“The Real Saint Patrick”
By Darryl Eberhart, Editor of ETI & TTT Newsletters // Website: www.toughissues.org
A 6-Page Handout // All emphasis is mine unless otherwise stated. // March 12, 2010
Permission
is given to copy and distribute this article.
NOTE: Webster’s 1828
American Dictionary of the English Language defines the terms “Celt”
and “Celtic” as follow: (1) “Celt: One of the primitive
inhabitants of the South of Europe.” (2) “Celtic: Pertaining to the
primitive inhabitants of the South and West of Europe, or to the early
inhabitants of Italy, Gaul [Ed.: i.e., ancient France], Spain and
Britain.
The “Saint Patrick” who was allegedly a Catholic bishop
sent from Rome to Ireland – and whose day is celebrated each year on March 17th
– was an invention of some clever ecclesiastics at Rome over a century
or more after the real Patrick, the Celtic Christian evangelist of
Ireland, had died circa 466 A.D. The real Patrick was not Irish.
Patrick, also called Succat, was born in Roman-controlled Britain circa 373 A.D.
Although raised by godly, Bible-believing Christian parents, Patrick didn’t
have time for “religion”. When he was almost 16 years of age, he was
kidnapped by marauding Irish pirates and sold to a pagan Irish clan in the
northern part of Ireland. While still in captivity, Patrick remembered his
parents’ words about the real Savior of the world – and some of the
Scripture that he had been taught – and he surrendered his life to Jesus
Christ. He escaped and returned to Britain. However, having heard a call from
God to return to Ireland, Patrick did so circa 405 A.D. Patrick
evangelized much of Ireland, and established numerous churches – none
of which had any connection to the church at Rome. He also helped to establish a
number of monasteries to teach the Bible – monasteries that bore almost
no resemblance to Roman Catholic monasteries. (Celtic Christianity, to which
Patrick belonged, did not impose mandatory celibacy upon its clergy!)
Patrick’s words show that he was a Bible-believing Christian who had no
connection to the church at Rome. Circa 432 A.D. the Romish Church sent
one of their prelates, Palladius, to secure Ireland for the Bishop of Rome.
Palladius, however, had no success in subjugating under Rome the Celtic
Christian churches that Patrick had helped to establish in Ireland. Palladius
stayed only a brief time in Ireland. Realizing that he had little chance
of success, he left for northern Britain.
Again, it was well over a century after the real Patrick had died
(circa 466 A.D.) that several ecclesiastics in Rome came up with the brilliant
idea to combine portions of the character of the real Patrick with
portions of the character of the Romish prelate Palladius, thus creating
a Romish version of a “Patrick sent from Rome” (along with a whole
lot of Romish myths and fables)!
Let’s take a look at several quotations that deal with the topic of the
real “Saint Patrick”:
“Patrick
was a saint in the biblical sense…He was also a great Bible-quoting
preacher of the [Ed.: true] Gospel [Ed.:
of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone, by God’s grace alone]. In
fact, it was said of him [Ed.: i.e., Patrick] that he was a ‘man of one
Book’ [Ed.: i.e., the Holy Bible]. He never appealed to any
creed, pope or council; but in his writings, brief as they are, no fewer than
113 passages of Scripture are either quoted or mentioned.
Taken as a slave to Ireland from his native Britain as a lad of sixteen, he was made to tend the flocks of his pagan Irish master on the rugged mountain of Slemish.
Amidst
the solitude of his captivity, he was gloriously converted [Ed.: to
true, Biblical Christianity] – calling upon the Lord. Providently, he later
was enabled to escape his slavery and find his way home to be with his family in
Britain again.
