Saint Patrick AD 2010

On March 17, AD 2010 everyone whose heritage is Irish and many others also will adorn green colored apparel of some sort and feast on corn beef and cabbage to celebrate the patron Saint of the beautiful green land of Ireland, but what do you know of its Patron Saint and why he was given this heralded recognition?

In 411 AD when Patrick, a native of Scotland, was a lad of fifteen aliving near the the border of Britain near the coast of the Solway he was kidnapped and carried away as a slave to Ireland.

He would become was the future apostle of the Irish. As his name implies, he was of noble birth, and he tells us so himself. He was the son of the deacon Calpurnius, who was the son of Potitus, a priest. His father was a decurio or magistrate, and as Patrick according to tradition was born at Nemthur, he must have exercised his functions of magistrate at that place, but on the withdrawal of the Roman garrisons from Britain probably retired for safety south of the wall of Severus, where, as Patrick tells

The youth Succat or Patrick remained in hard slavery for six years, tending cattle, probably on Slemish Mountain in the county Antrim. He seems to have been of an enthusiastic temperament, and much given to prayer and meditation. Learning of a means of escape, it so filled his mind as to give rise to visions. The bays and creeks of the west and north-west of Ireland, especially Killala Bay, were much frequented in ancient times, for they afforded secure retreats to sea-rovers when they crept round the coast of Ireland and swooped down on that of Roman Britain.

Patrick eventually escaped and returned to Britain in the mountains of the Lake District to prepare for his return to Ireland to proclaim the Gospel of the truth in Jesus Christ.

After his escape returning to his family then living in the mountains of the Lake District of Britain he appears to have conceived the noble idea of devoting himself to the conversion of the Irish, and to have gone somewhere for a few years to prepare himself for the priesthood. His biographers take him to Tours to St. Martin, who was then dead several years, afterwards to the island of Lerins in the Mediterranean, and lastly to Tome, where he received a mission from Pope Celestine. For all this there is no evidence whatever, the whole story being the result of the confusion of Palladius with the real Patrick. The tradition of some connection between the Irish apostle and St. Martin of Tours, the monastic type of the earliest Irish Church, the doubts as to Patrick’s fitness for the work which led to his writing his Confession, and indeed all the difficulties that beset the question of the origin of the Irish Church, receive a simple and satisfactory explanation upon the hypothesis of Patrick having prepared himself for the priesthood at Candida Casa, the monastic institution founded by St. NINIAN (q.v.)

Editorial note: In 1998 Doris and I were privileged to visit St. Martin Church where Saint Patrick is said to have worshiped the LORD Jesus so many years before.

Since the Roman Catholic Church and its first Pope Gregory had not been established by Constantine until after AD 411, Patrick could not have belonged to it.

May I suggest that missionaries from the New Testament Church at Rome had come to Britain and Scotland and founded churches there, where in one of them young Patrick was a believer.

The Roman Catholic teaches that in Matthew16: 18 KJV “And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,” that the first Pope was Peter.

It says Peter was its first Pope. However the Greek word translated rock does not allow for this incorrect interpretation. The translation of this verse in the Douay Bible of the Roman Catholic Church is the same as in the KJV, but the explanation in the Douay is untrue in stating “the rock is Peter, and Christ is its foundation.”

Conclusion
You may reason why is any of this important to our celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day on March 17? It is vital because the salvation of souls is based on the belief of what Saint Patrick as the Patron Saint of Ireland proclaimed so long ago, as did the Apostles of Jesus Christ and the authors of the New Testament Epistle. Please read in your Bible, 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11 .

March 1, AD 2010
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