Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Saint Patrick’s Day is observed on 17 March, which is said to be the date of his death. It is celebrated inside and outside Ireland as a religious and cultural holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation; it is also a celebration of Ireland itself.
“Two Patrick’s” theory
Irish academic T. F. O’Rahilly proposed the “Two Patrick’s” theory which suggests that many of the traditions later attached to Saint Patrick actually concerned Palladius, who Prosper of Aquitaine‘s Chronicle says was sent by Pope Celestine I as the first bishop to Irish Christians in 431. Palladius was not the only early cleric in Ireland at this time. The Irish-born Saint Ciarán of Saigir lived in the later fourth century (352–402) and was the first bishop of Ossory. Ciaran, along with saints Auxilius, Secundinus and Iserninus, are also associated with early churches in Munster and Leinster. By this reading, Palladius was active in Ireland until the 460s.
Prosper associates Palladius‘ appointment with the visits of Germanus of Auxerre to Britain to suppress Pelagianism and it has been suggested that Palladius and his colleagues were sent to Ireland to ensure that exiled Pelagians did not establish themselves among the Irish Christians. The appointment of Palladius and his fellow-bishops was not obviously a mission to convert the Irish, but more probably intended to minister to existing Christian communities in Ireland.