The
Lord called him however to go back to Ireland with the message of salvation
through faith in the Lord Jesus. This he did faithfully and today he is
known around the world as the man who brought the Gospel to Ireland.” –
Donald F. Maconaghie (Excerpt taken from the tract “Who Was Saint
Patrick?” – available from “The Conversion Center, Inc.”,
phone: 1-800-631-8220)
“The
heroic figure of Patrick, taken captive as a boy into slavery, stands out as a
creator of civilization. He was not only an architect of European society and
the father of Irish Christianity, but he raised up a standard against spiritual
wolves entering the fold in sheep’s clothing. [Ed.: The reference to “spiritual
wolves…in sheep’s clothing” is aimed especially at those
ecclesiastics of the Church of Rome who were introducing many doctrines and
practices derived from paganism into primitive Christianity.] So much legend
and fiction has been written about him [Ed.: i.e., Patrick] that one is
almost led to believe that there were two individuals – the real
Patrick and the fictitious Patrick. That statement may come as a surprise
to many, yet it is a fact that the actual Patrick belonged to the Church
in the Wilderness [Ed.: i.e., the true “church” or “body” of
Bible-believing Christians that existed outside of the Church of Rome]. He
[Ed.: i.e., Patrick] should not be placed where certain historians
seem determined to assign him. …He [Ed.: i.e., Patrick] was of
that early church which was brought to Ireland from Syria. He was in no way
connected with the type of Christianity [Ed.: i.e. Roman Catholicism]
which developed in Italy and which was ever at war with the church
organized by Patrick.
Patrick
belongs to the Celtic race, of which the Britons of England, as well as the
Scotch and Irish, are a part…
…His
[Ed.: i.e., Patrick’s] birthplace was in that kingdom of Strathclyde,
inhabited and controlled by the ancient Britons, which lay immediately northwest
of England…
…At the age of sixteen, Patrick was carried captive to Ireland by freebooters [Ed.: i.e., pirates]…
…The
grandfather of Patrick was a presbyter [Ed.: in a Celtic Christian church in
Britain]…Patrick’s father was a deacon in the [Ed.:
Celtic Christian] church [Ed.: in Britain], a town counselor, a
farmer, and a husband. To the glory of God, it came to pass that, during his
seven years of slavery in Ireland, Patrick acquired the Irish form of the
Celtic language. This was of great value, because the fierce fighting
disposition of the pagan Irish, at that time, was a barrier to the Romans’ or
Britons’ attempting missionary work across the channel on a large scale…
…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 [Ed.:
Papal] 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…
Patrick,
like his example, Jesus [Ed.: Christ], 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… [Ed.: Please note that the real
Saint Patrick never made any mention of the Church at Rome, the Bishop of
Rome, any Romish council, or any other Romish authority as being his
“authority” for founding Bible-believing, Celtic Christian churches in
Ireland!]
Patrick believed that Christianity should be founded with the home and the family as its strength. Too often the Christian organizations of that age were centered in celibacy. This was not true of the Irish Church and its Celtic daughters in Great Britain, Scotland, and on the [Ed.: European] Continent. The Celtic Church, as organized and developed under Patrick, permitted its clergy to marry. [Ed.: Romanism forbade its clergy to marry. Please see I Timothy 4:1-3.]
The absence
of [Ed.: mandatory; enforced] celibacy in the Celtic Church gives added
proof to the fact that the [Ed.: Celtic Christian] believers had no
connection with the church at Rome…
One of the
strongest proofs that Patrick did not belong to papal Christianity
[Ed.: i.e., the Roman Catholic Church] is found in the historical fact that
for centuries [Ed.: papal] Rome made every effort to destroy the [Ed.:
Irish Celtic Christian] church [Ed.: that] Patrick had founded…
About 200
years after Patrick, papal authors began to tell of a certain Palladius, who was
sent in 430 by this same Pope Celestine as a bishop to the Irish. [Ed.:
Several good sources have the Romish prelate Palladius arriving in Ireland circa
432 A.D.] They all admit, however, that he [Ed.: i.e., Palladius] stayed
only a short time in Ireland and was compelled to withdraw because
of the disrespect which was shown him.” – B.G. Wilkinson (“Truth
Triumphant: The Church in the Wilderness”; TEACH Services, Inc., Brushton,
New York; 2005; Pages 77-87)
“[Ed.: Early,
Bible-believing and Bible-practicing] Christianity in England was at first
comparatively free from [Ed.: Roman] Catholic influence, but much of it
was destroyed in the Anglo-Saxon invasions from the middle of the fifth century.
