Christianity in Ireland before St Patrick

When Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1935 his parents unwittingly named him after an Irish saint. Yes, the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ was really the ‘Patron Saint of Rock and Roll! Now you might not have heard of St Elvis but he’s associated with the diocese of Emly (now part of the Catholic diocese of Cashel and Emly). The patron of that diocese is known in Ireland as St Ailbe, who, apparently converted Munster to Christianity before St Patrick arrived to convert the rest of the country. In Wales, St Ailbe, patron saint of Munster, is also known….as St ELVIS!

The approach of St Patrick’s Day sets one thinking about the conversion of the Irish to Christianity.  One story about St Ailbe/Elvis is that he baptized St David of Wales, who is commemorated on 1^st March. The Welsh were Christian before the Irish – Wales was part of the Roman empire until the legions were finally withdrawn before 410 AD, and even then the inhabitants still considered themselves ‘Roman.’ All free men in the Empire were made citizens in 212 AD and Catholic Christianity was made the official religion of the empire in 380 AD.

In school I was taught that St Patrick came to Ireland to convert the Irish in 432 AD. The teacher made no mention of any Christians in Ireland before that date. Yet, the very first confirmed date in Irish history tells us a different story.

In his Chronicle (completed before 455 AD), Prosper of Aquitaine, a late Roman writer from Gaul (France) wrote that in the year 431 AD, ‘Palladius is ordained…….by Pope Celestine, and is sent as the first bishop to the Scotti believing in Christ.’ The ‘Scotti’ were the Irish – ‘Scotia’ was the Roman term for Ireland before we ended up living in wintery ‘Hibernia’. The date 431 is the first confirmed date in Irish history. Traditionally St Patrick is said to have arrived as a missionary in Ireland in 432, just a year later. But, surely this latter date actually refers to Palladius arriving in Ireland to minister to an existing Christian community in Ireland? He wasn’t sent as a missionary but as a bishop to the Christian community in Ireland who were numerous enough to require the guidance of a bishop, and Roman bishops were not missionaries. Tireachan and Muirchu, the two Irish biographers of St Patrick in the 600s tell us that Palladius failed in his ‘mission’ to convert the Irish, an unlikely situation because of the reason we gave above. ‘Missionary’ was not part of his job description. The Irish authors were just clearing the way for their hero, Patrick, but because Prosper of Aquitaine was a contemporary of Palladius so we must take his text with the seriousness it deserves We all know the outlines of St Patrick’s story, after all he left us a spiritual autobiography (the Confessio) and an irate letter to a renegade called Coroticus. Patrick tells us that he was a son of a deacon (and tax collector!) and grandson of a priest, and he probably came from the west coast of Britain (somewhere between the Bristol Channel and the Scottish border). 

All the indications are that Patrick’s mission was confined to the north and west of Ireland. The only firm date with have for Patrick is 17^th March, the day he died and it is uncontested. But we have no idea in which year he died. What does help is that the copies of his two surviving documents contain biblical quotations. These quotations are in two versions – the ‘Vetus Latina’ and the ‘Vulgate’. ‘Vetus Latina’ refers to the original Latin text of scripture used by the Roman Church. However, it was replaced gradually by the ‘Vulgate’, the more coherent Latin translation commissioned in 382 by Pope Damasus from St Jerome. The new translation only became widespread in the 400s and later. Although some Vulgate Latin is used in the surviving copies of Patrick’s writings, scholars reckon the seventh century editors updated and even ‘corrected’ the original ‘Vetus Latina’ text, suggesting that the Vulgate text was in widespread use in Ireland by the 600s.

