St. Patrick has been the patron saint of Nigeria since 1961. He is celebrated alongside the Virgin Mary due to the work of the St. Patrick's Missionary Society in Nigeria prior to its independence. For St. Patrick's Day, Nigerian Catholics credit Irish missionaries who spread Catholicism in Nigeria from the early 1900s with schools holding celebrations and designating it as a day off. Churches in Britain remind people on St. Patrick's Day that he is also the patron saint of Nigeria in their celebrations of the day. It is important that St. Patrick not be considered exclusively the patron saint of Ireland but of Nigeria as well.