Palladius (5th century), apostle of Ireland. Under the year 431 the contemporary Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine records that Palladius was sent by Celestine, bishop of the Roman Church, to the Irish believers in Christ, to be their first bishop. Already he had mentioned him under the year 429 as one who had persuaded Pope Celestine to send Germanus of Auxerre to extirpate the Pelagian heresy in Britain. It is likely but not absolutely certain that they were one and the same person. It is disputed whether Palladius was a deacon of Auxerre or of Rome. It seems probable that he was a deacon from Auxerre who went to Rome to gain papal approval for Germanus' visit to Britain. This mission needed some wider authority if it was not to seem to be mere interfering with the needs of another local church. Palladius probably accompanied Germanus to Britain, reported the results to Rome, where he was kept by the pope, and sent to Ireland not long afterwards. Christianity had presumably reached there, as it had elsewhere in the West, through migrant traders, but a definite organization of Christianity by a bishop was necessary if it were to survive and prosper. Palladius seems to have landed and worked mainly in Wicklow, where three places, Tigroney, Donard, and Cilleen Cormac (near Dunlavin), claim to be churches founded by him. His apostolate was not of long duration and was soon forgotten; it was in the interest of those emphasizing the role of Patrick that it should be. It seems likely that Palladius went from Ireland to Scotland, whether from distaste for his task or from the hostility which he encountered, or both, is not clear. He died there and the place of his death is claimed to be Forddun and there is still a cult of him in Aberdeen. It seems certain that Palladius and not Patrick was the first bishop to work in Ireland, that he is not to be identified with Patrick, that the evidence for a papal mission of Palladius is stronger than that for Patrick, and that a Scottish tradition that he preached in Scotland for twenty-three years is unreliable. Feast: 7 July.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Iul. II (1721), 286–90; J. B. Bury, St. Patrick and his Place in History (1905). pp. 342–4; R. P. C. Hanson, Saint Patrick (1968), pp. 52–6, 192–4; K.S.S., pp. 427–30; L. Bieler, ‘The Mission of Palladius’, Traditio, vi (1948), 1–32; P. Grosjean, ‘Notes de'hagiographie celtique’, Anal. Boll., lxiii (1945), 73–86, 112–19. See also Patrick
