Every year, on March 17th, the city of Savannah hosts the second largest Saint Patrick Day Parade in the United States. Only New York City can boast that its parade is bigger than Savannah’s.
Savannah has been celebrating its Irish heritage for several days already. The Celtic Cross Mass was held last Sunday at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist where several Irish-American societies were represented at the very solemn celebration. Afterwards, everyone paraded to Emmet Park, the area of the city where Irish immigrants lived back in the day. There was a great influx of Irish immigrants, many from County Wexford, to Savannah throughout the twentieth century. They provided labor to build canals, railroads, and roads. By the time the Civil War began, there were an estimated 85,000 Irish immigrants living in the Confederacy.
The Saint Patrick Day Parade began in 1824, hosted by the Hibernian Society which had been founded in 1812 by a group of 13 Irish Protestants to help needy Irish families. In 1870, the office of Grand Marshal for the parade was started. Every year, a distinguished Irishman is selected from among his peers to be the Grand Marshall. This year, the Grand Marshal was Michael Foran.
Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv. celebrated this morning’s Mass at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, and Father Finbarr Stanton, an Irish priest of the Diocese of Savannah, was the homilist.
Father Stanton recalled his years as a seminarian at All Hallow’s College in Dublin, Ireland where the words from Matthew 26 were engraved in stone on the main building of the campus: “Go, teach all nations.” He noted that those words were not only engraved in stone, but also on the young minds of the seminarians. The 250 men who studied with him were sent out into the English-speaking world to preach the Gospel to all nations. Inquiring why there was such a missionary impulse in Ireland at that time, he gave a simple answer; “the memory of Saint Patrick and the personal realization, as you are given, you must give back. As Saint Patrick left his people to come to the Irish to speak of Christ, so now it was our turn to go out.” It was the faith of Saint Patrick the missionary that inspired countless young men to leave their country behind to become missionaries in the world. He referred to this moment of religious fervor in the Irish Church as an “explosion of grace.”
Wherever the Irish have gone, they have taken along their culture and traditions. Father Stanton recalled a priest who addressed his class before ordination. He advised the young men, “In bringing the Gospel with you, don’t forget the other gift, the other treasure that is yours. Remember your Irish heritage, love of learning, poetry and music that has kept us alive through the centuries. Don’t forget what made you.”
Today, the citizens of Savannah remember their Irish heritage proudly; they have not forgotten what made them nor who they are.
Father Stanton remarked that the faith in Ireland is not lived as energetically, loyally, creatively nor thankfully as in ages past. He prayed that this is only a period of purgation, and not a sclerosis of the spirit, or hardening of the heart. “For if the sons and daughters of Saint Patrick lose their faith, there seems no way forward,” he stressed. “The leprechauns, the fairies, won’t hold the Irish together… it takes faith, the challenge of the Gospel of Christ, to enable human living.”
In Savannah, today is a celebration of faith and family. It is a time for people to gather and celebrate life. Though many relate Saint Patrick’s Day to green beer, the celebration in Savannah has deep roots, and for just today, everyone is a little bit Irish.
All the pictures are mine, all rights reserved. Savannah, 2016
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