While
Irish History
And
The Fighting Irish
And
The Fighting Irish
( Irish Christianity Before St. Patrick )
St. Patrick was unquestionably the evangeliser of Ireland, there is now hardly a doubt remaining
in the minds of the scholars that Christianity had a foothold on the Island before he came - and long before, think some. In A. D. 431, a year before the coming of Patrick on his Christian mission, Palladius ( who by one authority, John Sichard, is even said to have been himself an Irishman ) was sent by the Pope " ad Scotos in Christum cedente " - to the Irish believing in Christ - which words clearly show Rome to have been impressed with the fact that the Irish Christians then were of some numerical importance, " It is universally admitted, " says George Stokes, " that there were Christian congregations in Ireland before Palladius came. "
It is an interesting curiosity to find told among the ancients - as recorded by Eusebius and Nicephorus - that some of the apostles visited the Western Islands. Julian of Toledo says that James addressed a canonical letter from Ireland to the Jews in Spain. And Vincentius of Bauvais says that James, the son of Zebedee, preached in Ireland and that when he returned to Jerusalem, where he was martyred - he took with him seven Irish disciples.
Usher quotes Nicephorus' Ecclesiastical History as saying that Simon Zelotus brought the Gospel to these islands, and was crucified in Britain. St. Paul is mentioned as having been in these Western lands.
Reference has also been made to the tradition of Conal Caernach's visit to Jerusalem, and that he brought back the faith to Conor MacNessa, and others of the Ultach, and that several Irish went to Jerusalem to be baptised. While the foregoing are set down as interesting curiosities, it is still an easy matter to conclude, as a result of the frequent intercourse between Ireland and the Romanised possessions of both Britain and Gaul, and of the interchange of war captives and refugees likewise, and the coming and going of travellers, that the doctrines of Christianity, which in the early centuries were promulated with such ardour and spread to the earth's end with such amazing rapidity, must have been conveyed to Ireland from many sources, and through many channels - and that these new strange doctrines must have been many times examined and frequently debated by the scholars at the Irish courts, ever eager to discuss the doings of the outside world.
It is an interesting curiosity to find told among the ancients - as recorded by Eusebius and Nicephorus - that some of the apostles visited the Western Islands. Julian of Toledo says that James addressed a canonical letter from Ireland to the Jews in Spain. And Vincentius of Bauvais says that James, the son of Zebedee, preached in Ireland and that when he returned to Jerusalem, where he was martyred - he took with him seven Irish disciples.
Usher quotes Nicephorus' Ecclesiastical History as saying that Simon Zelotus brought the Gospel to these islands, and was crucified in Britain. St. Paul is mentioned as having been in these Western lands.
Reference has also been made to the tradition of Conal Caernach's visit to Jerusalem, and that he brought back the faith to Conor MacNessa, and others of the Ultach, and that several Irish went to Jerusalem to be baptised. While the foregoing are set down as interesting curiosities, it is still an easy matter to conclude, as a result of the frequent intercourse between Ireland and the Romanised possessions of both Britain and Gaul, and of the interchange of war captives and refugees likewise, and the coming and going of travellers, that the doctrines of Christianity, which in the early centuries were promulated with such ardour and spread to the earth's end with such amazing rapidity, must have been conveyed to Ireland from many sources, and through many channels - and that these new strange doctrines must have been many times examined and frequently debated by the scholars at the Irish courts, ever eager to discuss the doings of the outside world.
Although
Chistianity did not obtain a hold upon the minds of the mass of the British people
until Augustine, to some extent, and the Irish missionaries, in the main, carried the doctrines of Christ to them, it is known that there was Christianity in Britain in the latter half of the first century of the Christian Era - obviously conveyed there by ardent Continental Christians in the Roman legions. And the Council of Arles (in the year 314)
a few British bishops were in attendance.
