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 was founding monastic institutions. Other than this, there is not much that we can be certain about his life.
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 fallen to the barbarians, and with it went the scholarly traditions of the empire. The power and influence of the Pope in Rome had also crumbled with the empire: the great city was reduced to a shell of its former glory, and he was reduced to little more than a pastor for those few struggling to hold onto their faith. But from beyond the edges of the old empire came the Irish monks, bringing literature and all of its civilizing attributes along with their faith. This story is told by Thomas Cahill in his book, How the Irish Saved Civilization.
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 game, they begin shuffled into the deck of event cards. Of course, you are not restricted to the historic order: you can choose to start with some of these people instead, and shuffle others into the deck.
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 Ireland. However, in any game you can instead choose to change this, starting with whomever you would like, maybe even with Patrick and his initial cohorts shuffled into the deck.
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. According to the Annals of Ulster, he began his mission to Ireland in 439 AD, and eventually became a bishop.
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 famous throughout the land.
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 one reference to Auxilius saying that Secundinus was his brother, but this might mean “brother” in the religious sense rather than the family sense. There is little written about his early life, but apparently he was Celtic and born in Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany. This would mean that he grew up speaking a Celtic language, which is in the same family of languages that includes Irish.
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 Ireland. While there, his religious convictions were rekindled, and after escaping and returning home, he studied to become a priest.
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 provinces”) but he pursued a life in the church, and was ordained as a priest around AD 415.
