Leprechauns, shamrocks and the legend of Saint Patrick reinforce in students the heritage of their catholic roots.
At Saint Patrick School in Washington, the day to honor the saint and his Irish heritage comes March 17, St. Patrick’s Day.
“Wednesday is a big day for us,” said Chris Kapraun, an eighth grade teacher at Saint Patrick School. “We celebrate, and we get to take the day off, so many of us participate in the festivities on this day.”
St. Patrick’s Day is dedicated to the patron saint of Ireland who converted the Gaelic Irish, which were mostly Pagans, to Christianity. Saint Patrick was not born in Ireland, but rather in Britain, where he grew up as the son of a Roman-British army officer who was kidnapped at age 6 by a band of pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. For six years, he was mostly imprisoned and dreamed of having seen God and of returning to Britain. When he did escape, he did so to France, where he joined a monastery and studied under the bishop St. Germain for 12 years. When he became bishop himself, he had a vision of the Irish calling him back to Ireland to tell them about God.
“St. Patrick’s Day is very important for our school because he is the patron saint of our school,” said Dr. Sharon Weiss, the principal of Saint Patrick School in Washington. “He brought Christianity to the country of Ireland, and that is pretty much what our mission here is as well. We are here to evangelize and to have our children grow in age with them and embrace the knowledge of Jesus Christ. That is something that we love to celebrate with Saint Patrick.”
In the days leading up to the event, students engage in art projects, shamrock scavenger hunts and Irish map-making, and during classrooms parties, everyone is encouraged to wear green, paint shamrocks on their faces and play Irish games. The teachers have a get-together and participate by bringing green food.
The lower grades get a special surprise.
“A leprechaun comes to visit their classroom at night to check their desks and see if they have been doing their work well,” said Kapraun. “He leaves footprints on the desks and treats for the kids. It has been a tradition for years.”
In religion class, all grades learn about Saint Patrick, his customs and how he taught the trinity.
“One year, I made pretzels with my class for the whole school,” said Kapraun. “Saint Patrick used the pretzel also to teach the trinity, used it to symbolize the three arms.”
The shamrock is attributed to Saint Patrick, with its three leaves signifying the trinity — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
“In our school, we also have our three-fold motto, which is reverence, respect, responsibility,” said Weiss. “We are designing a logo that has the shamrock with those three words around it, and that will be the logo for our school. Saint Patrick is woven all the way in and out of our entire curriculum, as well as who we are in the school. We are most appreciative that he is our patron saint.”
Kapraun’s students have to learn more in-depth about the saint and where he is from, and she gives her eighth graders a test.
Some of the questions on the test include being familiar with where Saint Patrick was born, how he came to Ireland, how he used the shamrock to teach about the catholic faith, on which date he died and if he really drove the snakes out of Ireland, which refers to the popular legend of the saint ridding the country of serpents, but really relating it to devils, demons and paganism.
“These kids have to take ownership of their saint for their school,” said Kapraun.
Saint Patrick School opened its doors in 1951 in Saint Patrick Church, when there were 250 catholic families and about 150 grade-school-aged children living in the area. The parish quickly grew and the school needed to expand, and in 1962, an entire wing, including a gym, library, restrooms and six classrooms, was added. Today, the school has an enrollment of 304 students, including 45 students in the pre-school program.
Seventh grade confirmation school students, who are learning about service and helping others, spread the spirit of Saint Patrick by bringing green carnations to those who may not be able to attend a mass or leave their house.
“These students visit older members of our parish or of the community at the nursing center, or see those who do not get out much anymore,” said Kapraun.
On St. Patrick’s Day, the school will be closed, and a special mass will be held at St. Patrick Church, after which many people will head to Peoria to watch the parade, said Kapraun.
St. Patrick’s cheerleaders will be carrying the parade’s opening banner, and the school’s band will march and perform.
“This year, a huge group of people, families and grandparents are going to join the parade. A lot of them go to mass first, then walk in the parade and then go to the Irish society for a corned beef meal,” said Kapraun. “It is a tradition for a lot of families.”
