A bagpiper’s melody drifted through the crisp morning air as Irish dancers tapped out sharp, rhythmic steps along the sidewalk outside St. Patrick’s Catholic Church on March 17, drawing a crowd.
Inside, every pew was filled, with people standing shoulder to shoulder along the back walls for the parish’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Mass, a celebration that blended faith, culture and centuries of tradition in the heart of the nation’s capital.
Founded in 1794 to serve Irish laborers helping build Washington, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church has long stood as a spiritual home for generations of the faithful, its history woven into the life of the city itself.
Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, archbishop of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Washington, served as principal celebrant and was welcomed by Father Patrick S. Lewis, pastor of St. Patrick’s.
“Your Eminence, Cardinal McElroy, on behalf of the parish of St. Patrick, welcome, and happy St. Patrick’s Day,” Father Lewis said. “As we celebrate the apostle and shepherd to Ireland, we are so pleased to welcome you, our apostle and shepherd here in Washington.”
In his opening remarks, Cardinal McElroy reflected on the significance of the feast, drawing both laughter and reverence from the congregation.
“It is a great joy to be with you on this glorious day,” he said.
Noting the liturgical color of the celebration, he added, “Now, I am not in purple today, I am in white. And that is because this is the feast of the Church, the patron of this church.”
He then joked, “But I do not get to wear any green with it. So instead, I wore my Book of Kells miter, and I hope that will make up for it,” referring to the bishop’s headdress adorned with designs inspired by the famed illuminated Irish manuscript.
In his homily, Cardinal McElroy moved from history to mission, reflecting on the life of St. Patrick, the endurance of Irish faith and the witness of the global Irish diaspora.
He described St. Patrick as “this mammoth figure in the history of Ireland,” noting that although the saint is “a man shrouded in myth,” his legacy rests in his courage as a missionary who returned to the land of his enslavement to preach the Gospel.
“He founded the early churches in Ireland and, in a spirit of accommodation and reconciliation, brought the faith of Jesus Christ to the leadership of that society and to its poorest people,” the cardinal said.
He also pointed to Ireland’s role in sustaining faith through centuries of hardship.
“In times of joy and celebration, but also of struggle, hardship, oppression, and terrible suffering, men and women of Ireland in each succeeding generation kept God alive in their midst,” he said.
Reflecting on the Irish diaspora, which he said includes “80 million or so men, women, and children in the world who claim some Irish heritage,” Cardinal McElroy noted that generations of immigrants carried stories of perseverance, faith and hope into new lands.
“For each of us who are their descendants, there is a story of greatness and heroism — of why our ancestors came to these new lands,” he said.
Yet the cardinal emphasized that the celebration ultimately points beyond history.
“But that is not the most important set of themes for us to reflect upon today,” he said. “For that is found in the Gospel we heard today.”
He urged the faithful not only to remember the past, but to respond to their present call to discipleship.
“The call to each of us in our lives, in this present moment, not to look backward alone, though we see there a foundation, but to look principally at our own lives and ask how we are to be missionary disciples of Jesus Christ here and now in the world in which we live,” he said.
Quoting the Gospel invitation to “put out into deep waters,” he challenged the congregation to grow in faith during the Lenten season.
“Not to be content with the status quo, but in this season of Lent, to put out into deep waters,” he said. “Go beyond what you normally do, or what you think yourself capable of doing.”
He concluded with a question directed to each person in the church.
“Where is Christ calling me to put out into deeper waters, to make the grace of the Gospel more present to all those whose lives we touch?” he said.
For many in attendance, the celebration extended beyond the liturgy into lived tradition.
Kaylee Drake, a dancer who performed outside the church before Mass, said she has been part of the annual celebration for years.
“I’ve been coming since I was a kid, and now I’m 29,” she said. “It’s a yearly tradition.”
She said her love of Irish dance began in childhood after attending a Celtic festival.
“I was completely taken by the dancers,” she said. “I kept saying, ‘I want to go see the dancing girls.’”
After moving to the area, she joined the O’Neill James School of Irish Dance, where she continues to dance today.
Kathryn Robertson, an assistant with the school, said she has participated in the Mass for more than a decade.
“My daughter saw a performance in kindergarten and immediately wanted to try it,” she said.
She later joined her daughters, turning it into a shared family tradition.
After the Mass, Cardinal McElroy stood outside greeting parishioners as they stepped back into the bright morning air, where music, laughter and the rhythms of Irish dance continued.
