1. Today is St. Patrick’s Day, a big day for Irish-Americans here in New York.
2. I am Irish-American myself.  It is an undisputed fact that most Irish-Americans know very little about the real St. Patrick.
3. I picked up the newspaper and saw quite a few articles and advertisements about Saint Patrick’s Day.  All of them were centered around drinking and debauchery.
4. What a strange way to honor a saint!  But that is the way of the world.  Remember, the Bible says that Satan is the god of this world (II Cor. 4:4).
5. Our Lord referred to the devil as “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).
6. And the prince of this world has tried to take a Baptist preacher and turn him into a Roman Catholic priest.  And the devil and his followers have set aside a day that is supposed to be in honor of a godly missionary, and have turned it into a day devoted to drinking and foolishness.
7. So we know the world’s “Saint Patrick” is not the real St. Patrick.
8. Then, who was the “real” St. Patrick?

I. PATRICK WAS BAPTIST IN DOCTRINE, NOT ROMANIST.

1. First of all, he was never a Roman Catholic priest.  He did not baptize his converts by pouring or sprinkling.  He baptized by immersion.
2. Patrick did not teach any of the distinctive RC doctrines, such as praying to Mary, or salvation through sacraments, etc.
3. Patrick’s father was a deacon, and his grandfather was a “presbyter” (elder).   The churches where they ministered were Gospel-preaching New Testament churches, and were not affiliated in any way with the church of Rome.
4. Back in 1998 we published a booklet with two articles entitled, The Real Saint Patrick.  The first article is entitled, “The Real Saint Patrick” by HA Ironside.  The second is “Saint Patrick was a Baptist” by John Summerfield Wimbish.
5. Referring to the fact that Patrick’s father was a deacon and his grandfather an elder, HA Ironside said, “These facts in themselves are most damaging to the Roman Catholic claims.  Here we have a missionary who was the son of one ‘clergyman’ and the grandson of another; surely he could scarcely be called a Romanist. It is evident that Patrick knew nothing of the doctrine of clerical celibacy.”
6. The real Patrick was born in Scotland in the 4th century (about 373).  Patrick was born in a town called Alcluyd, on the River Clyde.  “It was a Roman stronghold, later called ‘Dumbarton,’ where his reputed birthplace, ‘Kilpatrick,’ is still shown” (Ironside).
7. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was captured by a band of pirates who sold him to a Druid chieftain who reigned in the north of Ireland.
8. For six years, Patrick worked as a slave for this wicked Druid, and it was during the time of his captivity that he turned from his careless ways and came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Christ Jesus.
9. Patrick wrote, “Before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in deep mire, and He that is mighty came and in His mercy raised me up and, indeed, lifted me high up and placed me on top of the wall.  And from there I ought to shout out in gratitude to the Lord for His great favours in this world and for ever, that the mind of man cannot measure” (The Confession of Patrick).
10. Wimbish wrote, “Possibly it was while a hidden onlooker of the weird Druid ceremonies that he was inspired of God to become a missionary to these heathen people.”
11. After six years of servitude, herding cattle for this pagan chieftain, Patrick managed to escape, and after a difficult journey on land and sea, he returned to his home in Scotland.
12. Then, the Lord gave Patrick an unusual call.  In his own words, this is how Patrick described the call: “In the bosom of the night I saw a man as if coming from Ireland, whose name was Victoricus, with numerous letters, one of which he gave me, and I read the beginning of the epistle, containing the Voice of the Irish.  And while I was reading the beginning of the epistle I thought in my mind that I heard the voice of those who were near the wood Focluti, which is near the western sea.  And they shouted thus: ‘We beseech thee, holy youth, to come and live amongst us.’”
13. John Wimbish wrote, “From these words it is evident that his call to go as a missionary to Ireland was not from any Pope or representative of the Roman Church.  If our hero had been an agent of Rome, surely Popes Sixtus or Leo, who were his contemporaries, would have informed the Roman constituency of the astounding work being performed by Patrick and his co-laborers.”
14. Dr. J. Lewis Smith, in his book, Patrick of Ireland Not a Romanist, says, “We have in hand now 140 letters of Pope Leo the Great and we have not found a line written by him or any Pope or any other man rejoicing over the wonderful additions to the Roman Church by Patrick and his disciples…The Confession of St. Patrick contains not a word of a mission from the Pope Celestine” (cited by Wimbish).
15. Some have confused Patrick with a Roman Catholic bishop by the name of Palladius, who had been sent out by Pope Celestine as a missionary to Ireland. 
16. For example, I read an article in the NY Post a few years ago that stated that Pope Celestine sent Patrick to Ireland.
17. I once received a “St. Patrick’s Day card” from a Roman Catholic relative that said, “Pope Celestine commissioned St. Patrick to evangelize Ireland.”
18. This is not true. What really happened was when news of Patrick’s evangelistic success had reached Rome, Pope Celestine sent Palladius as a bishop to bring the churches under the control of the Papacy.
19. It was in 432, at least 27 years after Patrick’s commission from God, that Palladius arrived in Ireland from Rome. When Palladius did start his work for the pope in Ireland, he soon discovered that most of the people did not accept his message of subservience to the pope of Rome.  Palladius was greatly discouraged by his lack of success and gave up. He soon abandoned Ireland and moved to north Britain.
20. The historian Philip Schaff wrote, “The Roman mission of Palladius failed; the independent mission of Patrick succeeded.  He is the true Apostle of Ireland, and has impressed his memory in indelible characters upon the Irish race at home and abroad.”

