Saint Patrick's Day - March 17th

Today in Australia (18th March) is the day between Saint Patrick's Day and Saint Joseph's day. A good time to reflect on the qualities of both men.

St. Patrickā€™s Day, feast day (March 17) of St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland. Born in Roman Britain in the late 4th century, he was kidnapped at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. He escaped but returned about 432 CE to convert the Irish to Christianity. By the time of his death on March 17, 461, he had established monasteries, churches, and schools. Many legends grew up around himā€”for example, that he drove the snakes out of Ireland and used the shamrock to explain the Trinity. Ireland came to celebrate his day with religious services and feasts.
Saint Patrickā€™s Day | History, Traditions, & Facts
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Saint Joseph the Worker is less celebrated than Saint Patrick but is probably more important.

St. Joseph (flourished 1st century CE, Nazareth, Galilee, region of Palestine; principal feast day March 19, Feast of St. Joseph the Worker May 1) in the New Testament, Jesusā€™ earthly father and the Virgin Maryā€™s husband. St. Joseph is the patron of the universal church in Roman Catholicism, and his life is recorded in the Gospels, particularly Matthew and Luke.

Joseph was a descendant of the house of King David. After marrying Mary, he found her already pregnant and, ā€œbeing a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgraceā€ (Matthew 1:19), decided to divorce her quietly, but an angel told him that the child was the Son of God and was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Obeying the angel, Joseph took Mary as his wife. After Jesusā€™ birth at Bethlehem in Judaea, where the Holy Family received the Magi, an angel warned Joseph and Mary about the impending violence against the child by King Herod the Great of Judaea, whereupon they fled to Egypt. There the angel again appeared to Joseph, informing him of Herodā€™s death and instructing him to return to the Holy Land.

Avoiding Bethlehem out of fear of Herodā€™s successor, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus settled in Nazareth (Matthew 2:22ā€“23) in Galilee, where Joseph taught his craft of carpentry to Jesus. Joseph is last mentioned in the Gospels when he and Mary frantically searched for the lost young Jesus in Jerusalem, where they found him in the Temple (Luke 2:41ā€“49). Like Mary, Joseph failed to comprehend Jesusā€™ ironic question, ā€œ ā€˜Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Fatherā€™s house?ā€™ ā€ The circumstances of Josephā€™s death are unknown, except that he probably died before Jesusā€™ public ministry began and was certainly dead before the Crucifixion (John 19:26ā€“27).
Saint Joseph | Biography & Feast Day
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I went to St. Patricks School in my local area. On the feast of St. Patrick, we were given a holiday from school and all the children were given either a shamrock badge or an Irish harp made by the nuns. It must have taken them a very long time to make them as there was about 300 children in the school. That's the only good thing I remember about the place.
 

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