Make a Reservation

One legend associated with St. Patrick is that he stood atop an Irish hillside and delivered a sermon so moving that it drove all the snakes into the sea. Of course, research suggests snakes never occupied Ireland. Scholars believe the snake story is an allegory for St. Patrick’s eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland.

The shamrock, a three-leaf clover, has been associated with St. Patrick for centuries. According to legend, St. Patrick used the three leaves of the plant as a visual guide when explaining the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). In the 1720’s, the Roman Catholic Church first associated a specific plant — customary for all saints — with St. Patrick, assigning him the symbol of the lucky shamrock.

By the time of his death on March 17, 461, Patrick had established monasteries, churches, and schools. While he may now be known as the patron saint of Ireland, Patrick was never actually canonized by the Catholic Church. During the first millennium, there was no formal canonization process in the Catholic Church. After becoming a priest and helping to spread Christianity throughout Ireland, Patrick was likely proclaimed a saint by popular acclaim.

Thanks to Irish immigrants in the United States, St. Patrick’s Day evolved from a religious holiday into a secular celebration of all things Irish. During the 1700’s immigrants began organizing parades on March 17 as a show of pride in their heritage. Currently, more than 100 St. Patrick’s Day parades are held across the United States. New York City and Boston are home to the largest celebrations. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held on March 17, 1601, in a Spanish colony in what is now St. Augustine, Florida. The Spanish Colony’s Irish vicar, Ricardo Artur, organized the parade. In the early 1800’s, Irish patriotism among immigrants prompted the rise of “Irish Aid” societies like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society. In 1848, several New York Irish Aid societies decided to unite their parades to form one official New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Today, that parade is the world’s oldest civilian parade and the largest in the United States, with over 150,000 participants. Each year, nearly 3 million people line the 1.5-mile parade route to watch the procession, which takes more than five hours.

Why do people wear green on St. Patrick’s Day? The color green became officially associated with St. Patrick’s Day in 1798, the year of the Irish Rebellion. Prior to the rebellion, the color associated with St. Patrick was blue, as blue was featured on ancient Irish flags. At the time the British wore red, so the supporters of Irish independence chose the exact opposite color to represent their cause. They all wore green, and they sang the song “The Wearing of the Green” during the rebellion, cementing the color’s relevance in Irish history. Fast forward 150 years to Chicago — a related St. Patrick’s Day tradition emphasizing the color green is Chicago’s annual dyeing of the Chicago River. The practice started in 1962, when they released 100 pounds of green vegetable dye into the river — enough to keep it green for a week!

St. Patrick’s journey of faith eventually led him to become a monk, where he rose through the ranks to finally be named Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland. Although he held high office, Patrick did not have an easy time in Ireland. He refused the gifts of kings, and lived in poverty. In his Confessio he writes “…[S]o that I might come to the Irish people to preach the Gospel and endure insults from unbelievers…and so that I might give up my free birthright for the advantage of others, and if I should be worthy, I am ready to give even my life without hesitation; and most willingly for His name.”

Because of the hardships of his life, St. Patrick is credited with the virtues of great faith and perseverance. So how can we develop such virtues in ourselves? OHI offers a full slate of classes and activities to help real transformation occur by applying learning to life. Our curriculum is based on ancient spiritual disciplines as a means of receiving the grace of God, enabling us to do what we cannot do on our own.

Here are just a few ways that OHI can help deepen your faith and improve your perseverance:

• In the OHI Release Ceremony, in a safe and sacred circle of fellowship, we each burn a list of anything in the past that no longer serves us well. We release it to God, so we can be in the present and set positive intentions for the future.
• In the OHI Emotional Detoxification class, guests learn how to feel, process, and understand the important role your emotions play in creating and maintaining health and well-being. Through emotional detox, guests discover the healing power of forgiveness.

In the late Middle Ages, three literary compositions forever associated Valentine’s Day with romantic love:

• In 1375, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote “The Parliament of Fowls” – a poem depicting a group of birds gathering on Saint Valentine’s day to choose their mates.
• In 1415, Charles, a French medieval duke, wrote a romantic poem to his wife while incarcerated in the Tower of London. In his poem, Charles refers to his wife as “my very sweet Valentine.”
• In 1477, Margery Brews wrote a love letter to her sweetheart and refers to him as her “right well-beloved valentine”.

In the 1700s, it was common for lovers to exchange flowers and hand-made Valentine cards elaborately decorated with lace and ribbon. Then in the 1800s, during the Victorian era, the Valentine’s Day card-giving tradition took flight into what we recognize today. In 1840, when the United Kingdom established the Uniform Penny Post making sending mail more accessible to all citizens. This coupled with the mass-production of these love-infused cards – the Valentine’s Day card industry was born.

• In the OHI Mental Detoxification class, guests learn how beliefs, thoughts, and emotions can create dis-ease. Together we learn how to cancel, reframe, and replace negative thoughts with positive ones to facilitate the healing process. The goal is to develop a mindfulness practice for maintaining a positive attitude — gratitude, affirmations, visualization, journaling, and living in the present.
• In the OHI Focus 1 & 2 classes, guests learn how to focus on their highest priorities by looking at how they spend their time, identify their core values, and define goals that support these values to achieve what matters most to them.
• In the OHI Your Life Is A Gift class, guests learn how to let go of unhealthy demands and expectations, change perceptions, and develop new pathways to unconditional love and happiness.