In the earlier days of the Church, festivities began with religious devotions at the church, but this came to an end with the confiscation and/or destruction of Roman Catholic churches between the 1540s and the 1690s, during the Reformation. By 1700, the devastation was such that very few, if any, churches in Ireland remained under Catholic control and public religious ceremonies almost disappeared. With the passage of the Penal Laws, the institutional church was an outlawed religious society; its churches few, its clergy scarce. With the central location of their devotions gone, people found alternative ways to honour their saint's feast day. While many of the faithful paid homage at the saint's shrine or in the ruins of their local church, most devotions took place at a nearby holy well, celebrated for its curative power. The earliest reference to the Pattern in Ardmore can be found in the calendar of State Papers of June 12, 1611, which mention a grant of a fair to be held at Ardmore Co. Waterford, on St. Declan's Eve or Day. Before 1800 St. Declan's Stone and the Oratory containing his skull formed the centre of the festivities on St. Declan's Day. Other places noted for large attendance include St. Patrick's Purgatory and Croagh Patrick.