As St Patrick's Day approaches the debate is renewed on whether Patrick was a Roman Catholic, and if not, what was he? Many articles have been written in Catholic periodicals making claims for Patrick being a Roman Catholic 'Saint.' (The word 'saint' in the Bible in both Old and New Testaments simply denotes any person belonging to God's people, or the Church.)

Protestants increasingly are rejecting the 'Catholic' claims on Patrick as he was a Christian from Britain, yet that does not make him a Protestant. Protestantism didn't exist until after the Reformation.

Patrick and many later saints and missionaries who espoused the tenets of Christianity in and from Ireland were all adherents to 'Celtic Christianity,' or simply, a more pure form of Christianity that preceded the formalities of Roman Catholicism on these shores. The Celtic Church and men like Patrick, Columbanus and Colman claimed their authority and observances from the Apostle John (the disciple whom Jesus loved) and the churches he founded in Asia Minor. These Christians, like the early Jewish Church in Jerusalem, were Quartodecimans (from the word 'fourteen'), or those who upheld Jesus's (Yeshua's) words to remember His sacrificial and atoning death on Nisan 14th (in the Biblical calendar which Yeshua kept) -- or the Passover of the Lord.

The transformation from Passover by anti-Semitic Gentile church fathers in order to distance themselves from any practice they deemed to be too 'Jewish,' happened much later. The changes from Sabbath to 'Sun'-day and Passover to 'Easter' were ratified at the Councils of Nicea and Laodicea in the fourth century, but notably no Jewish bishops or Hebrew Church leaders were invited. Churches in Ireland give enormous respect to St Patrick, yet few pause to think that our revered Celtic saints refused to observe the Roman 'Easter' that Protestants and Catholics observe today. This was finally battled out at the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD, where Wilfid, representing the Roman practice, won over St Colman who kept to the earlier practices. British and Irish Christians have been largely toeing the Roman line ever since. Happy St Patrick's Day!

Colin Nevin

Bangor, Co Down

Saint Patrick espoused Celtic Christianity, which was based on the observances of the Apostle John

Irish Independent