Banish the Snakes

Along with its three patron saints (Patrick, Columba, and Brigid) Ireland also has four “most sacred” bishops. The list changes with the telling, but most versions include Ibar of Beggerin. Ibar has been linked with Brigid; he was a missionary bishop who was active around the same time and in the same areas where she […]

The Twelve Apostles of Ireland were a group of twelve monastic leaders who spread Christianity far and wide. They led expeditions throughout the island, and then out into the wider world: to return the faith first to the Picts, then the rest of Great Britain, and then onto the continent. The Western Roman Empire had

The first set of six characters from Banish the Snakes that we described were contemporaries of Patrick — or even his predecessors. We now begin the first of six characters that rose to prominence in the following century or so, and played prominent roles in completing the conversion of Ireland to Christianity. In a historic

This is the last of six installments describing the characters represented in the historic “at start” cards. Over the following weeks, I will describe each of the six cards that are shuffled into the deck at the beginning of the game, representing characters that rose to prominence after the initial group did their work in

Like Patrick, Iserninus was born in Roman Britain, but he was apparently a fluent Celtic speaker; perhaps his family stayed with the old language of the Britons instead of fully adopting Latin as their language at home. Tradition says that he was ordained as a deacon at Auxerre in Burgundy along with Patrick and Auxilius.

The first of the early Irish missionaries to actually be born in Ireland was Ciarán. He was born into the ruling family of Osraige, but before this, his mother had a dream that a star fell into her mouth. The druids interpreted the dream to mean that she would bear a son who would be

According to tradition and the Irish Annals, Patrick brought three men with him when he began his mission in Ireland, including Auxilius. Then again, some say that Auxilius and Iserninus arrived in Ireland six years later, sent by Germanus to help. According to some sources, Auxilius was Patrick’s nephew, the son of his sister. There is

Many people already know the story of Patrick. Perhaps this is because his autobiography is the oldest Irish literature that survives to this day. He tells us that he was born in Roman Britain, the son of a deacon and grandson of a priest. He was kidnapped as a teen, and sent into slavery in

Any series of articles about the people involved with the introduction of Christianity to Ireland must, of course, start with Palladius. Wait, what? Not Patrick? No, the first bishop of the Christians of Ireland was Palladius, the scion of a prominent family in Gaul. His father held the office of praefectus praetorio Galliarum (“Praetorian prefect of the Gallic