From Myrin Library’s Collections: Celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day
Saint Patrick’s Day falls on March 17th every year. Apart from watching Saint Patrick’s Day parades, wearing Leprechaun hats, and consuming cabbage, colcannon, and green colored beer, what else is known about Saint Patrick and of his special holiday in March? To help educate and enlighten you about Saint Patrick’s Day, take a look at this small selection of e-resources about Saint Patrick and Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations from Myrin Library’s collections. Please note that these e-resources are only accessible to the Ursinus College Faculty, staff, and students due to licensing restrictions.
“St. Patrick, His Origins and Career” by Reverend R.P.C. Hanson, a Christian Theology Professor and Head of the Theology of the University of Nottingham, is about the early British Church in the fifth century, Saint Patrick’s writings, and of the scholarly arguments surrounding Saint Patrick about his time spent in Gaul as well as the controversy about the existence of two Patricks in Ireland in the fifth century.
“The World of Saint Patrick” by Philip Freeman, is a collection of translated sources of the beginnings of Christianity in Ireland, including two writings by Saint Patrick: “Confession”, and “Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus”. Other documents in this collection are decrees, hymns, and stories about Saint Patrick in the centuries following his death in the fifth century.
“Beyond Snakes and Shamrocks: St. Patrick’s Missional Leadership Lessons for Today” by Reverend Ross A. Lockhart, is about the leadership qualities Saint Patrick had while he set about on his mission to convert Ireland to Christianity during the fifth century in Ireland pre-Christendom, and how these skills and characteristics of the evangelizing saint are related to post-Christendom mission work in twenty-first century North America.
“Croagh Patrick, Ireland” is an online video from 1995 documenting a pilgrimage up Croagh Patrick, a holy mountain and important pilgrimage site in Mayo, Ireland, nicknamed “Reek”. It is alleged that during a dispute with druids, Saint Patrick fasted for forty days and forty nights on this mountain. Pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick on Reek Sunday each year, the last Sunday in July, to honor Saint Patrick.
“Consuming St. Patrick’s Day” by Jonathan Skinner and Dominic Bryan is an examination of the consumption of Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations through historical, sociological, anthropological and cultural perspectives. This book help explains the global reach, popularity, and importance of Saint Patrick’s Day in contemporary society.