What was Saint Patrick of Ireland’s ethnic background? (No fair using Google to answer.)
WINNER: Father Jeffrey Keyes was quick to point out that St. Patrick was born in Britain, and that St. Patrick was a Roman citizen. He was not ethnically Irish. He only ended up in Ireland because the kind, gentle folk of that land kidnapped and enslaved him.
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He was a Roman citizen, I believe, born in Britain
The Politically Correct answer is:
Hawaiian
The English, Scots and even the French have claimed his ethnicity.
As everyone knows, St. Patrick was Russian. Just like all of the other Apostles.
Sorry, but the Angles hadn’t even arrived in Britain at the time of Patrick’s birth. Just like practically everyone else in Britain at the time, he was either British (ie, people speaking Brythonic, predecessor of modern Welsh) or Romano-British.
Patrick was born in Kilpatrick, in Dumbarton, which is in Scotland. Patrick was Scottish. This and much more in my weblog entry for today entitled “My Celtic Moment.”
Oh, one more thing. Nyahhh….!
DLA (of Clan Alisdair)
Yes! Nyah!
JBB (of Clans Davidson and McFarlane)
I have removed the reference to the Angles as my source is not entirely reliable. However, there was Germanic migration prior to the Anglo-Saxon migration in subsequent centuries. Regardless, it’s generally agreed that St. Patrick was born in Britain.
There was very little Germanic immigration of any sort prior to the second half of the fifth century, well after St Patrick was born. Furthermore, they were all still pagan, whereas Patrick’s family was Christian at least two generations back. That and Patrick’s probable original name point towards his British/Romano-British identity.
He wasn’t Scottish, either, even if he was born in what is now Scotland. Most of what is now Scotland was also inhabited by Brythonic-speaking British – and unquestionably what is now Strathclyde (including Dumbarton) was then Brythonic, and was to stay so for hundreds of years. (The Irish-speaking folks who founded the Kingdom of Dalriada, the seed of what was to become Scotland, were only just arriving in 400AD, and they fought a lot with the Strathclyde Britons.)
Atlantic, the question was supposed to reveal that one of the most famous Irishmen, St. Patrick, was not himself Irish. That’s not common knowledge in many circles. I think that fact is one of history’s funny little ironies, which is why I wanted to mention it.
Cool
I won!!…
Ok, I am not joking, but I was taught that Patrick was a Roman citizen, born in Northern Africa that was a part of the Roman Empire.
Pansy,
Are you sure you aren’t confusing him with Saint Augustine? He was a Roman citizen born in North Africa, and his father’s name was Patricius (the Latin form of Patrick).