He was not born in Ireland but in the Great Britain (cannot be considered an Englishmen, because by the time of his

birth no Saxon had arrived to the Island). He was a Celtic Briton. Irish Celts attack the bigger island and take some prisoners to their territory. Among them Patricius. As a teenager, Patricius flees from the island and gets to Gaul.

In continental Europe, he witnesses how the Barbarians are looting the whole Roman province. To be safe, he joins a monastery and receives his first education under the guidance of Bishop of Auxerre, Germanus. Germanus had been the missionary sent by the Pope to fight Pelagius heressy. Patricius follows him.

Once back in Ireland, Patricius organizes monasteries and dedicates his life to convert the Celts to Catholicism. Although in reality his range of influence was not so big (couldnt be), just as with the rest of the post-Roman events, Patricius doings were exaggerated up to the level of a legend which says Patricius all alone converted the whole Ireland.

Celtic Catholicism didnt develop together with the continental one due to the cultural barrier represented by the Anglo-Saxons in between and the geographical distance. A couple of signifying differences began to develop between the two types of Christianity. 1) Continental monks shaved their whole head. Irish monks only the center of it. 2) They had a different calendar.

While continental Catholicism remained obscured and closed, constantly in between the wars of many tribes and ethnic groups (the Dark ages), Irish Catholics enjoyed a relative easy life. Due to it, the Irish monks were the main preservers of knowledge and scripts along three centuries. Learned and spread among the monks Latin and Greek. They were de facto not under the control of the Pope and their administrative authorities were Abbots and not Bishops.

Columba was the greatest of the Celtic Monks, because under his guidance Ireland converted to Catholicism by the thousands. Born in 521, he acted ca. 560. Founded, along with 12 disciples, the monastery of Iona (a little Island of 16 km2. in front of Scotland) which is till now a days the center of the Irish faith. Iona served as a strategic base of convertion, because it allowed Catholicism to arrive to northern Britain. If Picts and Scots had never been conquered by means of war, they were by means of religion.