About the year 385 [Ed.: several good sources place the year of Patrick’s
birth circa 373 A. D.] in a village called Bannavern, the exact location of
which is unknown, was born Succat, or as he is more commonly known to us today,
Patrick [Ed.: and even more commonly known as “Saint Patrick”].
Patrick’s parents were simple, devout [Ed.: Bible-believing] Christians
[Ed.: with no connection to the church at Rome], but their son, during
his early years, took little interest in their spiritual instruction. When he
was in his teens, he was carried off by a band of marauding Irishmen and sold as
a slave into a pagan clan. It was there, separated from every outward Christian
influence, that he recalled to mind the lessons of his boyhood and yielded
himself to [Ed.: the Lord Jesus] Christ. [Ed.: In other words,
Patrick became a genuine Christian.] …Eventually,
back among his own people, he heard the call of God to return to Ireland with
the [Ed.: true] Gospel
[Ed.: of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone, by God’s grace alone].
Patrick reached Ireland again in 432 and commenced his work of
evangelization. [Ed.: Several
good sources indicate that Patrick reached Ireland again circa 405
A.D. It was the Romish prelate
Palladius who arrived in Ireland circa 432 A.D.] …There
is no indication that he [Ed.:
i.e., Patrick] accepted the authority of Rome, and the churches which were
established [Ed.: by Patrick] were certainly of a vastly different and
purer order [Ed.: than the churches controlled by the Bishop of Rome].
The Gospel which Patrick proclaimed was not the [Ed.: Romish] Gospel
of traditions or sacraments, but the message of the Word of God which was used
to bring many to repentance and allegiance to Christ.” – John W. Kennedy
of India (“The Torch of the Testimony”; SeedSowers Publishing,
Jacksonville, Florida; first published October, 1965; Page 105)
“Ireland’s
patron saint has long been shrouded in legend: he drove the snakes out of
Ireland; he triumphed over Druids and their supernatural powers; he used a
shamrock to explain the Christian mystery of the Trinity. But his true story is
more fascinating than the myths. We have no surviving image of Patrick, but we
do have two remarkable letters that he wrote about himself and his beliefs –
letters that tell us more about the heart and soul of this man than we know
about almost any of his contemporaries. In [Ed.: the book] ‘St. Patrick
of Ireland’, Philip Freeman brings the historic Patrick and his world vividly
to life.
Born
in Britain late in the fourth century to an aristocratic family, Patrick was
raised as a Roman citizen and a nominal Christian, destined for the privileged
life of the nobility. But just before his sixteenth birthday, he was kidnapped
by Irish pirates and abducted to Ireland, where he spent six lonely years as a
slave, tending sheep. Trapped in a foreign land, despondent, and at the mercy of
his master, Patrick’s ordeal turned him from an atheist to a true believer.
After a vision in which God told him he would go home, Patrick escaped captivity
and, following a perilous journey, returned to his astonished parents. Even more
astonishing was his announcement that he intended to go back to Ireland and
devote the rest of his life to ministering to the people who had once enslaved
him.
One
of Patrick’s two surviving letters is a declaration written to jealous British
bishops in defense of his activities in Ireland; the other is a stinging
condemnation of a ruthless warlord who attacked and killed some of Patrick’s
Irish followers. Both are powerful statements remarkable for their passion and
candor. [Ed.: Author Philip] Freeman includes them in full in new
translations of his own.
