The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-17
Patrick, Gentleman and Saint.

Patrick. Gentleman and Saint.
That st. Patrick was gentleman as well
as saint is well established by traditions of
the Church that are more Trustworthy
than our contemporaneous history. We
may not credit all that we are told of our
own times, yet we know that St. Patrick was
gentleman that his family was respectable;
that he built church in every town in Ire
land. and on each church put steeple; that
he honored in his own life the holiness
he taught to others, and that the legends
which cluster around his memory as the ivy
covers an ancient tower, are kept green and
fresh by the vital force of his simple, honest
gentle and devoted character. He deserves to
be revered as the patron saint OF Ireland,
for he redeemed her from bondage to
paganism, and looking back through the
darkness of fifteen hundred years we see the
figure of the fearless Christian, toiling
through the land and bearing the message Of
the Cross to the brethren he loved. But indie
pendenty of the sacred vocation in which he
labored with miraculous success St. Patrick
had evidently personal merits for which his
memory is enthusiastically cherished. He
must have been warm hearted, genial, social
and have had sympathetic soul with a bit Of
humor in it, like glowing piece of peat on q
friendly hearth, or while he might have
been as reverentially remembered. he would
not still be the object of so much passionate
affection.
No saint in the calendar is probably as
widely known as st. Patrick. The sun will
shine on no part Of the earth to-day where
his birth will not be celebrated with pride and
Joy. The wrongs that have expelled from
their own land so many of his countrymen
have helped to make his fame universal and
his services cosmopolitan, and thus Ireland
has become too small to hold him while the
world is not too large for his increasing repu-
tation to fill.
The anniversary of St. Patrick birth will be
in no city more truly honored than in New York,
as the parade to-day the religious services the
banquets and the general joy will prove.
There can be but one thing to mar
this celebration, and that is the
absence of St. Patrick himself But
this is misfortune which may be deplorsd
but cannot be helped. It might happen to
any one who lived fifteen hundred years ago,
and has happened to thousands of compare
lively modern antiquity. We can be sure
that if st. Patrick we're living now he would
be proud and glad to walk to-day with so
many of his friends and admirers. He would
call upon Cardinal McCloskey and congratu-
late his diocese upon the honors conferred
upon it's venerable head. He would work a
political miracle by changing the Board of
Street Commissioners, and for the comfort of
the parade would excommunicate the mud as
he did the snakes. He would respond to the
toast to his memory which will be given at
the dinner, and, with all respect to the ora
tors of the day, we must say that he could
doubtless make better speech for himself than
any one will make for him. 1t would be a
great thing to have st. Patrick celebrating his
own birthday; but although he was very
mighty saint he was also a modest gentleman,
and might be abashed to find that fifteen CEN
turtles have only made his name more glorious
and beloved
But if ST. Patrick cannot be here his spirit
may. 1t was gentle, brave, temperate
spirit, Astounding in love for his fellow men,
free from intolerance and incapable of any
thing that is low. By obedience to that
noble spirit he can be honored most 1t is
not our province to assume the prerogative of
the Roman Church and ask the hundreds of
thousands who will celebrate this day to initiate
the virtues Of the saint, but we may at least
say that there is no better wsy to keep the
festival than to initiate the example of the
gentleman
Father Walker and the Public schools.
We have reason to know that the violent