Saint Patrick was likely a slave trader and tax collector says new British evidence

Would Patricius's Roman citizenship of the paradigm empire not have made him Roman rather than British? And was there really a "Britain" (great or otherwise?) before the Act of Settlement between England & Wales and Scotland, 1777? And lest we forget, it was an English Pope who granted Ireland to the English crown to Christianise (?), despite the inconvenient truth it not being his to grant to anyone. If anyone has difficulty with St. Patrick being called British, how about Britonian or Britvic?

When it comes to Ireland, nothing said or written by an academic in England can be trusted. The anti-Irish bias present in the English is the same as it ever was, and their denial of culpability or responsibility for their forefathers systematic invasion, occupation, and destruction of Ireland is as odious as ever.

Not very logical as St Patrick was supposedly a teenager at the time this happened in Ireland. There is actually no proper record of any part of his life prior to his becaming a priest. They actually do not even know where he was born. So they can say just about anything.

Leave it to the British to come up with this.

the way I heard it St.Patrick was a well connected young lad, with many relatives well placed in the monastic system, including St. Augustine. The idea of his "slavery" was an apprenticeship to the Druid Milcu, and he was a slave to the God he served.

SirPeter, rant all you want. It's better entertainment than any show on tv, and at least as edifying as what I see on our Public Broadcasting Stations. Wish I could set someone with your sharp and ready wit on some of our crazy teabaggers over here, like Limbaugh and his ilk. They wouldn't know what to do with you, man!

Sorry...that should be 'Gregorian' calender, not 'Julian'.

@ PatriciaMarya... Thank you for reading and acknowledging my long posts on St. Brigid. It is not unusual for any saintly person to be “demoted” by the Roman Catholic Church. St Patrick was 'demoted' as well a few years ago but that’s not surprising ‘cos there’s only 365 days in the (Pope) Julian calendar year, our present measure of time, and there just isn’t enough days in any calendar year to fit in all the saints over all time to each day, is there? @ FromPhoenix, I think you might be confusing the Irish saint, Brigid, with the Swedish saint, Birgid. My father’s friends always said that he was a living saint but I don’t see any day named after him as a saint. Even I can aver he was one - and he was just an extraordinary kind man, no different from any other extraordinarily kind man or woman. Today is March 19th, St. Joseph’s feast day, but I don’t see the Roman Catholic Church rushing to make it an obligatory day for us Catholics to attend Mass in his honour as guardian of Mary and Jesus. He musta been demoted sometime ago too... but he’s still a blooming great Saint in God’s eyes. Like all who stick with Jesus Christ, despite what has happened amongst the members of the Church He founded. I sometimes wonder what the original 70 Apostles would say to us all today. I think they would bollick me for my 70 sins.

ciaradexy.I think you are associating these anti-English rants and thinking they are directed at the ordinary British people.Mostly it's articles on historic British policy in Ireland.So the rant is justified when it comes to a lot of our dealings in the past.There is a lot of anti-Irish idiots in England.That is a fact.I do a lot of business in London.Three weeks ago I went for a meal with six businessmen and I noticed this one English guy was a bit out of sorts while I was having a laugh with the rest.Eventually~And I could see it coming.He said with alot of venom in front of everyone.I'd never go to your Country.You lot are a bunch of bombers!!I said quick as a flash.Well!!You wouldn't get in with that shirt and tie anyway.LOL.His English buddies just broke down laughing and that was the end of him.Irish people always need to have a fast come-back ready.That Irish hatred and trying to pull the Irish down happens a lot in England.Ciaradexy just because you have a different experience which is good to be honest doesn't mean some Brits (I'd say quite alot) don't hold a certain amount of contempt because of the English media.Give Irish Americans a brake they are exposed to anti-Irish sh*t a lot more than an Irishman/woman living in Ireland.End of rant myself ;))

I have put my tome on Patrick on the bookshelf between the Egyptian book of the dead and Greek mythology.

I don't know where you people come up with these assertions regarding St. Bridget. As a Traditional Catholic and one who keeps abreast of church pronouncements I have never heard(even after a thorough computer search of catholic archives)anything on a so-called demotion. There are hundreds of catholic churches and parishes in the U.S. and around the globe named in her honor. Her feast day is still celebrated along with the many other recognized saints.

Well said Citizen69. Its just ridiculous how this article also states that research has been done and yet Americans on here just chose to shut their eyes and ears to research while shouting 'no no no no no' and anti English rants over and over again when the Irish just go,'I dont care' or 'oh, imagine that!' I reckon you lot would have been shocked at the good atmosphere in Dublin yesterday between the English and the Irish. Cinderfella, just for your information, you uneducated fool, Northern Ireland is not part of England.

Sounds just like a Anglo-Saxon version of Irish history

Note how IC put the word British in this headline for seemingly no other reason than to stoke-up the usual hatred amongst many Irish-Americans here. Why would the nationality of the professor matter?

jacersagain and FromPhoenix - thank you so very much for giving me more information on the life of this fascinating woman in Irish history, Brigid, saint. To find out that she was "demoted" in 1968 by the Catholic Church is overwhelming and puzzling to me. When I saw the woven crosses in a church in Ireland in February of 2010 and to learn this year that February is her month, I was touched. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. And to the poster who considered RTE's (by the way, RTE is Ireland's television network) series' contribution to "Secrets of the Stones" to be suspect is to insult the intelligence and research being done by Ireland's major scholars and universities. See the series first and then make your comments. Do remember: History is written by the winners; thus, not always containing all the truths, just what is useful for control purposes. It is good, sane and healthy to keep a bit of skepticism when we consider our role models.