Читать книгу Irish History: People, places and events that built Ireland - Neil Hegarty - Страница 17

The silvery peak of Croagh Patrick rises to 764 metres, and overlooks the island-flecked expanse of Clew Bay in west County Mayo. The mountain is nicknamed the ‘Reek’, and it has long been a significant place of pilgrimage in Ireland. On Reek Sunday – the last Sunday in July each year – thousands of walkers (some of them barefoot) climb the mountain and attend a Christian service in the small chapel on its summit. The Reek itself owes its importance to Patrick – the saint is said to have spent forty days fasting on the mountain in AD 441 – and the summer pilgrimage has survived for centuries. Nor is Croagh Patrick the only significant place of Patrician pilgrimage in Ireland today. County Donegal is home to St Patrick’s Purgatory on Station Island in Lough Derg, which similarly has been a sacred site for hundreds of years. Patrick’s remains are said to lie in Down Cathedral in County Down; and a statue of the saint stands on the Hill of Slane in County Meath, where Patrick is said to have lit the Easter Flame, or Paschal Flame, thus ushering in the age of Irish Christianity.