St. Patrick's Day: Why We Celebrate It, Catholic Meaning

St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, is the feast of St. Patrick, the fifth-century missionary bishop who brought the Christian faith to Ireland. Long before the parades and the green, it was a holy day: the anniversary of the saint’s death, kept with Mass and prayer. In 2027 it falls on Wednesday, March 17, in the middle of Lent. Below is why we celebrate it, who Patrick really was, the story of the shamrock, how the feast fits with Lent, passages from his own Confession, and prayers for the day.

St. Patrick’s Day at a glance

Date: March 17 every year. 2027: Wednesday. 2028: Friday.
Whom it honors: St. Patrick, bishop and apostle of Ireland, who died in the fifth century.
Rank: a solemnity and holy day of obligation in Ireland; an optional memorial in the general Roman calendar, which during Lent is kept as a commemoration.
Season: almost always in Lent.
Symbols: the shamrock, the color green, the Celtic cross.
Patron of: Ireland and Nigeria, and of countless parishes and dioceses founded by Irish emigrants.

Why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

The Church celebrates most saints on the day they died, their “birthday” into eternal life. Tradition holds that Patrick died on March 17, so that is his feast. In Ireland the day has been kept as a religious feast for well over a thousand years, and it is still a holy day of obligation there.

Irish emigrants carried the feast around the world. In America, Canada, Australia and Britain it became a celebration of Irish heritage as well as of the saint, with parades, music and the wearing of green. New York City’s parade traces its history to 1762. The religious heart of the day remains the same: thanking God for the gift of faith that Patrick brought to Ireland, and that Irish missionaries later carried to every continent.

Who was St. Patrick?

Patrick was not Irish. He was born in Roman Britain to a Christian family; his father, Calpornius, was a deacon. At almost sixteen he was captured by raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave, where he tended sheep for six years and, alone on the hillsides, learned to pray. Warned in a dream that a ship was ready, he escaped and returned home.

Years later, after studying for the priesthood, he dreamed that the people of Ireland were calling him back. He returned as a bishop and spent the rest of his life traveling the island, preaching, baptizing thousands, ordaining priests and founding churches, often in danger. He wrote two short works that survive, the Confession and the Letter to Coroticus, among the oldest writings we have from Ireland. For his life and the famous Breastplate prayer, see St. Patrick’s prayer.

St. Patrick in his own words

Patrick begins his Confession with great humility:

I, Patrick, a sinner, the rudest and least of all the faithful, and most contemptible to very many, had for my father Calpornius, a deacon, the son of Potitus, a priest, who lived in Bannaven Taberniae, for he had a small country-house close by, where I was taken captive when I was nearly sixteen years of age. I knew not the true God, and I was brought captive to Ireland with many thousand men, as we deserved; for we had forsaken God, and had not kept His commandments, and were disobedient to our priests, who admonished us for our salvation.

He describes how he learned to pray as a young slave:

But after I had come to Ireland, I was daily tending sheep, and I prayed frequently during the day, and the love of God, and His faith and fear, increased in me more and more, and the spirit was stirred; so that in a single day I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same; so that I remained in the woods, and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer, in snow, and ice, and rain, and I felt no injury from it, nor was there any slothfulness in me, as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent in me.

The shamrock and the Holy Trinity

A much-loved legend says Patrick plucked a three-leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity: three leaves, one plant; three Persons, one God. The story was first written down in the early 1700s, long after his time, so no one can say if it really happened. It fits him well all the same: the Breastplate prayer attributed to him opens with “the invocation of the Trinity.” Wearing a sprig of shamrock on March 17 is an old Irish custom, and a simple way to teach children about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

St. Patrick’s Day in Lent

Lent continues. Outside Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is a Lenten weekday, so the usual Lenten penances still apply. Celebrate with joy, but with moderation.
When March 17 is a Friday: Friday abstinence from meat applies, because the day is not a solemnity in most countries. Some bishops dispense from it or change it to another penance. The next Friday St. Patrick’s Day is March 17, 2028; check what your own diocese announces. In Ireland, where the day is a solemnity, abstinence does not apply.
When March 17 falls in Holy Week, Ireland moves the solemnity to another day, as in 2008, when it was kept on March 15; elsewhere the commemoration is simply omitted that year.

See Lent and holy days of obligation.

How to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day as a Catholic

Go to Mass. In Ireland it is required; everywhere else it is a beautiful way to begin the day.
Pray St. Patrick’s Breastplate in the morning: “Christ be with me, Christ before me.” See St. Patrick’s prayer.
Wear a shamrock and use it to explain the Trinity to children.
Read a few pages of his Confession, a short and moving book.
Pray for Ireland, for the Irish around the world, and for missionaries today.
Celebrate as a family with Irish food, music and stories, keeping the Lenten spirit.
Learn about St. Brigid, Ireland’s other great patron. See St. Brigid’s prayer.

The collect of St. Patrick

The opening prayer of his Mass, from a 1916 English daily missal:

O God, who wast pleased to send thy blessed Confessor and Bishop Patrick to preach thy glory to the nations, grant through his merits and intercession that by thy mercy we may be able to fulfil all thou dost command us to do. Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord.

A prayer for St. Patrick’s Day

Written for this page:

Lord God, you sent St. Patrick to bring the light of Christ to the people of Ireland,
though they had once held him as a slave.
Give me his forgiving heart, his love of prayer and his courage to speak of you.
Bless Ireland and all her children scattered throughout the world,
and let me carry the faith wherever you send me.
St. Patrick, pray for us. Amen.

Frequently asked questions

When is St. Patrick’s Day 2027?

Wednesday, March 17, 2027. St. Patrick’s Day is always on March 17.

Is St. Patrick’s Day a holy day of obligation?

In Ireland, yes. In the United States and most other countries it is not, although many people choose to go to Mass that day.

Why do people wear green on St. Patrick’s Day?

Green recalls the shamrock and Ireland, the “Emerald Isle,” and has been linked with Irish identity for centuries.

Can Catholics eat meat on St. Patrick’s Day?

Yes, unless it falls on a Friday in Lent, when the Friday abstinence applies unless your bishop has granted a dispensation. The next time that happens is 2028.

Was St. Patrick Irish?

No. He was born in Roman Britain and first came to Ireland as a captive. He chose to return as a missionary to the people who had enslaved him.

Is St. Patrick a real saint?

Yes. He is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church and by other Christians. Like most saints of the early centuries, he was recognized by popular devotion and the local Church long before formal canonization existed.

More prayers and saints

Texts and sources

St. Patrick, Confession, translated by James O’Leary, The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick (1880), public domain (Wikisource).
Collect of St. Patrick: The Mass Every Day of the Year (1916 daily missal), public domain (archive.org).
The prayer for St. Patrick’s Day was written for this page.