St. Patrick's Day 2027

St. Patrick's Day 2027 falls on Wednesday, March 17, 2027. It comes in the fifth week of Lent, four days before Palm Sunday, so the feast of Ireland's apostle lands in the middle of the Church's season of penance. Here is what that means for Mass, for meat and fasting, and for keeping the day well.

St. Patrick's Day 2027 at a glance

• Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2027
• Season: Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday, February 10
• Meat: allowed; it is not a Friday
• Ireland: Solemnity of St. Patrick, principal patron of Ireland; holy day of obligation and public holiday
• United States: a Lenten weekday with the optional memorial of St. Patrick, Bishop
• Two days later: the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Friday, March 19
• Palm Sunday: March 21; Easter: March 28

Why March 17?

March 17 is the day Irish tradition gives for St. Patrick's death, sometime in the later 5th century. The feast was kept in Ireland from the early Middle Ages and entered the universal calendar in the 17th century. Patrick left us his own account of his life, the Confessio. A Briton taken captive to Ireland at about sixteen, he tended sheep and learned to pray there: "in one day I would pray up to one hundred times, and at night perhaps the same." He escaped, came home, and then went back to the people who had enslaved him, as their bishop. For his life, his writings and the legends of the snakes and the shamrock, see our full entry on St. Patrick.

St. Patrick's Day in Lent

Easter moves and March 17 doesn't, but St. Patrick's Day always falls in Lent: Ash Wednesday comes no later than March 10, and Holy Thursday, when Lent ends, no earlier than March 19. In 2027 Easter is March 28, so March 17 is the Wednesday of the fifth week of Lent.

In the United States, St. Patrick is an optional memorial, and the US bishops' calendar prints him in brackets on that day: a "Lenten Weekday" with "[Saint Patrick, Bishop]." On a weekday of Lent the readings of the day are kept, and the priest may honor the saint with the prayer of his feast. Many Irish parishes and parishes named for St. Patrick celebrate him with a festive Mass all the same.

In Ireland the day ranks as a solemnity, the highest rank of feast. The Irish bishops list "St Patrick (17 March)" with Christmas, the Epiphany, the Assumption, All Saints and the Immaculate Conception among the country's holy days of obligation. Only Holy Week displaces it. In 2008, when March 17 fell on Monday of Holy Week, the Irish bishops moved the liturgical feast to Saturday, March 15, while the parades kept their usual day. That can't happen in 2027.

Corned beef, fasting and the Friday dispensation

Here is the question many Catholics ask every March: can I eat meat on St. Patrick's Day?

In 2027, yes. In the United States, abstinence from meat binds Catholics 14 and older on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and the Fridays of Lent. Fasting binds those 18 to 59 on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday only. A Wednesday in Lent is neither, so the corned beef and cabbage can go on the table without a second thought.

When March 17 falls on a Friday, it's another matter. Canon 1251 of the Code of Canon Law sets abstinence on "all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday." In Ireland St. Patrick's Day is a solemnity, so a Friday feast lifts the abstinence there automatically. In the United States it isn't, so the Friday rule stands. That is why many American bishops issue a dispensation in such years. The Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph did so for Friday, March 17, 2023, under canons 87 and 91, for those "participating in observances of the Memorial of Saint Patrick," and asked them "to adopt another day of abstinence in place of March 17 or substitute a suitable penitential observance, such as prayer, fasting, or almsgiving." Other dioceses asked people to move their day of abstinence to Saturday, or to ask a priest for a personal dispensation. Each bishop decides for his own diocese.

The next Friday St. Patrick's Day comes in 2028. If you plan a parish dinner that year, check your diocese's announcement first.

One more Friday to know about in 2027: March 19, two days after St. Patrick's Day, is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, and it falls on a Friday of Lent. Under the same canon 1251, there is no abstinence that day anywhere. It is the day for a St. Joseph's Table and a feast with the whole family.

How to keep St. Patrick's Day 2027

St. Patrick's Day started as a holy day, and it can be one again in your home. Some ways to keep it in 2027:

1. Go to Mass. In Ireland it is required; in the US, a weekday Mass on March 17 is a gift to the saint who brought the faith to a whole people. Many parades in American cities begin with Mass.
2. Pray St. Patrick's Breastplate. The old Irish prayer "Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me" is the prayer most bound to his name. Its full text and history are on our St. Patrick's Breastplate page.
3. Wear the shamrock. Pinning a sprig of shamrock to your coat is an old Irish custom, tied to the traditional story that Patrick used the three-leaved plant to teach the Holy Trinity. The story is later than his own writings, but the lesson is a true one.
4. Color St. Patrick with the children. Print our free St. Patrick coloring page and read the story of his escape from slavery aloud while the children color.
5. Remember the other saints of Ireland. St. Brigid and St. Columba share Patrick's title of patron of Ireland; meet them and many others in our guide to Irish saints.
6. Keep Lent. Lent isn't suspended for a feast on a weekday. A good St. Patrick's Day in Lent might include a parade and a family meal and still keep the sacrifices you chose on Ash Wednesday; see Lent 2027.

The week around St. Patrick's Day 2027

March 2027 is crowded with feasts. The Fifth Sunday of Lent falls on March 14. After St. Patrick on Wednesday comes St. Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop and Doctor of the Church, on Thursday, March 18, and then St. Joseph on Friday. Palm Sunday opens Holy Week on March 21. The Annunciation, normally March 25, falls on Holy Thursday this year, so the US bishops' calendar moves it to Monday, April 5, after the Easter octave.

Parades and the Irish abroad

The parades began among the Irish abroad. The earliest recorded St. Patrick's Day procession was held in 1601 in the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, Florida, and Irish soldiers marched in New York in 1762, the beginning of what became that city's great parade. Irish emigrants made the day a show of faith and pride, and the customs traveled back to Ireland, where Dublin now holds a national festival. Our St. Patrick entry tells that history in full.

A prayer for St. Patrick's Day

The Mass of St. Patrick opens with a prayer from the Roman Missal that asks God, who chose Patrick "to preach your glory to the peoples of Ireland," to grant that "those who glory in the name of Christian may never cease to proclaim your wondrous deeds to all." That is a good intention for the day: that we, like Patrick, would carry the Gospel to the people God puts in our path.

St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland, pray for us, for Ireland, and for all the Irish scattered across the world.

For the other feasts of the season, see Easter 2027 and the Catholic calendar 2027, and for any date in March, our feast day calendar.