Palladius (bishop of Ireland)
5th century deacon and first bishop of Ireland
Palladius (fl. early 5th Century) was the first bishop of the Christians of Ireland, preceding Saint Patrick. It is possible that some elements of their life stories were later conflated in Irish tradition. Palladius was a deacon and member of one of the prominent families in Gaul. Pope Celestine I consecrated him a bishop and sent him to Ireland "to the Scotti believing in Christ".
Background
The Palladii were reckoned among the noblest families of France and several of them held high rank about this time in the Church of Gaul.
The Gallo-Roman poet Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, in his poem De reditu suo, recounting his voyage from Rome to Gaul in 417, mentions a young relative of his called Palladius, who had been sent from Gaul to Rome to study law. He refers to Palladius's father, Exuperantius, as bringing peace, law and freedom to Armorica. Exuperantius was apparently praefectus praetorio Galliarum ("Praetorian prefect of the Gallic provinces") when he was killed in an army mutiny at Arles in 424.
Prosper of Aquitaine in his Chronicon mentions a deacon called Palladius, who in 429 urged Pope Celestine I to send bishop Germanus of Auxerre to Britain to bring the Britons back to the Catholic faith.
The public source identifies “Palladius (bishop of Ireland)” as 5th century deacon and first bishop of Ireland. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Palladius, bishop and Ireland.
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This entry incorporates text from “Palladius (bishop of Ireland)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.