All this suggests that Patrick must have conducted his mission in the middle to later 400s AD, perhaps about 450-490. What was especially odd about Patrick was his missionary impulse. He wandered all over the place when a Roman bishop was supposed to stay put, and only take occasional tours around his diocese. Patrick’s behaviour went down badly with the British bishops who followed the Roman practice. But Patrick knew something the British bishops overlooked. or were ignorant of – Ireland, unlike late Roman Britain, had no towns. Roman bishops were based in towns and cities, but how can you base yourself in a town or city when there are none in the country? Armagh is situated near Eamhain Macha, the seat of the Northern Ui Neill kings, but neither place was a town at the time.

There is a tradition that St Declan of Ardmore, like St Ailbe/Elvis operated in south Munster before St Patrick came to Ireland. Sadly, the surviving texts of Declan’s life are all late, from the 1100s, which means that we have to treat them with caution. Declan’s biographers tell of the concerns of their own time (Ardmore’s claim to be a bishopric) rather than of the circumstances of Declan’s life centuries earlier. But…and it’s an important ‘BUT’…there may be something in the idea that St Declan operated before St Patrick!

It’s all down to the archaeological fact that the Irish colonized parts of Wales from the 400s and perhaps even earlier! With the withdrawal of Roman legions from Wales itself about 380 AD, before they were finally removed from Britain before 410 AD, settlers arrived from Ireland. The two main groups were the Laigin from Leinster who settled in the north (Anglesey and north Wales) and in the Lyn (Laigin?) Peninsula. Meanwhile, south west Wales was settled by the Uí Liathain, and probably by the Deisí. There is no evidence of ‘invasion’ or of any warfare involved in this movement of people – it is even possible that the Irish were invited to settle in these areas.

The Uí Liathain were once the dominant group in the East Cork baronies of Barrymore, Kinatalloon and Imokilly, and even Coshmore & Coshbride. Castlelyons is named after them (Caisleán Uí Liathain). The Ui Liathain seem to have been related to the Deisí, who give their name to Decies, just across the Blackwater River. Very likely any colonization of south west Wales involved both groups. It seems a bit difficult to imagine that any emigrants from Ireland even then were entirely cut off from their homeland.

Independent evidence for this settlement by the Irish in south Wales is literally written in stone – ogham stones to be precise! Ogham stones are concentrated in south Wales, with Pembrokeshire having the largest number. They are written almost entirely in Old Irish, not Old Welsh/Brythonic. The furthest east they go is Silchester in Hampshire – the site of the Roman town of Calleva where a pillar with an ogham inscription was found dumped in a well. Most of the ogham stones in Ireland are also in the southern half of the country with only a few north of the Dublin to Galway line.

Even more intriguing, a small hoard of late Roman coins was found in the 1890s at Cuskinny Marsh on Great Island overlooking Cork Harbour (just east of Cobh).  It’s been suggested that this collection was lost by a careless antiquarian about two centuries ago. Suspiciously, all the coins date from 268 AD to 337 AD, so it seems unlikely to have been a ‘lost’ collection which would normally contain a wider range of Roman coins. The ancient Irish didn’t use coins so this implies that the coins were a ‘ritual deposit,’ an offering to the ancient gods for either a successful trade or a safe sea journey. Note that Cuskinny Marsh faces the entrance to Cork Harbour. Were these coins deposited by a Roman merchant or an Irish mercenary in the Roman army? We simply don’t know, but they are evidence of Irish and Roman contact.

So, could it be that the tradition of St Ailbe/Elvis and St Declan converting the Irish of Munster before St Patrick arrived is a memory of the presence of Christianity in Ireland before Palladius arrived as ‘the first bishop to the Irish believing in Christ’? Did Christianity enter Ireland through the south coast, including West Waterford and East Cork before 431? It’s a question to ponder, and speculate on, this St Patrick’s Day…..

St Elvis and Christianity in Ireland before St Patrick.

Propaganda by the scribes of Armagh gives us the story of St Patrick baptizing the King of Cashel. Patrick’s crozier pierced the foot of the king, who thought it was part of the ritual, so he didn’t cry out. This tale was designed to claim that Armagh had primacy over Cashel and the province of Munster.

