" />
" />
" />
" />
" />| Recent Featured Videos and Articles | Eastern “Orthodoxy” Refuted | How To Avoid Sin | The Antichrist Identified! | What Fake Christians Get Wrong About Ephesians | Why So Many Can't Believe | “Magicians” Prove A Spiritual World Exists | Amazing Evidence For God | News Links |
| Vatican II “Catholic” Church Exposed | Steps To Convert | Outside The Church There Is No Salvation | E-Exchanges | The Holy Rosary | Padre Pio | Traditional Catholic Issues And Groups | Help Save Souls: Donate |  |
St. Patrick On The Necessity Of Baptism & Prayer
There is a strong emphasis on baptism in the life of St. Patrick. In the following passage he indicates that no adult is saved without baptism when writing about the newly-baptized converts who had been slain by the soldiers of Coroticus. Coroticus was a British chieftain. His soldiers attacked newly baptized Irish Christians — recent converts under Patrick's pastoral care. The soldiers killed some of the converts and enslaved others the day after they were baptized.
St. Patrick, Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, 5th century: “With my own hand I have written and composed these words... to the soldiers of Coroticus. I do not say, to my fellow citizens... but to fellow citizens of the demons, because of their evil works... they live in death, allies of the Scots and the apostate Picts. Dripping with blood, they welter in the blood of innocent Christians, whom I have begotten into the number of God and confirmed in Christ.
The day after the newly baptized, anointed with chrism, in white garments (had been slain) – the fragrance was still on their foreheads when they were butchered and slaughtered... I sent a letter...
Perhaps they do not believe that we have received one and the same baptism, or have one and the same God as Father. For them it is a disgrace that we are Irish. Have ye not, as is written, one God?... I grieve for you, I grieve, my dearly beloved. But again, I rejoice within myself. I have not labored for nothing, and my journeying abroad has not been in vain. And if this horrible, unspeakable crime did happen – thanks be to God, you have left the world and have gone to Paradise as baptized faithful.”
Patrick emphasizes that they had received “one and the same baptism.” He also teaches that his labors to make sure these catechumens left the world baptized were not in vain. He connects their entrance into Heaven with their having departed life as “baptized faithful.” These statements indicate that even though they desired baptism, the actual reception of baptism was required for their salvation. Patrick’s words demonstrate that he didn't believe in “baptism of desire”. Rather, he held that it's absolutely necessary to be one of the baptized faithful, even if you are an unbaptized catechumen preparing to be baptized.
St. Patrick, The Confession, 5th century: “I went to you and everywhere for your sake in many dangers, even to the farthest districts, beyond which there lived nobody and where nobody had ever come to baptize, to ordain clergy, or to confirm people.”
St. Patrick on Prayer
St. Patrick, Confession, 5th century: “And my spirit was moved so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many in the night, and even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountains; and I used to get up for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm, and there was no sloth in me…”
Sign up for our free e-mail list to see future vaticancatholic.com videos and articles.
Recent Content
^