5th Century Patrick the Irish Patron Saint

Patrick was born Magonus Patricius Socatus  (Maewyn Succat) in N Cumbria (now Lake District UK) south of Hadrian's Wall in 385 AD. At the age of 16, he was kidnapped and shipped into slavery in Ireland. Magonus escaped after 6 years as a shepard near the Atlantic Ocean in Foclut Forest near Killala Bay (County Mayo). He walked 160 miles to the east coast and sailed back to the mainland in a boat packed with Irish wolfhounds.

He went through over 15 years of training and became a Christian missionary named Patrick. He now had a calling - to convert Irish pagans to Christianity, so he went back to Ireland. He was very successful at winning Irish converts to Christ over a 40 year period. He personally baptized more than 200,000 and founded 750 churches and Bible centers in the name of Christ and Celtic Christianity, and many schools.

Patrick confronted the pagan monotheistic child-sacrificing Irish Druids, and converted chieftains. He even baptized Druid warrior chiefs, along with tens of thousands of their subjects.

He used the three-leaf clover to teach the Trinity. He put the shamrock on the map, using this green clover to help explain the 3 entities that make up the Trinity God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Patrick honored the 10 Commandments just as written on two pieces of stone and carried down a desert mountain by Moses, with no changes. This meant worshipping on Saturday every week, as God’s followers did during the first 3 centuries. He also celebrated the Christian Bible Sabbath holidays every year.

He died on March 17, around 464. March 17 was first celebrated in the US in New York City and Boston in 1737. This holiday is now known for ”wearin o the green”, green beer, shamrocks, parades, dancing, and drinking.

Patrick deserves to be the Patron snake-banisher of Ireland!

               PATRICK’s  HISTORY

Stories abound about the 5th Century Patron of Ireland Patrick. Many beliefs concerning him are erroneous.  Many think that Patrick (born around 385) was Irish – but he was a Brit, born and raised in Hadrian Walls Castle (now Ravenglass) in N Cumbria Britain UK close to the Irish Sea coast due east of Ramsey Isle of Man, where the Mite, Irt and Esk Rivers come together.

"Calpurnicus Soccat was my father, a Decurio Magistrate and deacon in charge of supplying men, horses and supplies to the forts on Hadrian's Wall out of the Roman Empire huge port at Walls Castle Ravenglass.A leader in the Celtic Christian Church, he was son of Potitus Soccat the Presbyter, who dwelt in Glennavan Tiberiae. My Deacon father gave me a good education. Our port fort farm was where I was captured when I was 16. Thousands of us were taken by Irish pirates in 401 to Ireland."

Patrick spent 6 years in Ireland in captivity. He was taken to tend sheep, pigs and cows in Foclut Forest in County Mayo near Killala smelling sea breezes from the Atlantic Ocean.

He worked as a shepherd away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to Christianity for solace. God's voice spoke to Patrick in a dream, telling him to leave Ireland. So Patrick walked 200 miles from County Mayo to the Irish east coast, and escaped to his home in N Cumbria. There an angel in a dream told him to return to Ireland as a Celtic Christian missionary.

A number of the Celtic community - colonists from Asia Minor – escaped and migrated to Ireland (Erin) and laid the foundations of the pre-Patrick church. They brought with them the doctrine they received from John, Paul (for grace), James (for the 10 Commandment Law) and the other apostles.

Patrick began religious training that lasted 15 years. Then, after his ordination, he was sent by the  Celtic Christian Church to Ireland in 422 AD with a dual mission:

   …   to minister to Christians already living in Ireland, and

   ....    to continue converting the Irish.

This contradicts the notion that Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland. There were already Christians on the island when Patrick arrived. Most Irish practiced nature-based pagan religions.

                      Bonfires and Crosses

Familiar with the Irish language and culture, Patrick chose to incorporate traditional rituals into his lessons on Christianity instead of eradicating native Irish beliefs. He used bonfires to celebrate the Resurrection (Easter) since the Irish honored their gods with fire.

He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would be more natural to the Irish.

      Patrick & Early Celtic Church

        Sunday-Keeping Roman Catholics or

              Saturday Sabbath Christians?

In his work in the Christian Church, Patrick never subjected himself to any other church [ie Roman Catholic with Pope].

More than 100 years had passed since the 1st World Council at Nicaea in 325 had united the Catholic Church with the Roman Empire. Patrick rejected the union of church and state. He followed the lesson taught in John's Gospel - Christ refused   …   to be made a King.

Patrick's churches in Ireland, like in Britain and Scotland, repudiated the supremacy of the Popes, and never agreed

   …   to making the Pope a king.

Patrick and his successors Columba in Scotland and Columbanus on the continent had no Roman commission, and they kept the Saturday weekly Sabbath like most Christians did at that time.

That is why Rome could not accept them until over 500 years after their death.

Patrick, like his example Jesus,  

   …   put the words of Scripture above the teachings of men.

In this he differed from the Papacy, which

   …   puts Roman Catholic Church tradition above the teachings of the Bible.

While the Roman Catholic Church has the doctrine of celibacy - priests are to remain unmarried - the ministry of the other Christian churches such as the Celts held no such doctrine.

Biographers such as Prosper, Probus and Joscelyn wrote of his studying with St Germain in Auxerre, of attending a monastery near the Mediterranean, of his going to Rome and receiving ordination from the Pope. But claims that Patrick was a Roman Catholic are fabrications.

So knowledge of the conversion of Ireland through Patrick’s ministry had to be suppressed by Rome. There was not a written word from popes rejoicing over Patrick's additions to their Roman Catholic Church. Bede never spoke of Patrick in his celebrated 'Ecclesiastical History.' Patrick’s work did not appear in Roman Catholic publications until 634. He just was not a Roman missionary.

History reveals that in 664, Oswald, king of Northumberland, ordered Sunday observance. The Celtic Sabbath keepers, rather than to submit to it, withdrew to the Isle of Iona and to Ireland. So the  non-Catholic Christian Church had to flee from Sunday observance!

Records have been found in church monasteries in Ireland indicating they held Saturday to be the weekly day on which to rest from all their labors.

They also commemorated Christ's death on the full moon Passover. These Celtic Christians kept the Pasch on the 14th of the first spring month as the anniversary of the crucifixion a day after the day determined by Jewish authorities, whatever day of the Gregorian week it fell on.

Patrick, Columba, and the Christian assemblies also observed the other festival holidays of the year listed in Leviticus 23.

Roman Catholics and the Church of Ireland (Anglican) have now proudly claimed Patrick.  Most Protestants have indifferently allowed their claim. But he was not a Roman Catholic. He would not have become Sunday Anglican either. His life and preaching of evangelical Christian churches in the 5th century were in line with Messianic Jews regarding Saturday and the Bible holidays, which he did not believe were nailed to the cross on the basis of Colossians 2.

Patrick's Christian conversions ended lots of the slavery, human sacrifice, and most inter-tribal warfare going on in Ireland.

Ireland was churchified as the rest of Europe crumbled. Patrick's Bible centers copied and preserved classical texts. Later, Irish missionaries returned with this knowledge to Europe, establishing retreats in England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France though Gaul monasteries were largely Roman Catholic - Cistercian, Benedictine, Augustinian.

      Now you know some more truths about Saint Patrick!

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