Combining
Patrick’s own heartfelt account of his life as he revealed it himself with the
turbulent history of the British Isles in the last years of the Roman Empire, [Ed.:
the book] ‘St. Patrick of Ireland’ brilliantly brings to life the real
Patrick, shorn of legend, and shows how he helped to change Irish history and
culture.” (Quote taken from the inside cover of the book, “St.
Patrick of Ireland: A Biography”, by Philip Freeman; Publisher: Simon
& Schuster, New York, NY; December 2009 hardcover edition) [Ed.: I recently
purchased this 216-page hardcover book at my local Barnes & Noble
bookstore.]
“But
we [Ed.: i.e., Richard Bennett and many other Irish Roman Catholics] knew
nothing about who the real Patrick was. It was only after my 48
years in [Ed.: Roman] Catholicism – 22 years as a [Ed.: Roman
Catholic] priest – then I became a Bible believer – it was about 6 or 7
years afterwards that I began reading and studying the [Ed.: real] historical
Patrick. And my eyes were opened – because I discovered that the historical,
real Patrick was not a bishop of the [Ed.: Roman] Catholic Church.
He was not a bishop of any church [Ed.: i.e., of any particular
denomination]. [Ed.: Patrick was a “bishop” only in the Biblical
sense: that is, like the Apostle Paul, Patrick was a guardian of the
various local Celtic Christian churches and Bible-teaching monasteries that he
had established – churches and monasteries that Patrick jealously protected
from the hierarchical, sacerdotal type of “Christianity” emanating
out of the church at Rome! Patrick certainly was not a pretentious, proud
prelate of the “Romish-bishop” type!] He [Ed.: i.e., the real
Patrick] was an evangelist [Ed.: more specifically, a
Bible-believing, Bible-teaching Celtic Christian evangelist] who came to
Ireland with the doctrine of God’s grace and of salvation in the person of [Ed.:
Jesus] Christ.” – Richard Bennett (Former Roman Catholic priest of 22
years; this quote was taken from the beginning of his DVD, “The Real Saint
Patrick”)
NOTE: You can purchase a copy of
Richard Bennett’s 58-minute DVD, entitled “The Real Saint Patrick”,
for $8 postage paid (to U.S. locations) by making check or money order in that
amount (in U.S. funds) payable to “Richard Bennett”, and mailing it
to: Richard Bennett // P.O. Box 192 // Del Valle, TX 78617-0192.
“Ireland
has a very distinctive history. It was an island untouched by the Roman legions,
and Patrick, the Evangelist, brought to it the Gospel of grace. Patrick was
himself descended from a family that had been, for two generations at least, in
Christ Jesus. [Ed.: This means that Patrick’s family members were
Bible-believing Celtic Christians, and not adherents of the Church of
Rome.] His father, he [Ed.: i.e., Patrick] tells us, was ‘the deacon
Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a presbyter, of the settlement of Bannaven
Taburniae’…
Patrick
was born in the year 373 in a town on the River Clyde in Roman Britain, now a
part of Scotland. When he was sixteen years old, Patrick was captured by a band
of [Ed.: Irish] pirates who sold him to a chieftain in what is now county
Antrim in Northern Ireland. For six years he tended flocks… It was
during the time of his captivity that he turned from his careless ways and came
to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus… Patrick relates how, after six
years, he escaped – and after a difficult journey on land and sea – returned
to his people in Scotland…
Like
the Apostle Paul, he [Ed.: i.e., Patrick] received a clear and personal
call from the Lord to preach the [Ed.: true, Biblical] Gospel in the land
of his former captivity…
…Quite
clearly Patrick saw himself as a sinner. He did not look to some spark of life
from within himself or to some ritual; rather, he looked unto Christ Jesus. …Totally
unlike religion that looks to rituals, Patrick had his eyes set on the Lord [Ed.:
Jesus Christ]. Catholicism now, and to some extent even in Patrick’s time,
looks to sacraments as necessary for salvation. Patrick saw himself only as a
sinner saved by grace in Christ Jesus. Patrick’s message is that
salvation is totally in Christ alone – a message utterly diverse from
that of Roman Catholicism then and now.
