Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1889-04-20
Mhx st- PatrIek sneceeded. !

The following is from Charles dc KAy-ss
illustrated article on Christian ireland I'm
the March Century: sit Is an old error to-
count St Patrick among the emissaries,
missionaries, or nuncios from the see Of St
Peter. His conversion OF ireland was an
independent act, which may be compared
with similar independent conversions Of the
Bulgarians and other nations to the ortho4
dox or Eastern Church by st. Cyril and ST..
Methodius four hundred years later. The
terms OF his confession Of faith and bis
letter to Welsh brigand who carried OF
his converts into slavery, two authentic
documents, forbid any other view. Rome
was indeed in the field to convert ireland,
but failed because the situation was NOS
understood. A few years before the arrival
Of St Patrick "A. ID. 430) the then pope,
Celestinus l., sent Bishop Paladius. Though
there Is no record Of harm done 70 him by
the pagans, but, on the contrary, he was
permitted TO build churches and leave pas
tors yet his reception was so chilling that
he left. He never reached Rome, death
overtaking him in Pictland, what is now
Scotland, North Britain having received
that appellatioD since his day when oyerrun
and conquered by Kettle return wave out
Of Scotia or Ireland.
at has been suggested that Patrick never
existed, and that his legend was founded on
| these meager achievements OF Paladiusi
| but the hypothesis has too many document
/ ary historical and legendary evidences
| against il. There was every reason for the
want Of success Of bishop coming from
| Rome where orthodoxy had been discarded
for o more enterprising and ambitious form
| of Christianity. Paladius must have found
| the upper classes free thinkers, addicted TO
Druidical and other heather vices, to human
sacrifices and the black art to polygamy
certainly, and more than probably 70
occasional acts OF cannibalism, such
as drinking human blood and tearing
the human heart with the teeth. Such
\ things have often co-existed with
| a high grade of civilization. That Paiadius
was permitted to build churches shows two
important things-one, that the upper
classes were contemptuous of the new relig-
ion, the other, that Christians were present
in Ireland. But they must have been num-
BILE folk and of the orthodox eastern sect.
The record of Paladius and his mission re,
ported by the -Four Masters has Internal
evidence of genuineness in its trait OF MOD
GRAFTON. The churches are wooden we
know that architecture in Ireland was late
in affecting stone as a material; but II this
record had been forged after the twelftn
century, national vanity would surely have
made out the material to be stone
1.-THE success OF St. Patrick where Rome
he'd failed could hardly have been palataole-
, The hatred and contempt felt by the Italian
. eccIesiastics come out in st. JerOmes refer
ence 70 Celestius the Pelagian as an eater
r of Irish porridge. SeOtieis pHttibus pregTdgd
i ftGs ('Rorged with his Irish mushD and bS
! other remarks in the polemics OF the day
: Two years latter another missionary, no
: accredited from Rome,-an lrlsh-Scot pl
: residence IL not Scot by birth, studen
: in Gaul and man who distinctly deniet
/ that he was learned.-arrived in lrelant
. and did that which Paladius could not DO
1 SO that today the Irish Catholics IN al
! parts Of the world turn out in procession
! once wear to honor his memory
o "How came it that Patricius succeeds
: where Paladius failedl Primarily becaus
4 he had nothing TO do with Rome or Itsly
e This preserved him from the active jealous
s of the upper classes, the kings, chiefs, an
s Druids who had good reason to percely
): that Rome, having retired her armies frol
: Britain, was now trying 70 extend her swa
q by religion. Ii also conciliated the Chris
6 ians scattered along the borders OF "a
i island, who must have resented the prefer
! sions Of the Roman bishops with as muc
i yigor as did the orthodox of the east. BIZ
q there was another reason for Patrick's SUE
h cess. He addressed himself to the tempo
e al and intellectual leaders, the chief
& Druids, and Files or poets, because !
Il was q man Of genius and saw that only
le that way could community existing on u
10 clan system be converted"