St. Patrick isn’t Irish, and officially he’s not saint.
Patrick was never formally canonized. He lived before current Catholic Church laws on naming saints.[1]
Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the 4th century as Roman rule was ending. His exact birthplace is uncertain.
The dates of Patrick’s life are also uncertain. It is generally accepted he died March 17. This date is Patrick’s feast day and is celebrated worldwide as St. Patrick’s Day.
There is general agreement among historians he was active as a missionary in Ireland in the fifth century.
Two works in Latin generally accepted as written by Patrick have survived. These are the autobiographical Declaration (Confessio) and the Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus (Epistola).[2]
These works provide the only generally accepted details of his life.[3]
According to the Confession of Saint Patrick, at the age of sixteen he was captured by a group of Irish pirates, from his family’s Villa at “Bannavem Taburniae”.[9]
Patrick escaped, returned to his family, and become a cleric. He returned to northern and western Ireland as a missionary, and later served as a bishop, but little is known about this time in his life.
By the 7th century, Patrick was revered as the patron saint of Ireland.
Two late 7th-century Patrick biographers documented the early exploits helping build his fame.[4][5]
In 431, Palladius was made the first bishop of Ireland, preceding Patrick.[7]
Palladius, from a prominent family in Gaul, was a deacon. Pope Celestine I made him a bishop and sent him to Ireland “to the Scotti believing in Christ”.[6]
Parts of both life stories may have been combined in Irish tradition.[10]
Palladius ministered in Ireland until the 460s.[8]
References and sources:
[1] Flechner, Roy (2019). Saint Patrick Retold: The Legend and History of Ireland’s Patron Saint. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, page 1. ISBN 978-0691184647. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Saint_Patrick_Retold/YdVsDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
[2]Both texts in original Latin, various translations and with images of all extant manuscript testimonies on the “Saint Patrick’s Confessio HyperStack website”. Royal Irish Academy Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources.
[3]Macthéni, Muirchú maccu; White, Newport John Davis (1920). St. Patrick, his writings and life. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 31–51, 54–60.
[4]These are the writings of Tírechán and the Vita sancti Patricii of Muirchú moccu Machtheni.[58]
[5]Byrne, pp. 78–79; Paor 1993, pp. 6–7, 88–89; Duffy 1997, pp. 16–17; Fletcher 1997, pp. 300–06; Yorke 2006, p. 112
“Christianity in Ireland before Patrick”. The Irish News. 21 January 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
[7]Cusack, Margaret Anne, “Mission of St. Palladius”, An Illustrated History of Ireland, Chapter VIII, 1868 Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Entry for AD 431 Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine
[8]Byrne, pp. 78–79; Paor 1993, pp. 6–7, 88–89; Duffy 1997, pp. 16–17; Fletcher 1997, pp. 300–06; Yorke 2006, p. 112
[9]“Confession of St Patrick”. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. 7 April 2013. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014.
[10]O’Rahilly, T. F. (1942). The Two Patricks: A Lecture on the History of Christianity in Fifth-Century Ireland. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Music: A Celtic Blessing – Bonnie Grace
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