Patrick,
the Christian Evangelist, being about 30 years old and together with some
brothers in the Lord, set out for Ireland. He arrived in or about the year 405.
This fact of history is authentic and verified. …This date is of great
importance because…later there was an attempt made to confuse
Patrick with the [Ed.: Romish prelate] Palladius, who had been sent out
by Pope Celestine as a missionary to Ireland. When news of Patrick’s Christian
success [Ed.: in Ireland] had reached Rome, Pope Celestine then sent
Palladius as a bishop to bring the [Ed.: Irish Celtic Christian] churches
[Ed.: that Patrick had established] under the control of the Papacy.
It was in 432, at least 27 years after Patrick’s commission from
God, that Palladius from Rome came on the scene [Ed.: in Ireland]. When [Ed.:
the Romish prelate] Palladius did come to Ireland, it was to an Ireland that
had many [Ed.: Bible-believing, Celtic] Christian churches – [Ed.:
churches] that did not accept his message of subservience to the
Bishop of Rome. In actual fact, [Ed.: the Romish prelate] Palladius
was greatly discouraged by his lack of success. To quote from the historian
Philip Schaff, ‘Palladius was so discouraged that he soon abandoned the [Ed.:
Irish] field, with his assistants, for north Britain…The Roman [Ed.:
Catholic] mission of Palladius failed; the independent mission of Patrick
succeeded. He [Ed.: i.e., the real Patrick] is the true Apostle of
Ireland, and has impressed his memory in indelible characters upon the Irish
race at home and abroad.’
…He
[Ed.: i.e., Patrick] relied on Christ Jesus and the glorious Holy
Spirit given to convict people of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He
understood grace to be entirely from God…
…Over
the course of 60 years, Patrick went the length and breadth of Ireland preaching
the Gospel and, like Timothy and Titus before him, he ordained elders and
established churches. It is reckoned that at the end of his days there were 365
churches across the island [Ed.: of Ireland]. These were established, as
were the churches in Biblical times, with the people served by a pastor or
elder. The authority of the pastor was one of service, rather than
lording it over the people. [Ed.: This latter type of authority, i.e., “lording
it over the people”, is central to the hierarchical, sacerdotal religious
system found in Roman Catholicism.] It [Ed.: i.e., the authority of the
pastor] was like that which was established in the pages of Scripture.
Likewise, the monasteries set up by Patrick were totally unlike the
monasteries that were established under the Church of Rome. These [Ed.:
Irish Celtic Christian] monasteries were quite like those of the Vaudois
[Ed.: i.e., the Waldensian Christians] and other early Christian churches of
northern Italy and southern France, whereby men came aside for some years to be
trained in the Scriptures and to learn how to evangelize and to bring the
Gospel to others. Later in their lives these men married and had
families. These men were not forsaking the world for some retreat of inner
holiness; rather, they were men who saw light and life in Christ Jesus and
wished to evangelize others with the true Gospel…” – Richard
Bennett (Former Roman Catholic priest of 22 years; the above excerpts were taken
from his 6-page article, “The Legacy of the True Historical Patrick”,
that is currently posted on his Internet website: www.bereanbeacon.org)
“Patrick
the evangelist, who brought the true Gospel of Christ to the Irish, is an
historical figure that needs to be heard in his own reverberating words and
feelings. The heartbeat and soul of Patrick was the Gospel in Christ Jesus. …The
body of believers which Patrick represented, his message, and legacy are all
Scriptural with no touch or trace of the rituals. [Ed.: In other
words, Patrick had no connection whatsoever with Romish sacerdotalism –
nothing to do with the rituals of Papal Rome.]” – Richard
Bennett (Former Irish Roman Catholic priest of 22 years; quote is from the
homepage of his Internet website www.bereanbeacon.org; March 2010)
NOTE: To read Richard
Bennett’s 6-page article mentioned above, please “click” on the
“ARTICLES” marker on his homepage, and then “click” on the article
entitled “The Legacy of the Real Saint Patrick”. Richard Bennett
encourages folks to copy and distribute this article.
