St.
Patrick’s Newsletter
March 9,
2006
In the first century AD, St Patrick labored for 30 years as Bishop of Ireland to bring Christianity to the native pagans of Ireland. He used the 3-leaved Irish shamrock in sermons to explain the three manifestations of one god, i.e. The Holy Trinity.
In 1542 King Henry VIII proclaimed himself “King of Ireland” and, through ingenious means of religious and governmental suppression, so infuriated the Irish that they took to “the wearin’ o’ the green” as a sign of rebellion. King Henry’s answer was to execute anyone found wearing anything green. In 1900, Her Majesty Queen Victoria ordered that all ranks of her Irish regiments wear a sprig of shamrock in their head dress to commemorate the gallantry of her Irish soldiers during the recent battles in South Africa.
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Today, on March 17th all over the world, millions of Irish people, both native and by descent, together with their non-Irish friends, celebrate the life of a man who died over 1,500 years ago by donning the color green and drinking themselves into a drunken stupor. Wouldn’t St. Patrick be proud of us?
Celebrated with more fanfare in New York City than in Dublin, the holiday has all but lost its religious beginnings and is a date that must send shivers down the spine of every bartender. At least with the IRA’s surrender of weapons last fall, the 2006 celebration should have less political fireworks on both sides of the Atlantic than in the past. Anyway, hence the color green, the Irish Shamrock…….”the luck of the Irish”??
If you are planning on wearing green on March 17th (or any other time of the year)…think emeralds. For at about the same time that Henry VIII was tormenting the Irish, the Spanish Conquistadors accidentally discovered the Muzo emerald mines, the location of which had been so rigorously defended by the Incas. And so began the journey of the Columbian emerald across the waters to the Philippines (a Spanish colony at the time) before landing in the hands of the Moghals (Islamic) and the Maharajahs (Hindu) of India.
These specimens were polished, tumbled, faceted or carved, then set into belts, headpieces and all kinds of pins and brooches. The relative softness of the mineral beryl (the green variety being emerald) meant that it could be easily carved…and was it ever!! The Moghals even carved verses of the Koran on larger stones. They knew no limits on the wear ability of their treasures. They attached brooches at their waists and on their turbans and even sewed sets of huge faceted emeralds onto coats as buttons.A beautiful emerald brooch or a pair of carved jade earrings is a sophisticated nod to St Patty’s Day. With one of these beauties you can simultaneously fulfill your obligation to show up in something green with your desire to show up in something that will “knock their socks off”.
There is more at www.meriwether.net.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!
