St. Patrick’s Day 2022
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today, March 17, marks the anniversary of the death of St. Patrick (allegedly), patron saint of Ireland. There is some disagreement on the exact dates St. Patrick lived, though there is some consensus the it would been the late 5th century based on his writings. There are two surviving writings of St. Patrick, the Declaration (or Confessio) and the Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus (or Epistolo).
What we have here is known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate or the Faeth Fiada—a prayer found in the 11th Century Liber Hymnorum. Faeth Fiada has been taken to mean “Deer’s Cry” after a story in which St. Patrick is supposed to have said the prayer and then he and his fellows appeared as deer to those pursuing them. What is more likely, however, is that “Faeth Fiada” is related to “féth fíada,” which is a magical mist or veil in Irish folklore, that the Tuatha Dé Danann used to hide themselves from human sight.
This broadside was hand set, hand colored, and printed at the Cuala Press in Dublin, Ireland. The drawing of Saint Patrick is by Jack B. Yeats and the hand illuminated initial letter is by Elizabeth C. Yeats (siblings of William Butler Yeats). It is part of a collection of 66 reprints of Cuala Press prints, reprinted in the 1970s by Michael and Anne Yeats.
Happy St. Paddy’s!
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- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager