If your idea of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is ordering a Shamrock Shake at McDonald’s or mimicking the Lucky Charms leprechaun, you might want to turn the page now. St. Patrick, born in the fourth century, is Ireland’s most revered saint (along with St. Brigit of Kildare, St. Aidan of Lindisfarne and St. Guinness of Pint), and is credited with spreading Christianity through the island. Those who revered him returned the favor by spreading St. Patrick throughout the island. Here are a few places where you can get close to St. Patrick, through relics and artifacts, without eating a single bite of corned beef and cabbage.
National
Museum of
Ireland, Dublin
Among the museum’s treasures is a bronze-coated iron handbell that is “traditionally believed to have belonged to St. Patrick,” according to museum experts. The fifth century Bell of Armagh was important enough, apparently, that in 1100, Domhnall Ua Lochlainn, king of Ireland, commissioned an elaborate shrine to hold it. Archaeology museum, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. 353 1 6777444. www.museum.ie.
St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, New York
In the Baptistery of this imposing Neo-Gothic sanctuary is a Celtic cross made of crystal (supposedly Waterford) that at the center holds a tiny chamber said to contain “a relic of St. Patrick.” It’s unclear if this is the same reliquary described in a 1942 Time magazine article that was “sealed into the new high altar” and contained bone fragments of St. Patrick – as well as fragments from each of the Twelve Apostles and St. Francis of Assisi. 460 Madison Ave., New York. (212) 753-2261. www.saintpatrickscathedral.org.
Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Despite having a silver case built specifically to hold the arm and hand bones of St. Patrick, someone over the centuries managed to lose, well, the arm and hand bones. They still have the silver case, however, a shrine made around 1300 that belongs to St. Patrick’s Church in Belfast, but is on loan to the Ulster Museum. Botanic Gardens, Belfast, County Antrim. 845 608 0000. www.nmni.com/um.
St. Patrick
Centre, Downpatrick, Northern Ireland
A high-tech, modern exhibition dedicated to Ireland’s patron saint, built next to Down Cathedral and St. Patrick’s “grave.” (There’s a stone marker, but they don’t really know the exact spot.) The centre provides a “cutting edge interactive exhibition about the life and legacy of Patrick.” 53A Market St., Downpatrick, County Down. 028 4461 9000. www.saintpatrickcentre.com.
St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, Dublin
Workers in 1901 found six stone slabs with Celtic carvings, one of which appeared to cover an ancient well where St. Patrick might have baptized church-goers in the fifth century. Leaders at the cathedral (built in 1220 and home to one of Dublin’s first public clocks) are refreshingly candid on their website: “Very little is known for definite about where he traveled and what he did; in reality there are thousands of sites around Ireland who claim a connection with the saint.” St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Close, Dublin 9. www.stpatrickscathedral.ie.
- Spud Hilton, travel@sfchronicle.com
St. Patrick: Artifacts of Ireland"s patron saint
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