Was Saint Patrick A Baptist
The year of St. Patrick 's birth is variously assigned to the
years 377 and 387, the latter being the more probable date. His
original name is said to have been Succat Patricus, being the
Roman appellative by which he was known. The exact place of his
birth is uncertain. It was somewhere in Britain. In the sixteenth
year of his age, while on his father's farm, with a number of
others, he was seized and carried by a band of pirates into
Ireland, and there sold to a petty chief. In his service he
remained six years. At the expiration of this time he succeeded
in escaping. He was "brought up in a Christian family in
Britain, and the truth which saved him when a youthful slave in
pagan Ireland was taught him in the godly home of Deacon
Calpurnius, his father, and in the church of which he was a
member and officer." On his escape from Ireland he was
twenty-one years of age. Being a stronger Christian the Lord soon
called him back to Ireland as the missionary for that blinded
country. About this time, or before it, a missionary named
Coleman, established a church in Ireland. Some think that
"in the south of Ireland, from some very remote
period," "Christian congregations had existed."
Usher puts Patrick's death at A.D. 493 - making his life a long
and useful life, and his age, at the time of his death, over one
hundred years. The Bellandists make his death earlier - A.D. 460.
According to accounts of his Irish biographers, he, with his own
hands, baptized 12,000
persons and founded 365 churches.
Within the last few years scholars have succeeded in stripping
his history of much of the Romish fables. The more this has been
done, the more he stands out as a Baptist.
1. At the time of St. Patrick the Romish church was only én
embryo.
2. In St. Patrick's time the authority of the bishop of Rome was
not generally recognized.
3. There is no history to sustain the Romish claim that Patrick
was sent to Ireland by "Pope Celistine". Throughout his
life Patrick acted wholly independent of Rome.
4. Patrick was a Baptist. - (1) He baptized only professed
believers. (2) He baptized by only immersion. Dr. Catchcart says:
"There is absolutely no evidence that any baptism but that
of immersion of adult believers existed among the ancient
Britons, in the first half of the fifth century, nor for a long
time afterwards." In St. Patrick's "letter to
Crocius" he describes some of the persons whom he immersed
as "baptizedc captives," "baptized handmaidens of
Christ," "baptized women distributed as rewards"
and then as "baptized believers." (3) In church
government St. Patrick was a baptist. Though this appears in the
note to this page, I will add proof to it. "Patrick founded
365 church-es and consecrated the same number of bishops, and
ordained 3000 presbyters." "If we take the testimony of
Nennius, St. Patrick placed a bishop in every church which he
founded; and several presbyters after the example of the New
Testament churches. Nor was the great number of bishops peculiar
to St. Patrick's time; in the twelfth century St. Bernard tells
us that in Ireland bishops are multiplied and changed... (4) In
independence of creeds, councils, popes and bishops Patrick was a
Baptist. "Patrick recognized no authority in creeds, however
venerable, nor in councils, though composed of several hundred of
the highest ecclesiastics, and many of the most saintly men
alive. He never quotes any canons and he never took part in
making any, notwithstanding the pretended canons of
forgers". (5) In doctrine Patrick was a Baptist. He says
Christ who "gave his life for thee is He who speaks to
thee". (6) In the later or Romish meaning of the term, there
is no indication of Monastacism in Patrick 's writing or in the
history of the first Irish church. "Monastacism, in the
proper sense of the word, cannot be traced beyond the fourth
century". Catchcart: "It is difficult to fix the date
when the first monastery was established in Ireland. It is
certain that Patrick was long in his grave before it took
place."
Thus, first, Irish Monasteries were originated after Patrick's
death; Thus, in only believer 's baptism;
in only immersion; in church government; in salvation by only the
blood; in justification by faith only; in rejecting penance; in
knowing nothing of transubstantiation; in giving both the bread
and the wine to the laity; in being independent of Rome, St.
Patrick was a Baptist and the first Irish churches knew nothing
of priestly confession and priestly forgiveness; of extreme
unction; of worship of images; of worship of Mary; of the
intercession of Mary or of any departed saint; of purgatory; of
persecution of opposers of the church - nothing of any of the
Romish distinguishing peculiarities.
Were Patrick not turned to dust, and were the body able to hear
and turn, he would turn over in his coffin at the disgrace on his
memory from the Romish church claiming him as a Roman Catholic.
~ By W.A. Jarrel