Saint Patrick of Ireland, the Messianic Jew?

by Christine Egbert

“Ireland’s Patrick: Saint, Yes! Catholic No!

I recently read an article in Wikipedia about the Hebraic Roots movement. Surprisingly, I found it mostly accurate. The author even pointed out that we in this walk “seek out the history, culture, and faith of first century believers. To this I must add, and we shouldn’t stop there. Why? Because so much happened during those next few centuries that still affects believers today. That’s why it’s so imperative that we learn about and then disseminate these historical truths. We have been called to contend for the faith that was (originally) delivered to the Saints (Jude 1:3), and so much has been perverted.

The Roman Catholic Church changed more than doctrine. They rewrote history. In the case of St. Patrick, the historical lies were written by Probus and Joscelyn in A.D. 1130 (more than 500 years after Patrick’s death). Seeking to garner Patrick’s fame for the Roman Catholic Church, these two men fabricated history. And ever since Papal biographers have spun their fanciful work into a web of lies. The truth is the Pope never ordained Patrick, in Rome or anywhere else, and Patrick was never a Roman Catholic. Patrick was a Messianic Jew!

The Book Of Leinster

The source for this amazing fact about Patrick is the medieval Book of Leinster, which is a compilation of Ireland’s oldest documents. It is stored under lock and key in Trinity College, Dublin. According to the research of Dr. Robert Heidler, Patrick was a “son of Israel.” Patrick’s ancestors were among the Jewish believers in the Messiah, Yeshua, who fled Jerusalem in 70 A.D after Rome sacked the Holy City.

Patrick Was Born In Scotland

Patrick was born in a providence of Britain, in 360 A.D, that was Scottish, not Irish. It was the town of Bonnaven, located between Dumbarton and Glasgow. Patrick’s father was a deacon in the Celtic, not Catholic, church! According to the research of Dr. Heidler, a senior teacher at Glory of Zion International Ministries, as well as other sources, this Celtic church was the last surviving outpost of the first century apostolic church, and it operated in miracles.

As we know from Scripture, signs and wonders powered the early ekklesiah (the so-called church). These miracles spurred the ekklesiah’s growth, right up until the 4th century. But when syncretism with paganism under Constantine occurred, the Most High’s gory departed. Elohim pulled the plug. Miracles stopped! And false teachers began teaching that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were only for the apostles. In some remote locations, however, miracles continued. One of those outposts was 4th century Ireland.

Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the Celtic church did not believe in purgatory, did not pray to Mary, and did not honor the Pope. Clergy married and reared children. Believers, not infants, were baptized by immersion, not sprinkling. And . . . are you ready for this? They celebrated Passover, not Rome’s Easter, they kept Elohim’s 7th day Sabbath, they shunned unclean meats and decried the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy.

Enslaved in Ireland

Young Patrick was captured by raiders, who enslaved him and took the lad to Ireland. At the age of 16, he began to cry out to the Lord from hilltops where he was forced to shepherd sheep. There young Patrick learned to trust Elohim, and he cultivated a personal relationship with the Messiah, Yeshua. Then one day, six years later, Elohim told Patrick that it was time to go home. So Patrick escaped and boarded a ship setting sail for Scotland. Back in Scotland, Patrick spent the bulk of his time praying and studying the Scriptures, until one day the Lord spoke to him again. “Return to Ireland, Patrick. Lead the Irish to Messiah!”

So Patrick did. He spent the next 30 years preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. And as history records, Elohim used Patrick to heal the sick and to raise the dead. According to one account, Patrick raised to life the dead son and daughter of King Alphimus. After this miracle, this pagan King, his nobles, and the entire town accepted the Yeshua and were baptized.

Saint Columba and the Island of Iona

Another amazing saint that the Catholic Church has laid a false claim to is a man named Columba. Born in 521 in Donegal, Ireland, where he planted over 300 churches, Columba rejected his noble birth, accepting instead the life of an apostle. He and 12 of his followers departed Ireland for Scotland, where on the rocky little island of Iona, Columba established a Christian community of believers known as the Culdees. This was no Catholic monastery! This was a training center, a base for evangelism that reached all the Scots and the Picts.

The Culdees taught that it was imperative for each person to study Elohim’s word for themselves. (The Catholic Church allowed only their priests to read Elohim’s word.) The Culdees married and reared children. (The Catholic Church forbid priests to marry.) These Culdees of St. Columba kept the Sabbath and the Feasts. They bought slaves and set them free. They taught them to read Scripture in Hebrew, Greek, and Gaelic, during a time in history when most kings in Europe were illiterate, and then sent them out as missionaries.

Messianic Church Arising

Here is an excerpt from Dr. Robert D. Heidler’s book: The Messianic Church Arising!

“In identifying Iona as a remnant of the Messianic Church, we should not assume they thought of themselves as Jewish. The observance of Passover or the Sabbath did not seem Jewish to them, any more than reading the book of Psalms or taking the Lord ’s Supper seems Jewish to us. For Columba these things were simply part of normative Christianity. These things practiced by the Culdees had been part of biblical Christianity since the times of the apostles. These things only seem foreign to us because they were forcibly removed from the church in the Middle Ages.” (pg 67, paragraph 4)

Excerpts From Other Documents

In closing, I will list some excerpts from other documents.

“I, Patrick, …had Calpornius for my father, a deacon, a son of the late Potitus, the presbyter, who dwelt in the village of Banavan….I was captured. I was almost sixteen years of age…and taken to Ireland in captivity with many thousand men.’” (William Cathcart, D. D., The Ancient British and Irish Churches, p.127).

“He (Patrick) never mentions either Rome or the pope or hints that he was in any way connected with the ecclesiastical capital of Italy. He recognizes no other authority but that of the word of Elohim…(Dr. Killen, Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol.1, pp.12-15)

“It seems to have been customary in the Celtic churches of early times, in Ireland as well as Scotland, to keep Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, as a day of rest from labor. They obeyed the fourth commandment literally upon the seventh day of the week.” (James C. Moffatt, D. D., The Church in Scotland, Philadelphia: 1882, p.140)

“In this latter instance they seemed to have followed a custom of which we find traces in the early monastic church of Ireland by which they held Saturday to be the Sabbath on which they rested from all their labours.” (W.T. Skene, Adamnan Life of St. Columba, 1874, p.96)

Other doctrines that Patrick, Columba, and the Celtic assemblies held included the observation of the other Festivals of the Eternal (Lev.23), the belief in the mortality of man and the hope of the resurrection (vs. immortality of the soul and going to heaven, hell, and/or purgatory); the distinction between clean and unclean animals; “improvised” prayers (from the heart, rather than merely from the lip with repetitions); that Messiah Yeshua is our only Mediator–as opposed to various “saints,” Mary, angels, etc.; and that redemption and atonement comes through the life, death, and resurrection of Messiah alone–separate from works and heeding commandments/ doctrines of men (see The Celtic Church in Britain by Leslie Hardinge, as well as Truth Triumphant by B.G. Wilkinson, for documentation).

“The Roman Catholics have proudly and exclusively claimed St. Patrick, and most Protestants have ignorantly or indifferently allowed their claim...But he was no Romanist. His life and evangelical Church of the 5th century ought to be better known." (McClintock and Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol. VII, p.776, article Patrick, St.)

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