| The truth about "Saint Patrick" and the Early Celtic Church" St. Patrick's Day is now associated with everything Irish, from the colour green to shamrocks, good luck to Guinness! However the color of Saint Patrick traditionally is blue and the Christian religious purpose of Saint Patrick's Day is for spiritual regeneration and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide. Patrick was a missionary who worked for 40 years in Ireland, preaching, baptizing, and establishing churches, schools and colleges. History reports that he used shamrock leaves to explain the meaning of the Trinity. There is a legend of how St. Patrick when preaching to some soon-to-be converted heathens was shown a  sacred standing stone that was marked with a circle that was symbolic of the moon goddess. Patrick made the mark of a Latin cross through the circle and blessed the stone making the first Celtic Cross. Many have heard stories of the "Patron Saint" of Ireland: Patrick. But of these stories that abound, and the beliefs that are held concerning him, much is quite erroneous. Many think that Patrick (born ca. 360 CE) was Irish--he was not, but rather he was of Scottish/British origin.
"The place of his birth was Bonnaven, which lay between the Scottish towns Dumbarton and Glasgow, and was then reckoned to the province of Britain. This village, in memory of Patricius, received the name of Kil-Patrick or Kirk-Patrick. His father, a deacon in the village church, gave him a careful education." (Dr. August Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol. II, p.122. Boston: 1855).
"Patrick himself writes in his Confession: 'I, Patrick, ...had Calpornius
for my father, a deacon, a son of the late Potitus, the presbyter, (Priest) who dwelt
in the village of Banavan....I was captured. I was almost sixteen years of
age...and taken to Ireland in captivity with many thousand men.'" (William
Cathcart, D. D., The Ancient British and Irish Churches, p.127).
"Patrick, a son of a Christian family in southern Scotland, was carried off to Ireland by pirates about 376 A. D. Here, in slavery, he gave his heart to God and, after six years of servitude, escaped, returning to his home in Scotland. But he could not forget the spiritual need of these poor heathen, and after ten years he returned to Ireland as a missionary of the Celtic church." (ibid, p. 70). Many also believe Patrick to be of the Roman Catholic system, yet in Patrick's own Confession which we read part of above, he claims that his father was a deacon and his grandfather a presbyter. While the Roman Catholic Church holds the doctrine of "sacerdotal celibacy," wherein members of its ministry are to remain unmarried and thus virgins, the ministry of the Celtic Churches held no such doctrine. This is one of many doctrinal distinctions between the two faith sytems. The claims that Patrick was a Roman Catholic are mere fabrications as we shall see clearly. "There is here a hiatus of unknown length in his life; a chasm, however, which his midiaeval biographers have filled up according to the liveliness of their fancy, or the supposed credulity of their readers. They wrote of his studying with St. Germain, and of his attending a monastery near the Mediterrenean, and finally of his going to Rome and receiving ordination from the pope. All these are mere inventions, and were not put forth till more than five hundred years after St. Patrick's death, and all of them are presented without a shadow of proof....In the establishment of his Church, St. Patrick in no instance ever appealed to any foreign Church [i.e., Rome, or anywhere else], pope or bishop. In his Epistle to Coroticus (sect. 1), he simply announces himself as bishop: 'I, Patrick, an unlearned man, to wit, a bishop constituted in Ireland: what I am I have received from God'...These well authenicated statements of St. Patrick concerning himself are wholly at variance with those of Probus and Joscelyn, who, for the first time, put forth their fabrications full five hundred years after his death. In regard to his studying with St. Germain at Tours, and of his going to Rome for ordination, all these stories were invented in the 10th or 12th century. Joscelyn, who wrote the fullest life of the saint, about A.D.1130, has, in one sense, really the praise or dispraise of bringing the Irish Church into that of Rome. The abbe, not being embarrassed with facts, dates, or contemporary history, wrote easily and readily, and presented a life of the Irish saint that exactly suited his times, in the beginning of the 12th century. He represented St. Patrick and the early Church of Ireland in the 5th century as exact models of his own in the 12th. This life of the saint was readily received and adopted  as the only true one by the Roman Catholic Church, and it has ever been the 'storehouse' from which his numerous and papal biographers have drawn their materials. After the publication, and the general reception of this book, there was no hesitation in the full acknowledgment of all the Irish Christians, and of St. Patrick among them. Archbishop Usher, on the Religion
of the Early Irish, asks (iv, 320): 'Who among them [the early Irish] was ever
canonized before St. Malachias, or Malachy, was?' (A.D. 1150). St. Patrick
himself seems never to have been sainted till all Ireland was sainted or
canonized." (McClintock and Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and
Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. VII, pp.774,775; article: Patrick, St.)
