Meat on St. Patrick’s Day, even though it’s a Friday during Lent? The Register sought answers to that question from all 176 Latin Rite territorial Catholic dioceses in America.
(L-R) St. Patrick welcomes all who enter his church in Belfast’s City Centre, County Antrim. Traditional St. Patrick’s day meal of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and soda bread. (photo: K. Mitch Hodge/Atsushi Hirao / Unsplash/Shutterstock)
St. Patrick died during Lent. Which year isn’t certain. But for one of the leading candidates (A.D. 461), March 17 was a Friday.
And while Easter is a moveable feast, St. Patrick’s Day is always during Lent — and sometimes on a Friday. Like this year, for instance.
That means trouble — for Friday is also a day of abstinence for Catholics, especially during Lent.
Something’s got to give.
“You cannot feast and fast at the same time,” noted C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, who supports St. Patrick’s Day dispensations from the obligation of abstinence.
Since Aug. 15, 1790, when John Carroll lay prostrate on the floor of a castle chapel in Dorset, England, and was ordained America’s first Roman Catholic bishop, St. Patrick’s Day has fallen on a Friday 32 times.
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