Today March 16th is St. Patrick's Day... It is interesting that other
Christian denominations besides the Roman Catholics claim St. Patrick
as their own. I remember reading a book on the Presbyterian Church
which claimed St. Patrick as their own. The entry for the Church of
Ireland (Episcopalian) also claims St. Patrick as their own. When I
took a Fuller extension class from the late Lewis Spitz, he mentioned
the idea that St. Patrick may have been Coptic (Egyptian church)...
Dr. Spitz also mentioned the Book of Kells as having evidence of
Egyptian influence. St. Patrick was apparently an Iro-Celtic Monk.
These monks were not part of what became the Roman Catholic Church. I
don't think they necessarily observed celibacy. If memory serves me
correctly there are red haired descendants of these monks in France.
Eventually the Irish and other Celtic Christians merged or were
absorbed into the Roman Catholic Church at the Synod of Whtiby. Bill
Cooper in his book AFTER THE FLOOD claims the Synod was more of a
massacre of Celtic Christians. I do not know if the persuasion of
Celtic Christians to accept the Roman ways was by debate or
bloodshed. Unfortunately church matters were not always settled in
the most kindly ways.
If Patrick was indeed Coptic and if the Copts were indeed
Monophysites, holding to the idea that Christ only had a divine
nature, but not a human nature, then his Christology is off base. And
the Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and Presbyterians are honoring
someone they would normally consider a heretic. Before the Protestant
Reformation; before the split between the Roman Catholics and the
Eastern Orthodox; there was the split between the Coptic Church and
what became the Roman Catholic/ Eastern Orthodox churches. If I
remember correctly the Coptic Church is in fellowship with the Coptic
church of Ethiopia and the Armenian Church.
I talked to some Orthodox, who said that the Orthodox Church and the
Coptic Church have been in dialogue for the past 350 years and that
the differences may be due to a misunderstanding. Since I have not
studied the split between the Coptic and the Roman Catholic/ Eastern
Orthodox churches, I do not know if the split was due to heresy or
misunderstanding.
As far as I know St. Patrick only wrote one autobiography. Whatever
his theological persuasion, one must admire him for his missionary
zeal...
Guy
# posted by GuyTak @ 10:09 PM
