Marking Saint Patrick’s Day the bishops of Ireland encouraged the faithful to pray for peace in the world, especially in Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, and Sudan.
Saint Patrick is the patron of Ireland, and his feast is a solemnity on the island to which he brought the Christian faith in 5th century. It is a holy day of obligation in the country.
The peace agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas made at the beginning of the year is considered shaky, while the war between Ukraine and Russia is looking at a possible end to their three-year long conflict. Syria’s new government has seen attacks on non-Sunni Muslim citizens, and the civil war in Sudan has left thousands dead.
“To complement our prayers, and given the importance of the national feast day which commemorates the suffering of Patrick as a migrant, and his spreading of the faith in Ireland, bishops ask parishes to reach out in a special way to people who have come to live within our communities, and to extend welcome, support and solidarity to them at this time,” a statement from the bishops’ conference said.
“The message of Patrick is that there is a hope which is deeper and stronger than any crisis, any sense of alienation, any fear. It is stronger even than death. That is the hope Patrick preached, the hope that inspired generations of Irish people: ‘Jesus Christ … defeated death and was received into heaven by the Father… we look for his coming’ (Confessions, 4). In this Jubilee Year of Hope, the Bishops of Ireland are inviting people at home, and our diaspora, to pray fervently on Saint Patrick’s Day for world peace,” the bishops added.
Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh is the Primate of All Ireland and sent a message marking the holiday while visiting New York – which has a historical Irish Catholic population and also has Saint Patrick as its patron saint.
He said he was visiting New York on a “pilgrimage of hope.”
“Our patron, Saint Patrick, lived his life as a ‘pilgrim of hope.’ Despite being trafficked into slavery in Ireland as a young teenager, with all the pain, loneliness and isolation that that brought, Patrick dared to hope in God. Later in life he heard the ‘voice of the Irish’ calling him back to the land of his captivity, and he answered by returning to our shores as a missionary disciple of hope in the Risen Lord,” Martin.
“During my Pilgrimage for Hope here in New York, I have met hundreds of Irish-American families, including many in the parish community of Saint Barnabas in the Bronx. The people who came here in the 1800s not only constructed railroads and bridges, but they also built a strongly connected community which remains proud to this day of its strong Irish links,” the archbishop continued.
Martin said he has prayed at the Irish hunger memorial in New York, which is a famine-time cottage which has been shipped over from Mayo to Manhattan and reconstructed brick by brick within sight of Ellis island.
The Great Famine in Ireland took place from 1845 to 1852, and left a million people dead and millions more leaving the island.
“It is a poignant reminder of the countless Irish people who left their homeland during that awful time. Although many left with little more than the clothes on their backs, still, in their hearts, they carried the priceless treasures of faith and hope,” he said.
“The hope the Irish carried was much more than human optimism. It was a hope forged in adversity and rooted in the same strong faith which centuries beforehand had inspired Saint Patrick to keep going, trusting in God,” Martin said.
“Their Hope was not just a feeling. It was Christian Hope, which is a way of living, being and acting that looks beyond personal challenges, trusting in God. Christian Hope confronts the difficulties of this life with belief in the resurrection and with eyes fixed on eternal life in our heavenly homeland. Hope is a challenge to action for peace, justice and solidarity with others who are struggling, especially the poor and the marginalized,” the archbishop continued.
He said the theme of peace has been forefront in his mind during the pilgrimage of hope.
“As sons and daughters of Saint Patrick, somewhere deep inside all of us, the voice of God challenges us to be pilgrims of hope in this troubled world. Like Saint Patrick we are to make a difference: to be fearless ambassadors of Hope and charity; energetic peacemakers; compassionate carers for the sick and the lonely; faithful stewards of God’s creation; generous helpers of the poor and the marginalized, and welcoming friends for those who, like Patrick and so many of our Irish ancestors, are forcibly displaced from their homeland,” Martin said.