Bollandus says that Palladius probably found in Ireland more Christians than he made. And that some Irish Christians figured prominently on the Continent of Europe in the pre-Patrican days if fairly well established by Continental records. It is eveident that there were Irish Christians on the Continent of Europe before the mission of St. Patrick, some of whom had attained to considerable literary and ecclesiastical eminence. This refers to, among others, Mansuy or Mansuetus of Toul, and that in all probability he was an Irishman, distinguished as an eminent Christian missionary about a century before Patrick. Mansuy was sent by Rome to be the first Bishop of Toul ( in Lorraine ) His tenth century metrical biographer, the abbot Adso, shows that Mansuy's Irish nativity was then taken for granted:
a few British bishops were in attendance.
Bollandus says that Palladius probably found in Ireland more Christians than he made. And that some Irish Christians figured prominently on the Continent of Europe in the pre-Patrican days if fairly well established by Continental records. It is eveident that there were Irish Christians on the Continent of Europe before the mission of St. Patrick, some of whom had attained to considerable literary and ecclesiastical eminence. This refers to, among others, Mansuy or Mansuetus of Toul, and that in all probability he was an Irishman, distinguished as an eminent Christian missionary about a century before Patrick. Mansuy was sent by Rome to be the first Bishop of Toul ( in Lorraine ) His tenth century metrical biographer, the abbot Adso, shows that Mansuy's Irish nativity was then taken for granted:
" Insula Christicolas geatabat Hibernia gentes,
Undi genus traxil, et satus inde fuit. "
( Hibernia's soil was rich in Christian grace;
There Mansuy saw the light, there lived his noble race. )
Undi genus traxil, et satus inde fuit. "
( Hibernia's soil was rich in Christian grace;
There Mansuy saw the light, there lived his noble race. )
Near
Toul more than half a century before Patrick's day, in the time of the apostate Julian, and, say
some in the presence of Julian, was martyred St. Eliphius, with his brother, Eucharius, and their sisters - who it is said were Hibernians of Royal blood. Rupert of Luitz in his " Life of St. St Eliph " says too that he was son of the King of Scotia ( Hibernia ) Mt. St Eliph where he is buried still commemorates him. St Eliph did great missionary work in the city of Toul, suffered imprisoment, and afterwards converted 400 people. St. Florentine, who was imprisoned by Claudius, converted and baptised 96 men and women prisoners as well as his jailer. He was described as " a glorious confessor of Christ, born in Ireland " It is however by no means certain that he flourished before Patrick. The Poet, St. Sedulius, is asserted to be Irish by many authorities from Trithemius who called him
" Scotus Hybernieness " down to present day scholars. It was this poet and Irishman who first introduced into Latin
poetry the Irish rhyme and assonance, which at this time were cultivated only in Ireland. His most noted work
" Carmen Paschale " earned for him the title of the Christian Virgil. Sedulius travelled much in Southern Europe and in Asia. He dedicated a work to the Emperor Theodosius.
By far the most brilliant Continental celebrity claimed for Ireland before the days of St. Patrick is undoubtedly Celestius, the disciple of Pelagius, who drew world-wide attention to himself in the very first years of the fifth century. This noted man's nationality is disputed, but amongst those who have gone into the subject there is fair consensus of opinion that he was at least Irish in blood if not also Irish by birth, either Irish by Ireland, or Irish of the Irish colony of Scotland. For those who would deny his Scotic ( Scotic ) Irish origin, there is no way of getting around the allusions in St. Jerome's abuse of him, where once he calls him a " stupid fellow, loaded with the porridge of the Scots. " and again, " a huge and corpulent dog who can do no more with his claws than with his teeth, for he is by descent of the Scotic nation. " He was a well known lawyer in Rome about the year 400 when he began espousing the heretical doctrines of Pelagius, so warmly, persistantly and aggressively, that he overshadowed his master. Those who would argue that he is not Irish have to admit that he showed the eloquence, persuasiveness, aggressiveness of a true Irishman. He went to Carthage to preach against St. Augustine. He spoke before the the Patriarch in Constantinople and before the Pope in Rome. Both by Imperial and Ecclesiastical decree he was expelled again and again from both Rome and Constantinople. But this only increased his vigour, his ardour and his militancy. He is said to have won over to his side Pope Zosimus in 416 - whom it took all the powers of Augustine and Jerome to win back again. This man who would not be downed, turned up at the council of Ephesus in 431, espousing, against the Pope, the cause of the Patriarch, Nestorius, in the great Nestorian Controversy. He was excommunicated by the Ephesian Council. He had been condemned by the Senate of Carthage twenty years earlier, but that had not dampened his ardour or dulled the edge of his word. " Be this as it may, it must suffice to observe that St. Jerome manifestly speaks of an Irishman who was a professor of Christianity, engaged in the controversaries of that day. This is unquestionable evidence that there was at least one Irishman on the Continent of Europe at that early period who was a Christian. "
It is also a safe conclusion that there were groups of Christians in Ireland when Palladius, preceding St. Patrick came. Palladius landed in the southeast of Ireland. He stayed only a short time, yet, and this is additional evidence of his having found Christians there - he had erected three churches before he left. He departed in the same year some say driven out by a Leinster Chieftain, Nathi - and went to Alba, where he died. It was on the news reaching Rome of his departure from Ireland and his death that permission was given to Patrick to follow his heart's desire, and answering the cries which he had heard in his dream from the children of Focluit Wood, go to the evangelising of the people whom he loved.