II. PATRICK BAPTIZED ONLY BELIEVERS, AND BY IMMERSION.

1. Patrick was opposed to the paganism and idolatry of the Druids.  He led many thousands of heathens to Christ and evangelized the entire country of Ireland.
2. There are three authentic literary works of Patrick that have survived to this day: the Confession, the Letter to Coroticus, and the hymn, “The Breastplate.”
3. In his writings, whenever Patrick refers to baptism, it is always believer’s baptism by immersion.
4. He recorded that he “baptized thousands of men,” but never mentioned baptizing small children or babies.
5. Furthermore, all of the records of Patrick’s baptisms speak of immersion.
6. The Baptist historian, William Cathcart, claimed Patrick was a Baptist and only baptized by immersion.  He also wrote, “There is absolutely no evidence that any baptism but that of immersion of adult believers existed among the ancient Britons, in the first half of the fifth century (the time of Patrick’s ministry), nor for a long time afterwards.”

III. PATRICK WAS BAPTIST IN HIS DOCTRINE.

1. John Wimbish wrote, “Rome’s most notorious theft was when she seized bodily the apostle Peter and made him to be the infallible head and founder of her system of error.  Imagine Peter, who in humility said to Cornelius: ‘Stand up, I myself also am a man,’ placed on a pedestal as a ‘Vicar of God on Earth.’  It would have been exceedingly difficult to convince Peter of his infallibility shortly after he heard the cock crow.  But surely alongside the theft of Peter stands this brazen act of Catholicism – that of enrolling the great missionary preacher of Ireland among her saints.  He is pictured for us as a croziered and mitered Roman prelate, whereas his very own words show us that he was far removed from such pretensions.”
2. Patrick preached the Bible as his only authority.
3. Patrick preached the true Gospel of salvation by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. In Patrick’s three writings, there are 113 references or quotations from Scripture.  There is no mention of praying to Mary or the “saints,” salvation by good works or sacraments, the so-called “Eucharist,” relics, purgatory, etc.

CONCLUSION:

1. Over the course of 60 years, Patrick traveled the length and breadth of Ireland preaching the Gospel and establishing churches.  It is estimated that by the end of his ministry there were 365 churches across the island.
2. These were Bible-preaching churches and were not affiliated in any way with Rome.
3. Patrick established monasteries, but they were nothing like Roman Catholic monasteries. Patrick’s monasteries were schools whereby men were trained in the Scriptures and to taught how to evangelize and to bring the Gospel to others.  After their training, these men married and had families.
4. Because of these monasteries and the churches that Patrick founded in Ireland, Ireland became known as the “Isle of Saints and Scholars.”
5. For more than six hundred years, Irish missionaries carried the Gospel with the same truthfulness as Patrick’s to Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and beyond.
6. For example, Columba and his companions set out for Scotland in 563.  Columbanus and his companions went to evangelize France and Germany in 612.
7. The Dark Ages covered Europe in spiritual darkness in the ninth and tenth centuries.  The Roman Catholic Church, having gained rulership through intrigue and persecution, now held most of Europe in her iron grip.
8. But even in those dark centuries, the Irish missionaries continued to spread the true Gospel all across Europe.
9. With the coming of the Danes in the ninth century, however, the churches in Ireland began to loosen their strong Biblical stand.  Furthermore, the pope of Rome began to unleash military power to bring Ireland under her control.
10. This began with the decree of Pope Adrian IV issued to King Henry II of England in 1155.  The Pope authorized the invasion of Ireland and sent King Henry II a ring of investiture as Lord of Ireland, calling upon him to give control of Ireland to the Roman Church.
11. King Henry II carried out the pope’s plans in 1171 and with a strong military force subdued the whole country of Ireland.
12. Since then, the majority of the people in the Republic of Ireland have been in bondage to the Roman Catholic Church.