Alfie:
Wasn’t Saint Patrick a Protestant? His father was a clergyman.
Sure, if you think Protestants are made bishop or sent on missions by the Pope:
www.newadvent.org/cathen/11554a.htm
“No sooner had
St. Germain entered on his great mission at Auxerre than
Patrick put himself under his guidance, and it was
at that great bishop’s hands that Ireland’s future apostle was a few years later promoted to the priesthood. It is the tradition in the territory of the Morini that Patrick under St. Germain’s guidance for some years was engaged in missionary work among them. When Germain** commissioned by the Holy See** proceeded to Britain to combat the erroneous teachings of Pelagius,
he chose Patrick to be one of his missionary companions and thus
it was his privilege to be associated with the representative of Rome in the triumphs that ensued over heresy and Paganism, and in the many remarkable events of the expedition, such as the miraculous calming of the tempest at sea,
the visit to the relics at St. Alban’s shrine, and the Alleluia victory.”
“
Pope St. Celestine I, who rendered immortal service to the Church by the overthrow of the Pelagian and Nestorian heresies, and by the imperishable wreath of honour decreed to the Blessed Virgin in the General Council of Ephesus, crowned his pontificate by an act of the most far-reaching consequences for the spread of Christianity and civilization, when he
entrusted St. Patrick with the mission of gathering the Irish race into the one fold of Christ. Palladius (q.v.) had already received that commission, but terrified by the fierce opposition of a Wicklow chieftain had abandoned the sacred enterprise.
It was St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre, who commended Patrick to the pope.”
St. Patrick a Protestant? Absolutely impossible. (Not just because the pope entrusted him with converting the Irish but Protestantism was not to appear for another 1100 years or so. Patrick would have no idea what you are talking about.)
