Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – Patrick was a Baptist – Exposing Another Romish Historical – PART ONE of EIGHT

Thomas E Kresal Admin · 3 hrs March 14, 2020

Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – Patrick was a Baptist – Exposing Another Romish Historical – PART ONE of EIGHT

SAINT PATRICK WAS A BAPTIST. After a cautious and critical study of reputable writings, I am thoroughly convinced that he was not affiliated in any way with the Roman hierarchy.

It is indeed magnanimous of our Catholic friends to give this humble missionary of ours such prominence on their scroll of illustrious saints. Think of it: they have even erected cathedrals in his honor. However, we feel it is time to sweep the cobwebs of superstition and the dust of legend off this dear old preacher of the Cross.

To most of us, Patrick is a mythical being, vaguely associated with a serpent exodus from the Emerald Isle. Other misconceptions are that he was Irish, that he was an emissary of the Pope and that his name was Patrick. All these are false. He was not Irish, he was in his honored grave 175 years before his name was even mentioned in Catholic writings * and his real name was Sucat, which means “warlike” in Modern Welsh.1 For the sake of simplicity, throughout this message we will refer to him as Patrick.

Let us consider first of all: There are two documents by Patrick which are recognized by all parties as being genuine: his “Confession” or “Epistle to the Irish” and his epistle to the Christians under the cruel king, Coroticus. Then too, we should mention the Lorica or Hymn of Patrick, originally written in Latin and known as The Breastplate. These authentic writings in an irrefutable way support our convictions concerning the Apostle to the Irish.

Patrick, in his own “Confession” tells us that he was a Briton, not an Irishman. He first saw the light of day in the town of Dumbarton on the River Clyde in the south of Scotland about the year 389 A.D. His father was a Christian deacon and his grandfather a clergyman in the ancient church of Britain, which had never come under the yoke of Rome. These facts in themselves practically crush the claims of the papacy.

At sixteen years of age, our hero was captured by a band of Scottish slave-dealing pirates who sold him to the Druid chieftain, Milcho, who reigned in the north of Ireland. For six years Patrick herded the cattle of this ruthless pagan chieftain. In his “Confession” he tells us: “When I was a youth, I was taken captive before I knew what I should desire or seek, or what I ought to shun.”

It was during this time of servitude in the bleak forests of northern Ireland that Patrick turned from his frivolous ways and came into a knowledge of Christ as his own personal Saviour. Of that period he says, “Frequently in the night I prayed and the love of God and His fear increased more and more in me.” 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.

He relates how, after six years, he managed to escape from his master and, after a tortuous journey over sea and land, returned to his people in Britain. It must have been a beautiful homecoming as his mother embraced him once again and his father, in amazement, learned of the lad’s experiences. They had long before given him up as dead.

Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from: A tract titled:

St. Patrick was a Baptist by John Summerfield Wimbish, D.D.

1. Encyclopedia Brittanica, Vol. 17, Copyright 1946, P. 38

*In correspondence with the Abbot of Iona, an Irish Catholic, by the name of Cummian, in 634 A.D., spoke of the “Cycle of our Holy Father Patrick.”