Let’s now take a look at some of those “reverberating words and
feelings” of the real Saint Patrick (the below quotations are taken
from Richard Bennett’s 6-page article, “The Legacy of the True Historical
Patrick”, which is posted on his Internet website: www.bereanbeacon.org):
“Thus
I am a servant in Christ to a foreign nation [Ed.: i.e., Ireland] for the
unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
– Patrick, Evangelist of Ireland
“Likewise
the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we know not how to pray as we ought.
But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for utterance.”
– Patrick, Evangelist of Ireland
“I
[Ed.: i.e., Patrick] am greatly God’s debtor, because He granted me so
much grace, that through me many people would be reborn in God, and soon after
confirmed, that clergy would be ordained everywhere for them, and the masses
lately come to belief, whom the Lord drew from the ends of the earth. As He once
promised through His prophets: ‘To you shall the nations come from the ends of
the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited naught but lies, worthless
things in which there is no profit.’ And again, ‘I have set you to be a
light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the uttermost ends of the
earth.’ And I wish to wait then for His promise which is never unfulfilled,
just as it is promised in the Gospel.” – Patrick, Evangelist of Ireland
“I
pray God that He gives me perseverance, and that He will deign that I should be
a faithful witness for His sake right up to the time of my passing.” –
Patrick, Evangelist of Ireland
“I
[Ed.: i.e., Patrick] am imperfect in many things; nevertheless, I want my
brethren and kinsfolk to know my nature so that they may be able to perceive my
soul’s desire. I am not ignorant of what is said of my Lord in the Psalm:
‘You destroy those who speak a lie and a lying mouth deals death to the
soul.’ Likewise the Lord says in the Gospel, ‘In the day of judgment, men
shall render an account for every idle word they utter.’ So it is that I
should fear mightily, with terror and trembling, this judgment on the day when
no one shall be able to steal away or hide, but each one shall render account
for even our smallest sins before the judgment seat of Christ.” –
Patrick, Evangelist of Ireland
The above quotes by the real “Saint Patrick” show that
Patrick, the Evangelist of Ireland, not only knew numerous Bible verses, but
that he also quoted Bible verses in his writings! The real Patrick
brought Biblical Christianity to Ireland – and he taught the Gospel of
salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, by God’s grace alone. Patrick did not
receive any commission from the church at Rome to preach the Gospel; rather, he
received his commission directly from God! Patrick’s sole authority was the
Holy Bible – not any council or denomination! Patrick had absolutely no
connection to the church at Rome, and his Biblical teachings ran counter to the
practices and doctrines of Roman Catholicism. Bottom line: The real
Patrick who evangelized Ireland was a born-again, Bible-believing,
Bible-preaching, Celtic Christian whose teachings came from the Holy Bible. He
was not a Roman Catholic whose teachings come primarily from tradition,
popes, and church councils. The Gospel of salvation (through faith in Jesus
Christ alone, by God’s grace alone) that Patrick preached was completely
contrary to the “gospel of works, rituals, and sacraments” preached
within Roman Catholicism!
A SAD FINAL NOTE: The beautiful, pure, Bible-believing Celtic Christianity that Patrick “sowed” in Ireland lasted only about seven centuries. In 1155 A.D. Pope Adrian IV issued a decree to King Henry II of England. Adrian IV wanted Ireland to be brought under the temporal power of the Papacy. In 1171 A.D. King Henry II subdued Ireland with a large military force, and forcefully replaced Bible-believing Celtic Christianity with sacerdotal Roman Catholicism!
Permission is given to copy and distribute this article.