"Pilgrims Ascend Mount St. Patrick Made Famous" from the September 8, 1932 Door County Advocate
Pilgrims Ascend Mount St. Patrick Made Famous
One of the most unusual of all pilgrimages is that made annually to the mountain-top shrine of St. Patrick on the high, bare, cone-shaped mountain which bears his name and which overlooks Clew bay, County Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland.
According to tradition it was from this mountain that St. Patrick drove all the serpents from Ireland into the sea.
The pilgrimage up the side of the holy mountain, where St. Patrick spent the 40 days of Lent in penance, fasting and prayer, 1,500 years ago, begins on Saturday evening any time between six o'clock and midnight.
Torchlights are carried by many to light the way and guard against precipitous falls. Often the crowd breaks into a hymn to make the walking easier or to help them to forget the difficulty of trudging over stony paths. For the climb up the last 200 yards before reaching the summit the pilgrims remove their shoes and finish the journey barefooted. Many of the more religious make the entire climb without foot protection.
St. Patrick was seventy years old when he first climbed the mountain. Now many a pilgrim of the same age makes the journey, taking a keen pride in this imitation of a part of the rigid Lenten penance of the patron saint of Ireland.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Articles about pilgrimages
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