Show a tricks greatness N englishman who bad t q u d the united states said to an american friend I 1 cai not understand it on the 0 february I 1 supposed there would be a grand national dern in honor of george ington but nothing occurred on the of march the city I 1 was in was decorated in green flags and irilli em beems fluttered everywhere the botel menu card was in green ink and the evening paper came out ao 10 green bands played in the streets men paraded the city police force and mill tary turned out there were balls ban and public speaking what I 1 want to know Is whether st patrick or george washington Is the nation s patron saint some idea of how powerful powei ful a figure st patrick was may be gained by comparing the memory of st patrick bom 1535 years ago with that of george washington who has been dead a little more than a century st patrick went into ireland when tt was plunged in the darkness of paganism he confronted a hostile people with a dozen assistants his first work in reaching a corn was to preach the gospel in the native tongue of the people this he did with pauline fervor anda fe of conviction which fred the heart and imagination of the people you can look at the worl of any irish priest today to day nd see the duplication of st patr ck 8 method first a talk to the people then the b hiding of a church then the erection of a school and then the exhortation to practice the christian virtues the succor of the widow and the orphans the weal the fallen and the aged patrick established universities which the labor 0 the inmates were self sustaining and to which the youth of england flocked by thousands europe during his lifetime was tn conflagration hordes of the north goths and vandals ravaged the south and the lamp of learning extinguished on the continent burned brightly m the cloisters cloi of the monasteries and universities of ireland patrick trans nothing into irish he taught the irish latin and implanted full born the civilization of christian rome he introduced the arts and crafts developed agriculture taught industry application and love of work alons of learning churches and homes of religious workers training schools and seminaries were supported not by contributions but by labor of the inmates from idleness to industry from fighting to the arts of peace from worship to christian tice and ideals st patrick turned the whole island by personal effort and example by incessant exhausting toll he died as he lived without the pos session of i groat the arts and letters science and biblical knowledge which fled from the continent tool refuge in the famosa schools which made durrow and ar lagh the universities of the west to the premal honor of irish hospitality be it said that these thousands of strangers from every country in o 0 rope were not only welcomed but sup piled gratuitously with boobs clothes and food abe scholarship thus engendered re furnished europe when a century s anarchy over the irish missionaries emerged from schools and flashed avei the charred remains of european the sacred light ot learning so when rhe bearer of the name bitrick laborer and toiler though he be remembers that hia title la de scented from one 0 the proudest in rome patrician and thinks in his poverty and humility ot the ancient glory of his people where Is there an american who will not honor to him the survival through the centuries of the pride and learning and achievement of his ancestors and join him on st patricks day la singing all hail patrick |