" Scotus Hybernieness " down to present day scholars. It was this poet and Irishman who first introduced into Latin
poetry the Irish rhyme and assonance, which at this time were cultivated only in Ireland. His most noted work
" Carmen Paschale " earned for him the title of the Christian Virgil. Sedulius travelled much in Southern Europe and in Asia. He dedicated a work to the Emperor Theodosius.
By far the most brilliant Continental celebrity claimed for Ireland before the days of St. Patrick is undoubtedly Celestius, the disciple of Pelagius, who drew world-wide attention to himself in the very first years of the fifth century. This noted man's nationality is disputed, but amongst those who have gone into the subject there is fair consensus of opinion that he was at least Irish in blood if not also Irish by birth, either Irish by Ireland, or Irish of the Irish colony of Scotland. For those who would deny his Scotic ( Scotic ) Irish origin, there is no way of getting around the allusions in St. Jerome's abuse of him, where once he calls him a " stupid fellow, loaded with the porridge of the Scots. " and again, " a huge and corpulent dog who can do no more with his claws than with his teeth, for he is by descent of the Scotic nation. " He was a well known lawyer in Rome about the year 400 when he began espousing the heretical doctrines of Pelagius, so warmly, persistantly and aggressively, that he overshadowed his master. Those who would argue that he is not Irish have to admit that he showed the eloquence, persuasiveness, aggressiveness of a true Irishman. He went to Carthage to preach against St. Augustine. He spoke before the the Patriarch in Constantinople and before the Pope in Rome. Both by Imperial and Ecclesiastical decree he was expelled again and again from both Rome and Constantinople. But this only increased his vigour, his ardour and his militancy. He is said to have won over to his side Pope Zosimus in 416 - whom it took all the powers of Augustine and Jerome to win back again. This man who would not be downed, turned up at the council of Ephesus in 431, espousing, against the Pope, the cause of the Patriarch, Nestorius, in the great Nestorian Controversy. He was excommunicated by the Ephesian Council. He had been condemned by the Senate of Carthage twenty years earlier, but that had not dampened his ardour or dulled the edge of his word. " Be this as it may, it must suffice to observe that St. Jerome manifestly speaks of an Irishman who was a professor of Christianity, engaged in the controversaries of that day. This is unquestionable evidence that there was at least one Irishman on the Continent of Europe at that early period who was a Christian. "
It is also a safe conclusion that there were groups of Christians in Ireland when Palladius, preceding St. Patrick came. Palladius landed in the southeast of Ireland. He stayed only a short time, yet, and this is additional evidence of his having found Christians there - he had erected three churches before he left. He departed in the same year some say driven out by a Leinster Chieftain, Nathi - and went to Alba, where he died. It was on the news reaching Rome of his departure from Ireland and his death that permission was given to Patrick to follow his heart's desire, and answering the cries which he had heard in his dream from the children of Focluit Wood, go to the evangelising of the people whom he loved.
