Holy Hierarch Palladius, Apostle to the Scots

Saint Palladius of Ireland and Scotland

The sixth of July is the feast day of Saint Palladius, the first churchman to attempt to Christianise Ireland and Scotland. A Roman by birth, he lay the groundwork for the missions of Saint Padrig and Saint Brigid in Ireland, while among the Scots of northern Britain he built upon the foundations laid by Saint Ninian.

Saint Palladius is mentioned first as a deacon of the church in Italy. Having heard of the revival of the errors of Pelagius in Britain and Ireland, he recommended to Pope Saint Celestine in 429 that the holy Saint Germain – along with a companion, Saint Loup – be sent among them in order to correct them. His recommendation was taken, and the success of that mission may be gauged by the reverence with which Saint Germain is still rightly treated in Wales: that due to a Father of the Church.

It is mentioned in several sources including the works of Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, that Palladius was not long thereafter himself ordained a bishop by the same Celestine, and sent to Ireland to assist the Church there, which was as yet still in its infancy. Ireland indeed had missionaries and Christian clerics well predating Saint Padrig, among whom are Saints Ailbe, Ciarán of Saighir, Declán and Ibor of Beggerin. These Saint Palladius was sent to assist and support as best he could. Rev Alban Butler puts forward the opinion, based on the fact that the above saints were active and evangelising at the same time Palladius was sent to Ireland, that Palladius’s mission was not mission per se, but instead to be a prop of orthodox belief among those Irish people who had already come to believe. This seems reasonable given Palladius’s prior concern over the rise of Pelagianism in Britain.

Saint Palladius preached for a short time in Ireland, but soon fell foul of the King of Leinster, who had him banished from the western isle. Palladius retired from there to what is now Scotland in the year 431, and preached there among the Scots. He may have built upon the foundation that was already planted there by Saint Ninian of Whithorn, but his mission in Scotland was far more successful. By the time of his repose in the Lord at Fordoun around the year 450, the Church in Scotland had grown and flourished to many times the size it had been twenty years before. Saint Palladius was buried in the crypt of the chapel at Fordoun, and a carved stone cross, the Fordoun Stone, was discovered under the foundations there in 1787. A holy well at Drumtochty is attributed to the saint. Saint Palladius appointed his disciples Saint Serbán (spiritual father to Saint Teneu and Saint Mungo) and Saint Ternan bishops in his stead, and they carried forth his mission in Scotland. Holy hierarch Palladius, apostle to the Scots, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!

Chapel of Saint Palladius, Fordoun, Scotland