He is said to have been buried in Down Cathedral (Downpatrick) alongside
St Brigid. There is a modern visitor’s centre.
Legends have it that he banished all snakes from Ireland (his staff morphed
into a snake like Moses’), that he used the shamrock as a symbol for the
Trinity, although it is also a Celtic symbol for rebirth and picture of the triple
goddesses. St Patrick’s Bell, the reliquary now in Dublin Museum as an
example of Celtic Art, was part of his relics. He was never formally
canonised.
19 March St Joseph (died first century)
Nothing is known about him apart from biblical accounts, which are not
meant to be biographical, but of interest in connection with Jesus. Mary’s
pregnancy was obviously a threat to his good name, but he took her for his
wife. Jesus was taken to the temple ‘by his parents’ for circumcision and
when he was 12. After this Joseph is not mentioned. The Jewish historian
Pinkas Lapide thought that Joseph most likely was part of a rebellion in
Palestine and executed (the punishment for rebellion was crucifixion).
References to ‘Jesus’ brothers’ seemed to conflict with the teaching of
Mary’s perpetual virginity and taken that Joseph had been a widower, he has
been portrayed as an old man and with a lily, showing chastity. Devotion to
Joseph was spread by the missionary religious orders, with interest in the
Holy Family and emphasis on the humanity of Christ. Joseph was, after
Mary, seen as the supreme intercessor, Theresa of Avila said that he helped
‘in every need’. The Church instituted the liturgical feast day in the 15 th
century, and a feast of ‘St Joseph the Worker for May 1 in 1956.
There are fifteen well known Saints commemorated in the Catholic
calendar for March, but also for 5 March the Martyrs of Ukraine. (died
between 1935 and 1973)
On June 26, 2001 Pope John Paul beatified two Roman Catholic priests in
the Ukraine, and on the following day 27 Greek Catholic martyrs. The Pope’s
visit was controversial, as Christian Churches there variously owe allegiance
to Moscow (Russian Orthodox) or Rome (Uniate); the situation stems from a
thousand years of conquest and re-conquest.
But the methods of modern martyrdom differ little from that in previous
centuries, considering that Yakim Senkivsky (1896- 1941), abbot and priest,
was boiled to death in a cauldron in prison on 29 June, 1941,
in the same prison as Severian Baranyk(1889-1941), monastic prior, was
killed by Russian soldiers and buried in a mass grave in the prison yard. (A
list of the martyrs is printed in Butler’s Saint for the Day)
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