Lenten Campaign 2025
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St. Patrick's Day has become a widely celebrated secular holiday, where people of every nationality wear green and drink green beer.
It is a day when "Everyone is Irish."
However, often what gets missed is St. Patrick himself, as the emphasis is on Irish culture and various legends and mythical creatures.
What would St. Patrick do?
How to celebrate St. Patrick's Day
If we were to be completely honest with ourselves, St. Patrick would probably be spending his Lent on top of a mountain somewhere, only eating bread and drinking water. He was a strong advocate for fasting and mortification, afflicting himself with whatever suffering he could for the sake of Jesus Christ.
This doesn't mean that we should do that as well, since we are not St. Patrick and God is likely not calling each of us to such an extreme lifestyle.
Also, St. Patrick wasn't opposed to beer or alcohol, as it is recorded that he had his own private brewer.
According to John Healy in The Life and Writings of St. Patrick, a priest, Mescan, was his brewer:
Presbyter Mescan of Domnach Mescain at Fohain was his brewer. It does not appear from this that either Patrick or the members of his household were total abstainers and if they were to have beer at all, they could only have it by brewing it themselves. There were no great breweries and no beer shops in those days and there was no excise duty. Every chief and farmer brewed what was necessary for himself and his retainers.
At that time, beer or any alcoholic drink was not something reserved to bars or pubs, and was also more substantial.
St. Patrick may not have been opposed to having a drink of beer on his feast day, but he certainly would have argued against getting drunk.
Furthermore, St. Patrick loved the Eucharist and would have praised anyone who would choose to attend Mass.
Even beyond that, what St. Patrick would prefer above all else is that each person would welcome Jesus into their hearts.
He spent nearly his whole life preaching the Gospel in Ireland and would love to see more people embrace Jesus and let the Lord's will direct their lives.
If you want to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the manner of St. Patrick, consider how you can make it a truly "holy day," where God is put at the center.
