St. Patrick

March 17 is the feast of St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland. A Romano-British youth carried off by Irish raiders in the early fifth century, he escaped slavery after six years, returned as a bishop, and spent the rest of his life converting the island. His Confessio — a short autobiography written in defence of his mission — is the oldest surviving text by a British author, and the only one that gives us a saint's voice in his own words.

Patrick's grave is at Downpatrick, in Northern Ireland, where the cathedral and a great granite boulder marked with a cross mark the traditional site. The mountain he is said to have climbed in fasting — Croagh Patrick, the "Reek," in County Mayo — has been climbed by pilgrims since at least the medieval period, penitents climbing barefoot up the scree to the small chapel at the summit. The last Sunday of July, "Reek Sunday," draws tens of thousands of climbers every year.

From Knock, where the apparition of 1879 showed St. Patrick alongside Mary and Joseph, to the Irish diaspora cathedrals of New York and Philadelphia, the feast is celebrated more widely outside Ireland than inside it. The shamrock he is said to have used to explain the Trinity is worn on every continent on March 17.