its humor (“If your nose was running and your feet were smelling, you’d be upside down.”) Irish storytelling also is legendary: (“Didya’ hear the one about…?”)

The following poem, author unknown, sums up this fascination with an endearing but ultimately complicated people:

“What shall I say about the Irish?
The utterly impractical, never predictable Irish.
Strange blend of shyness, pride and conceit.

And stubborn refusal to bow in defeat.
He’s spoiling and ready to argue and fight.
Yet the smile of a child fills his soul with delight.
His eyes are the quickest to well up in tears.
Yet his strength is the strongest to banish your fears.
His faith is as fierce as his devotion is grand.
And there’s no middle ground on which he will stand.
He’s wild and he’s gentle.
He’s good and he’s bad.
He’s proud and he’s humble.
He’s happy and he’s sad.
He’s in love with the ocean,
The earth and the skies.
He’s enamored with beauty wherever it lies.
He’s victor and victim.
A star and a clod.
But mostly he’s Irish. In love with his God.”

On a deeper level there is a sad reality about the the Irish, summarized in a quote from sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynahan: “They are a people who believe that the world will ultimately betray them.” Ireland’s history explains this trait. One example is the Great Famine from 1845 to 1852, when one million Irish starved to death. Many are convinced that the famine was exacerbated by British colonial policies… they note that during those years many Anglo-Irish estates exported grain and livestock to England.

For Catholics in the United States, a significant fact about the Irish among us is their presence and enormous influence on our Church. Volumes have been written about this phenomenon (Chief among them American Catholic: The Saints and Sinners Who Built America’s Most Powerful Church by Charles R. Morrie). This story is simple and straightforward.

Beginning principally with the famine, literally millions of Irish – mostly Catholics – emigrated to the United States. By the middle of the 20th century more than four million of them had come here. The parish system in the U.S. provided an identity for them as they faced virulent discrimination from the larger society. Inevitably, in the course of time, their spiritual leaders rose to the highest ranks of this country’s Catholic church. Powerful cardinals and archbishops – not always exemplary people themselves – ruled their faithful with absolute religious and political authority. The result was an iron-clad religious system which continues to some extent in Catholicism in this country today.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

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Joe Nangle OFM is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace and the 2023 Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace. As a member of the Assisi Community in Washington, D.C., he is dedicated to simple living and social change. Joe also serves as the Pastoral Associate for the Latino community at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Arlington, Virginia.