The Irish standard., 1914-02-14
Ladies Auxiliary of A. O. H. Celebrate Feast
Day of Patroness Throughout
Country
Rev. Dr.. w. j. Melody of Catholic Univer-
sity Pays Eloquent Tribute at L. A.
"A. O. H. Banquet in Chicago

The Emerald Isle. that gem in the
North Atlantic, is renowned over the
world for its beauty, its triumphs and
its sufferings; tits renowned, too, for
its love of justice and its great NOR.
ality; is famous for its brave men and
chaste women. Our pagan ancestors
held very high ideals with regard to
the Supreme Being; their paganism
was of the most intellectual kind
Twas not animals they worshipped,
neither did they deify the passions.
The sun In the heavens, the source
of light and heat and the cause of
growth in the natural order, was the
object of their worship. Their laws,
too, were equal to any code that has
emanated from the mind of man,
whether 1t be Lycurgus or JUS
tinian or Napoleon. What scholar
has not heard of the Brehon Laws of
Ireland? These laws are worthy of
the study Of the greatest of modern
legislators.
Even their national emblem throws
light by no means obscure on the
intellectual and spiritual aspiration Of
our ancestors. The national emblem
Of most races is an animal: lion, a
bear, an eagle, or a wolf or dragon;
Of other races tie q thistle or a rose
or daisy; with the Celt It's musical
Instruments harp-which, when
seen on the green banner Of his coun-
try causes his heart to beat faster
and awakens emotions in his soul that
are high and noble and chivalrous,
emotions that music alone can inspire
and which are closely allied to the
spiritual. What earthly pleasure more
elevating and ethereal, less material
than the pleasure of music? Our race
in pagan times, and ever since has al
ways loved music, and in every age
under the darkest and most disheart-
ening circumstances, after the word
of God nothing has buoyed them up
and sustained them more than their
love for music.
st. Patrick Well Received In ireland.
Such being the ideals, the aspira-
tions, the character of our pagan an.
cestors, can we wonder at the recep-
tion accorded st. Patrick when he
came to the shores of Erin to an
nounce the "Glad Tidings of Great
Joy" that we're first announced by
the angel on Bethlehems hillside four
hundred years before? From the first
announcement, made to the lowly shep-
herds. no people received the news
of Christ's birth, life, death and resur-
rection as did the Irish. 1t would seem
as though they were looking for Christ.
since they received him with such
Joy; 'twould seem as though their pa
ganism was but preparation for the
great Son of Justice, Christ the Lord.
From a pagan race, during the life
time of their Apostle, St. Patrick, the
entire island renounced idolatry and
put on Christ and Him crucified. Be-
fore Patrick closed his eyes in death.
he had the signal happiness, the un-
precedented triumph Of seeing Chris
tianity not only accepted by the Irish
race, but fourishing in manner that
seems almost incredible. Cathedrals,
churches. cloisters for men and wom-
en-, dotted the land from north to south
and from east to west. Men and wom-
en-, the sons and daughters Of chief.
tains and peasants, gave themselves
up to God by putting aside all world
ly ambition and entering monasteries
or converts, where they worked for
the glory OF God and the advancement
of their fellowman.
OF the many noble women who thus
gave up all things for Christ at the
very dawn Of Christianity in Ireland,
none is so famous or so beloved as
she whose feast the universal Church
celebrates today, and in whose honor
you are assembled, the great st. Brigid
known as the MARY Of the Gael.'
Brigid was born about the year $50 OF
slave mother employed in the man.
sion of chieftain named Dubthach
who was tenth in descent from Fell.
mioth, the law-giver monarch of Ire
land in the second century.
The wife Of Dubthach. becoming
jealous Of her husbands liking for hi.
slave threatened him In the follow
ing words: "Unless thou sellest, yor
bondmaid in distant lands will exac
my dowry from thee and will leav'