On March 17, 1824, the first public St. Patrick's Day parade in Savannah was held to and from the site of the city's only Catholic house of worship, St. John the Baptist Church, which was built in 1779. John England, Bishop of the Diocese of Charleston and a native of Cork City, Ireland, addressed an Irish gathering of Catholics and Protestants. They later marched to the City Hotel accompanied by a full band playing the Irish national air and Hibernians carrying a flag displaying the Irish harp with a shamrock border. England's words that day sparked Savannah's parade tradition: "May the example of Savannah be widely influential; here men who differ in religion may meet as friends and brethren; the acrimony of the bigot is not permitted to destroy the harmony of society."