Pattern (devotional): Difference between revisions

▲In pre-Reformation times, festivities began with religious devotions at the church, but this came to an end with the confiscation and/or destruction of Roman Catholic churches in the century and a half between the 1540s and the 1690s. By 1700, the devastation was such that very few, if any, churches remained under Catholic control and public religious ceremonies almost disappeared. With the passage of the [[Penal Laws]], the institutional church was an outlawed religious society; its churches few, its clergy scarce. With the central location of their devotions gone, people found alternative ways to honor their saint's feast day. While many of the faithful paid homage at the saint's shrine or in the ruins of their local church, most devotions took place at a nearby holy well, celebrated for its curative power.<ref name=haggerty/> The earliest reference to the Pattern in Ardmore can be found in the calendar of State Papers of June 12, 1611, which mention "a grant of a fair to be held at Ardmore Co. Waterford, on St. Declan's Eve or Day. Before 1800 St. Declan's Stone and the Oratory containing his skull formed the centre of the festivities on St. Declan's Day.<ref name=lincoln/> Other places noted for large attendance include [[St. Patrick's Purgatory]] and [[Croagh Patrick]].<ref name=carroll/>

▲Priests would often assign making a pattern at a local well as a penance for sins; pilgrimages to such sites as Croagh Patrick also had a penitential purpose. The largest patterns would attract thousands of people. Although held in rural areas, the patterns attracted crowds from nearby towns.<ref name=carroll>[http://books.google.com/books?id=ow-OoWypNtMC&q=pattern#v=snippet&q=pattern&f=false Carroll, Michael P. ''Irish Pilgrimage: Holy Wells and Popular Catholic Devotion'', Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland,(1999)]</ref> People would “pay rounds” by circum-ambulating a Holy Well a prescribed number of times in a clockwise or sunwise direction, reciting a rosary during each round, replicating an ancient Celtic rite known as the deiseal.<ref name=macmahon/> At some sites, participants would proceed to various "stations", such as a small oratory, the saint's grave, or a Celtic cross in a predetermined and customary order.<ref name=nugent/> Having completed the religious devotion participants would also engage in activities such as gaming, singing, dancing, and horse racing.<ref name=carroll/> Some patterns lasted for several days.