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60 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
with apostolic authority at Rome, Christianity began to quickly spread throughout Western Europe; but despite the rapidity of transmission, almost four hundred years would elapse before this new religion reached Ireland-that is with professional Papal authority.
Now, while St. Patrick is rightly considered as one of the giant figures of Irish history and venerated as the most important Saint of Ireland, our Patron Saint, and while his mis- sionary labours in Ireland are referenced and celebrated as one of the greatest events in our history, he was not the first Christian missionary to land on these shores.
While there is an ancient theory which purports that some of the Apostles of Jesus, including his friend Joseph of Arimathea, and possibly Mary Magdalene, propagated Chris- tianity “as far as the light of the sun,” meaning Ireland, it is universally believed, but seldom referenced, that there were Christian congregations in Ireland well before the fifth century, possibly as early as AD36. A British historian, Albanicus, asserts that the Western Isles re- ceived the Gospel in the time of the Emperor Tiberius and the date given is ‘about the year of our Lord 37.’
The existence of these small Christian groups is more likely to be focused on trader families, people who were in touch with other races through their voyages and dealings in the mercantile world, and who, in turn, brought their new beliefs here, rather than the work of missionaries. Furthermore, before the days of Patrick, we are told that the fame of Irish esoteric and exoteric learning had reached parts of Europe, and that occasional Irish schol- ars were winning fame abroad. It is claimed that the early acclaimed Latin poet, Sedulius the Younger, was an Irishman, originally named Siadhal, and that the Roman lawyer Ce- lestius, who was more famed as a theologian, was also an Irishman, who at the time of his arrival bore the Irish name Cellach. At any rate, Irish Christians must have been sufficiently numerous by the early part of the fifth century to justify the appointment of a bishop for them by Rome, and the first official Christian mission to land in Ireland, and possibly the first attempt to introduce the papacy into Ireland, at least the one for which we have definite and reliable information, is that of the Egyptian-born, Palladius in 430.
Prosper, later St. Prosper, who at the time held a high position in the Roman Church, published a paper in the year 433 in which he stated: “Palladius was consecrated by St Celestine and sent as the first Bishop to the Irish believing in Christ.” Palladius was accom- panied by four (some accounts claim twelve) companions, Sylvester, Solinus, Augustinus and Benedictus. Unsurprisingly, as most of the country was pagan, the mission was unsuccessful,
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