ABSTRACT
Christianity had reached Ireland by the beginning of the fifth century. We may infer from linguistic evidence that the missionaries of the new faith came mainly from the RomanoBritish Church, rather than Gaul (a notable quantity of Irish loanwords derive from a British dialect of Latin). By 431, the number of Christians in Ireland warranted episcopal oversight, and Pope Celestine I commissioned a deacon named Palladius to be first bishop “to the Irish believing in Christ.” The other (and by the seventh century) more famous fifthcentury apostle of the Irish, Patrick, came from Britain; he is a less shadowy figure than Palladius, having left us some of his own writings. Although he does not provide a very clear picture of the organization of the Irish Church, Patrick does tell us that, as an Irish bishop, he was responsible to a synod of British bishops. Therefore Ireland had no metropolitan bishop.