"There is strong evidence that Patrick had no Roman commission in
Ireland...As Patrick's churches in Ireland, like their brethren in Britain,
repudiated the supremacy of the popes, all knowledge of the conversion of
Ireland through his ministry must be suppressed [by Rome]....There is not a
written word from one of them [i.e., popes] rejoicing over Patrick's additions
to their church, showing clearly that he was not a Roman missionary....Prosper
does not notice Patrick....He says nothing of the greatest success ever given
to a missionary of Christ, apparently because he [Patrick] was not a
Romanist....Bede never speaks of St. Patrick in his celebrated 'Ecclesiastical
History.'...So completely buried was Patrick and his work by popes and other
Roman Catholics, that in their epistles and larger publications, his name does
not once occur in one of them until A. D. 634." (William Cathcart, D. D., The
Ancient British and Irish Churches, pp.83-85)
Due to the world of Patrick's day knowing the truth about him and the
Celtic Church, Rome made no mention of, or claim to, Patrick until at least 200
years after his time. Bede did however make record in 431 A.D. of an attempt of
a Roman Catholic missionary to bring the Celtic assemblies under the rule and
doctrine of Rome:
"Palladius was sent by Celestinus, the Roman pontiff, to the Scots
[Irish] that believed in Christ." (Bede, Ecclesiastical History, p.22) But "he
left because he did not receive respect in Ireland" (William Cathcart, D. D.,
The Ancient British and Irish Churches, p.72).
Such disrespect would be unheard of if the Celtic assemblies had indeed
been adherents of Rome's "gospel." Rome was looking to claim what the true Gospel already had when it entered the "Britians" (Britian, Ireland, Scotland) during the first century:
"That the light of Christianity dawned upon these islands in the course
of the first century, is a matter of historical certainty" (Richard Hart, B.
A., Ecclesiastical Records, p. vii; Cambridge: 1846).
"The Christianity which first reached France and England (i.e., Gaul and
Britian) was of the school of the apostle John, who ruled the churches in Asia
Minor, and therefore of a Greek, not Latin [i.e., Roman], type." (Gordon,
World Healers, p.78)
"A large number of this Keltic community (Lyons, A.D.177)--colonists from
Asia Minor--who escaped, migrated to Ireland (Erin) and laid the foundations
of the pre-Patrick church." (Thomas Yeates, East Indian Church History, p.226) Tertullian, ca 200 A.D., wrote "by this time, the varied races of the
Gµtulians, and manifold confines of the Moors, all the limits of the Spains,
and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons
(inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ)...In all which places
the name of Christ who is already come reigns." (Tertullian, Answer to the
Jews, chap. vii.)
Tertullian had included the Britons among the many nations which believed
in Christ, and he speaks of these places as being "inaccessible to the Romans,
but subjugated to Christ." In other words, the Church there was not founded by,
nor subject to, Rome.
"He (Patrick) never mentions either Rome or the pope or hints that he was
in any way connected with the ecclesiastical capital of Italy. He recognizes
no other authority but that of the word of God. ...When Palladius arrived in
the country, it was not to be expected that he would receive a very hearty
welcome from the Irish apostle. If he was sent by [pope] Celestine to the
native Christians to be their primate or archbishop, no wonder that
stout-hearted Patrick refused to bow his neck to any such yoke of bondage."