Down here in the deep south of Ireland we celebrate St Patrick’s Day like all Irish people around the world….including elsewhere in Ireland. But there is a very strong tradition in Munster that four saints introduced Christianity to the province before St Patrick arrived.  These four were St Ailbe of Emly, St Ciaran of Saigir, St Abban of Moyarny and St Declan of Ardmore. Saint Ibar or Iberius in Latin is sometimes included as a pre-Patrician saint.

Window depicting St Ailbe in the Honan Chapel in University College Cork. Each of the windows depicts a saint from Munster.

St Ailbe, considered the most important of these, is known in Pembrokeshire as St Eilfyw or Eilfw. The smallest parish in Britain, just four miles north west of St Davids is named after him. He is credited with founding the monastery of Emly, which was later erected into a diocese at the Synod of Rath Breasail in 1111. In the eighteenth century the see of Emly was united with the Diocese of Cashel, the see of the Archbishop of Cashel. Ailbe is said to have been a Irish foundling taken back to Wales by some Britons who raised him as a Christian. On a journey to Rome he was ordained by St Hilary, the pope at the time. Ailbe is said to have baptized St David of Wales and then returned to Ireland to set up his monastery. It is ironic that his name is so well known worldwide for the Latin version of Ailbe is…..Elvis!  So you now know that the king of rock and roll was named after an Irish saint! But I have no idea if the saint was as good as the king with a guitar.

They call him the king, but he’s named after a saint! And an Irish saint at that!

Ciaran of Saigir was a nobleman who converted to Christianity and went to Rome on pilgrimage, where he was ordained a bishop by the pope. Returning to Ireland he became bishop of Ossory – a diocese that didn’t exist in the fifth/six/seventh century. He’s called Ciaran the Elder to distinguish him from the St Ciaran who founded Clonmacnoise.

The now disused church of St Abban in Killeagh in east Cork. What is baffling is that Killeagh is named after a local woman, St Ia (known as St Ive in Cornwall). Nobody knows how Killeagh got a church dedicated to a Leinster saint. Killeagh lies on the main road from Midleton to Youghal.

St Abban was from the area around New Ross in Wexford – a town that was founded in the early 1200s by William Marshal. Abban’s claim to fame is his sister – St Gobnait of Ballyvourney.  Abban is said to be buried in Ballyvourney which marks the western outpost of the diocese of Cloyne. The abbey of Abingdon in England claimed to be named after him, but I suspect they were simply making that claim in the hope of acquiring relics. They actually had nothing to do with Abban. Come to think of it, the village of Killeagh in east Cork – on the road from Midleton to Youghal has a redundant Anglican church dedicated to St Abban – despite the fact that the village takes its name from St Ia (a woman) who gives her name to St Ives in Cornwall.  We’re still baffled by the St Abban connection.

The lovely ruined cathedral and superb round tower at Ardmore, a site dedicated to St Declan. The man had an eye for good scenery. Ardmore is still a popular holiday resort and remains a virtually unspoiled village in County Waterford. The twelfth century sculpture cycle on the west gable of the cathedral is one of the most important in Ireland.

St Declan of Ardmore had the best eye for scenery – Ardmore is a lovely seaside village in the western part of County Waterford which still preserves its tiny ruined Cathedral and its complete round tower.  Declan too went to Rome and was ordained by the pope – and met St Ailbe there. St Declan was considered the patron saint of the Deisi – the people who inhabited western County Waterford. In the modern Catholic parish of Midleton there is a site called Caherultan – said to be the church of St Ultan, a pupil of St Declan. There was certainly a parish church there in the medieval period, but the parish was abolished after the Reformation and the church has vanished.

Early twentieth century pilgrims at St Declan’s Well in Ardmore. People still go there to take the water. ‘Doing the rounds’ of the holy sites was a way of imitating the pilgrims Rome who visited the seven basilicas there – not everybody could go to Rome on pilgrimage.

