Was St. Patrick a Catholic, or simply a Christian missionary?

Question

I have read in several sources that he was not a member of the Catholic Church but worked with them in his missionary efforts. They actually had problems with him because he would use the moneys he collected on the local poor and not send it in to the Catholic church. Any thoughts on his membership?

Answer 1

St Patrick was born in 385 western Great Britain into a high-ranking Roman Christian family; he died in Ireland in 461, though some accounts put his death later. His grandfather was a priest and his father--Calpurnius--was a deacon, as well as prosperous nobleman and local Roman official. Patrick’s native language was Latin

http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/patrick.htm

Answer 2

This is amazing. Are people so biased against the Catholic Church that they will resort to rewriting history to fit what they want it to be? The responses to your question are ludicrous!

St. Patrick was a Catholic priest! The name "St. Patrick" should be their first clue!

Earlier this year on the holiday that celebrates him - St. Patrick's Day ta-daa! - the history channel presented his biography. He was most definately an ordained Catholic priest who was responsible for coverting pagan Ireland to Christianity. He did this 1,000 years before the introduction of Protestantism.

Do you know of the Celtic cross, the one with the cross on top of a circle? That came from the Irish people. Their origin was pagan sun worship, and so their symbol was the circular sun. When St. Patrick converted them, they kept that symbol and made it Christian by placing the cross on top of it. This was simply they're way of keeping hold of their traditional identity, both past and present.

Fast forward 1,000 years and the English invade. They take over Ireland and pass laws making it illegal to be a Catholic, outlawing the Mass and every other form of devotion to the Church. Some of the Irish went along with it and became Protestant, some resisted and held onto their Irish-Catholic roots. This is why there is such a dangerous division today in Ireland - the Catholics consider the Protestants traitors to the Irish legacy.

So, when St. Patrick's day is celebrated, the old-timers who know their history are celebrating the man who gave them their history and their identity as a people. The holiday has nothing to do with shamrocks or green beer.

So, if anyone else wants to know if he was Catholic, hopefully I've answered the question.

God bless.

Answer 3

I think at St. Patrick's time it's probably premature to talk about a distinct (Roman) Catholic church and some plain ol' Christian church. He's dated in the late fifth century.

Since the schism between Eastern and Western Christianity wasn't until the year 1000 or so, we Eastern Orthodox include in our list most any saint from before 1000. So we have icons of St. Patrick. (And my parish has among its young folk a prize-winning Irish fiddler and a prize-winning Irish dancer! Irish Orthodox! and we have Swedish Orthodox too!)

Anyhow, after Patrick's time there was a wave of chaos and separation caused by barbarian invasions and after the dust settled a second wave of Christianity came into the British Isles. This one was more closely tied to Rome than the previous one (it had been cut off for a century and a half or so). There was a big meeting (the Synod of Whitby) in the late seventh century (see wikipedia link below) to work out differences.

So looking back we might say that St. Patrick was less "Roman" than the next wave of missionaries, but in his own time I doubt it was a real distinction.

I'm writing this mostly from memory so don't beat up too bad on me if I've got some stuff wrong. :-)

Answer 4

He would only be referred to as Catholic in the sense that he wasn't of the Orthodox, Aryan, Coptic or Syrian Christian churches.

He would be and is referred to as a Christian missionary. There is no such designation as a Catholic missionary because introducing people the word of God is complicated enough without being given the advanced theological and philosophical differences between they different septs of Christendom.

And seriously, the Catholic church taking all the money, that didn't happen. By this time the Church based in Rome hadn't succumbed to corruption that it did in 1100s onwards, it only did that when it started getting involved with national politics.

Answer 5

Patrick was a Christian missionary in the 5th Century, rather before the "Catholic Church" took on the form it has today.

Answer 6

I have also read this. It seems he worked from the outside. he had to work with the Catholics because they were the controlling religion. They let him work in Ireland because they had failed in converting the local Celts and most of their missionaries had been killed. He did not know Latin, and there is no record of hem being baptized Catholic. He wasn't made a Saint until 400 years after he died. In fact his sainthood was never ratified by a Pope. We owe him a great debt to the Irish monastery's that were started because of his success. These monks had went to Rome and got much of the writing's that were stored there and were copying them. While they had them the Goths and others sacked and burned all the books they could find. If these books had not been in Ireland the bible (New testament) would be much smaller.

Answer 7

No, he was a Catholic Bishop. He lived in the 5th century. This is even before the Great Schism of 1054. So basically, Christianity was only Catholicism, there weren't any divisions at that time.

Answer 8

I would love to see these sources as they sound as if they have been put together by Homer Simpson.
Patrick was most likely from Wales and was kidnapped by Irish raiders and put to work as a Shepherd boy on the slopes of Slemish mountain , when he finally was able to get back to his home he heard the call of God telling him to return and convert the Irish to Christianity.
Patrick eventually became a Catholic Bishop and Ireland`s great Saint.

Answer 9

Maewyn Succat, also known as St Patrick, was a Christian priest (the name of Catholic did not exist at that time as there was only one Christian church).

Answer 10

St Patrick of Ireland was a member of the Church of Christ in

Ireland, The Church was organized by Jesus Christ.