(Dr. Killen, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol.1, pp.12-15)
"Patrick rejected the union of church and state. More than one hundred
years had passed since the first world council at Nicaea had united the church
with the empire. Patrick rejected this model. He followed the lesson taught in
John's Gospel when Christ refused to be made a king. Jesus said, 'My kingdom is not of this world' (John 18:36). Not only the Irish apostle but his famous
successors, Columba in Scotland, and Columbanus on the Continent, ignored the supremacy of the papal pontiff. They never would have agreed to making the
pope a king." (Truth Triumphant, pp.85,86)
"Two centuries elapsed after Patrick's death before any writer attempted
to connect Patrick's work with a papal commission. No pope ever mentioned him, neither is there anything in the ecclesiastical records of Rome concerning
him. ...Patrick preached the Bible. He appealed to it as the sole authority
for founding the Irish Church. He gave credit to no other worldly authority;
he recited no creed. Several official creeds of the church at Rome had by that
time been ratified and commanded, but Patrick mentions none. In his Confession he makes a brief statement of his beliefs, but he does not refer to any church
council or creed as authority. The training centers he founded, which later
 grew into colleges and large universities, were all Bible schools. Famous
students of these schools -- Columba, who brought Scotland to Christ, Aidan,
who won pagan England to the gospel, and Columbanus with his successors, who brought Christianity to Germany, France, Switzerland, and Italy -- took the
Bible as their only authority, and founded renowned Bible training centers for
the Christian believers. ... Patrick, like his example, Jesus, put the words
of Scripture above the teachings of men. He differed from the Papacy, which
puts church tradition above the Bible. In his writings he nowhere appeals to
the church at Rome for the authorization of his mission. Whenever he speaks in
defense of his mission, he refers to God alone, and declares that he received
his call direct from heaven." (Truth Triumphant, pp.82-84)
Pope Gregory had sent delegates to the Christians Celts: "'Acknowledge the
authority of the Bishop of Rome.' These are the first words of the Papacy to the
ancient Christians of Britain. They meekly replied: 'The only submission we can
render him is that which we owe to every Christian.'" (Merle D' Aubigne, History
of the Reformation, Book XVII, chap. 2.) "'But as for further obedience, we know
of none that he, whom you term the Pope, or Bishop of Bishops, can claim or
demand." (Early British History, G. H. Whalley, Esq., M. P., p.17 London: 1860;
see also Variation of Popery, Rev. Samuel Edger, D. D., pp. 180-183. New York:
1849) "The monks sent to England [in 596 A.D.] by Pope Gregory the Great soon
came to see that the Celtic Church differed from theirs in many
respects…Augustine himself [a Benedictine abbot]…held several conferences with the Christian Celts in order to accomplish the difficult task of their
subjugation [submission] to Roman authority…The Celts permitted their priests
to marry, the Romans forbade it. The Celts used a different mode of baptism
[i.e., true baptism: immersion] from that of the Romans…The Celts held their
own councils and enacted their own laws, independent of Rome. The Celts used a Latin Bible [i.e., the Itala] unlike the [Roman Catholic's Latin] Vulgate, and
kept Saturday as a day of rest.” (A.C. Flick, The Rise of Medieval Church,
p.236-327)
"It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times,
in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day
of rest from labor. They obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the
seventh day of the week." (James C. Moffatt, D. D.,The Church in Scotland,
Philadelphia: 1882, p.140)
"In this latter instance they seemed to have followed a custom of which
we find traces in the early monastic church of Ireland by which they held
Saturday to be the Sabbath on which they rested from all their labours." (W.T.
Skene, Adamnan Life of St. Columba, 1874, p.96)
As noted above, the Christianity which first reached France and Britian was
of the school of the apostle John, who ruled the churches in Asia Minor.
Colonists from Asia Minor laid the foundations of the pre-Patrick church. They
brought with them the doctrine which they received of John, Paul, Philip, and
the other apostles of the Lord, which included not only the observance of the
seventh day Sabbath, but also the commemoration of Christ's death upon the 14th of Abib--Passover!
"It is probable that the primitive Christians kept the Pasch on the 14th of
Nisan as determined by the Jewish authorities, and regarded it as the
anniversary of the crucifixion. ...The churches of the Roman province of
Asia...followed the older custom, keeping the Pasch on the 14th of Nisan,
whatever the day of the week." (James F. Kenney, The Sources for the Early
History of Ireland, Vol.1, pp.211, 212; Columbia University Press, New York,
1929)
"...they ignorantly refuse to observe our Easter [Pascha] on which Christ was
sacrificed, arguing that it should be observed with the Hebrew Passover on the
fourteenth of the moon." (Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, II, 19 wherein Bede
quoted "Pope" John's words concerning the Celtic brethren)
Other doctrines that Patrick, Columba, and the Celtic assemblies held
included the observation of the other Festivals of the Eternal (Lev.23), the
belief in the mortality of man and the hope of the resurrection (vs. immortality
of the soul and going to heaven, hell, and/or purgatory); the distinction
between clean and unclean animals; "improvised" prayers (from the heart, rather
than merely from the lip with repetitions); that Christ Jesus is our only
Mediator--as opposed to various "saints," Mary, angels, etc.; and that
redemption and atonement comes through the life, death, and resurrection of
Christ alone--separate from works and heeding commandments/doctrines of men (see The Celtic Church in Britian by Leslie Hardinge, as well as Truth Triumphant by B.G. Wilkinson, for documentation).
"The Roman Catholics have proudly and exclusively claimed St. Patrick, and
most Protestants have ignorantly or indifferently allowed their claim...But he
was no Romanist. His life and evangelical Church of the 5th century ought to be
better known." (McClintock and Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and
Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. VII, p.776; article: Patrick, St.)
We hope you have been edified in knowing the truth about the real saint Patrick
who kept the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Author: Brian Hoeck Find out more about Celtic Christianity
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