Patrick retired to the summit of the mountain for lonely contemplation, fasting and prayer. He remained there fasting forty days and forty nights like the Jewish teachers; Jesus Christ, Moses and Elias. Patrick was tormented by demons who assumed the form of black birds. He rang his bell so loudly that the men of Ireland heard it; finally he threw the bell at the demons so hard that it broke and the blackbirds departed. Patrick wept and an angel came to console him. He argued with the angel to secure special dispensations for the Irish people.

Thousands of pilgrims follow Patrick's footsteps and climb Croagh Patrick on Garland Sunday, the last Sunday in July. Pilgrims attend mass, receive confession and pray at St Patrick's Bed on the summit. The summer after Pope John Paul II's 1979 visit to Ireland, 60,000 pilgrims climbed the mountain on Garland Sunday. Today, just under half that number make the pilgrimage.

Back to Saint Patrick's Mission

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