Ireland: Political History and Notable Figures

Ulster, Leinster, and Munster (All Facts)

400s - Palladius (All Facts)

• First Bishop of Ireland 

• Sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine 

387 - 461 - St. Patrick (All Facts)

• He was

  • Born near Carlisle in Britain

  • The son of a landowner named Calpurnius

  • The grandson of a priest named Potitus

• He

  • Was captured by Irish raiders and sold into slavery at the age of 14

  • Escaped six years later where he then made a 3-day voyage to Gaul in a small boat

  • Was then trained as a priest in Gaul and Britain

• He successfully converted most of the kings in Ireland including those in

  • Ulster

  • Leinster

  • Munster

  • He had persuaded all of these kings to allow Christian priests to take the Bible to these kings’ peoples

• Everyone who met him was impressed by his holiness, which came from a firm belief that he received direct and specific guidance from God in dreams and visions

  • In one such vision, he was urged to return to Ireland and convert the Irish

• He is known for two books he wrote in Latin including

  • Confessio 

  • Epistola 

• He founded the episcopal see of Armagh 

470 - 549 - St. Finnian of Clonard (All Facts)

• Father of Irish Monasticism

• He founded great monasteries in Ireland, which, in turn, spawned satellite monasteries

543 - 615 - St. Columbanus (All Facts)

• Irish Missionary

  • He converted the rural areas of the Vosges in Gaul

  • He was eventually expelled to Italy

• Founded three monasteries

  • Founded the Bobbio Monastery in the Apennines, with permission from the Lombard King Agilulf

  • Founded the Luxeuil Monastery in Burgundy in 590

  • Founded monasteries in the Voges region of Europe

• Characterized by his fiery brand of asceticism, which was very popular

  • His monastic rule was very austere, with harsh penances, beatings, fasts, and extremely long services

  • This is contrasted with much the softer Benedictine monastic rule

590 - 651 - St. Aidan of Lindisfarne (All Facts)

• Irish monk and missionary credited with converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in Northumbria

• Founded a ministry cathedral on the island of Lindisfarne, known as Lindisfarne Priory and served as its first bishop

• Traveled ceaselessly throughout the countryside, spreading the gospel to both the Anglo-Saxon nobility and the socially disenfranchised (including children and slaves)

• Helped King Oswald of Northumbria to restore Christianity after a brief pagan revival there

624 - 704 - St. Adomnan of Iona (All Facts)

• Persuaded much of the Irish church to come over to the Roman / Byzantine method of calculating the date of Easter, but failed to convince his own community and its daughter monasteries in Ireland

750 - 825 - St. Blathmac (All Facts)

• Irish Monk and Martyr who went to Iona in search of martyrdom at Vikings hands

• After seven years, they landed and tore him to pieces for refusing to reveal where the Monastery of Iona’s treasure was hidden