Now I don’t expect you to believe all the above stories, for many of them originate as anti-Patrician propaganda written to counter the claims of the church in Armagh to primacy over the whole of Ireland in the 7th and 8th centuries. But there is an interesting grain of truth in several of them. However, the most important detail to remember is that the south of Ireland had a lot of connections with Britain, especially Wales and with Gaul (now France). The evidence for this comes from both ancient Irish sources and ancient Welsh sources, as well as the presence of Irish inscriptions in ogham script on stones in Wales and Cornwall.   Indeed the Ui Liathain and their neighbours to the east, the Deisi even colonised parts of South Wales as the Roman Empire began to contract in the late 300s and early 400s. The Ui Liathain ruled the area that corresponds to south-east County Cork from the Blackwater to the sea and from the Glanmire River to the lower Blackwater. It is ironic that their lands were later settled by Milo de Cogan and Robert FitzStephen and their followers from Wales – the Barrys, the Carews and the FitzGeralds. The Deisi territory in Waterford was colonized by the Powers and the FitzGeralds.

What these stories of the saints suggests is that there was much interchange of goods,persons (including slaves) and ideas between the south coast of Ireland and Wales. Christianity was one of the imports into Ireland – it survived in Wales after the collapse of the Roman Empire and the colonization of England by the Angles and Saxons.

Indeed, when we consider that the Laigin (or peoples of Leinster) even colonized the Lleyn peninsula in north-west Wales, giving their name to the place, we must wonder if the southern half of Ireland was heavily Christianized before the arrival of St Patrick. Modern scholars now believe that Patrick operated north of a line from Galway in the west to Dublin in the east. He didn’t come south of that line because Christianity was already well established in the south, with bishops supervising the church there. A stray bishop would NOT have been welcomed by the southern bishops!

Palladius was appointed the first bishop to the Irish believing in Christ in 431 – clearly there were enough Christians in Ireland by this date to warrant the appointment of a bishop. St Patrick is traditionally said to have arrived in 432, but modern scholars reckon he came later and that 432 marked the arrival of Palladius. The scribes of Armagh may have appropriated details from the life of Palladius and attributed them to Patrickd whilst at the same time ‘disappearing’ Palladius from Irish history.

And then there is the reference in Prosper of Aquitaine’s Chronicle: in 431 Pope Celestine sent Palladius as bishop to the Irish believing in Christ.  The crucial thing about Prosper was that he was a contemporary of the two men mentioned in that statement. He was an eyewitness to these events. Prosper wrote his Chronicle to tell the story of how the Pelagian heresy was put down by St Germanus of Auxerre, and others. This heresy had flourished in Britain, alarming the Catholic Church and it probably prompted the decision to appoint Palladius to minister to the Irish Christians as their first bishop.  This was an extraordinary decision because Palladius had to leave the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire to take up his new post. It is very likely that Palladius (a Gallo-Roman) was indeed the first bishop in Ireland, preceding St Patrick by several years.

Modern pilgrimage in Ireland. There is now a walking trail from Ardmore to Cashel, linking St Declan to St Ailbe. It’s a sort of secular Camino – Irish style. Instead of sun, sangria and tapas, you get rain, Guinness and Tayto crisps!

Poor Palladius! He was condemned as a failure and almost entirely written out of Irish history centuries later when the scribes of Armagh were trying to claim for St Patrick the credit for converting the Irish to Christianity. The real goal of these scribes was to make Armagh the paramount church in Ireland. But you have got to hand it to them – it was brilliant propaganda! Now the whole world believes that Patrick was Irish and nobody has heard about Palladius, who probably did much to consolidate Christianity in the south of Ireland.  Even Stalin, with his retouched photos during the purges, was a mere amateur by comparison.  And at least nobody died in Ireland!

Ah well, A Happy St Patrick’s Day to you!

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