430-449 St Patrick Converts the Irish, Vandals & Huns

In this twenty year period St Patrick (pictured) returned to Ireland in 432 to convert the Irish to Christianity and, by legend, rid Ireland of snakes.

Patrick was the son of a town councilor living on the west coast of Britain who had been kidnapped by raiders at aged 16 and suffered 6 years of slavery in Ireland before escaping. He later became the inspiration for a group of Celtic monks who lived on the island of Iona, off the shore of western Scotland. Considering that it would be another 167 years before Augustine set off to convert the Anglo-Saxons in England, Patrick was way ahead of his time.

Theodius II was emperor of the east and Valentinian III was emperor of the the west.

In the year 430, the Roman general Boniface -- with the help of King Gaiseric of the Vandals -- had control of Africa. Realizing that Rome needed the grain from Africa to survive, Galla (Valentinian III's mother) made peace with Boniface but King Gaiseric disagreed, besieging Boniface in Hippo until an army arrived from Italy in 431.

The army was defeated but Boniface managed to escape to Italy. King Gaiseric continued to secure territory in Numidia and Aetius negotiated peace with him -- allowing him to retain Numidia and Mauritania in return for Africa -- but Gaiseric double-crossed Aetius by taking Carthage in 439 and Sicily in 440.

Both Theodius II in the east and Valentinian III in the west now submitted to Gaiseric's terms -- reversing the previous territorial arrangement and adding the betrothal of Valentinian III's daughter to Gaiseric's son.

Despite his treachery, Galla favored Boniface over Aetius and as a result the armies of the two men battled. Boniface won but later died, his son taking over, but Aetius prevailed with the help of King Rugila of the Huns and was restored to power in 434.

The Huns also helped Aetius with another Bergundian revolt, but when Attila murdered his brother Rugila and became King of the Huns, the situation changed dramatically.

In the East, Theodius II and his four sisters had no military crises thanks to the able government of the prefect Anthemius and were able to devote their lives to theology.

The Roman church had been appalled by the domination of the Alexandrian church, particularly its deposition of bishops who adhered to the western notion of the coexistence of two natures of Christ (divine and human) - but Theodius II ignored all complaints.

did ireland save christianity?

The physical location of Ireland, as well as the easy conversion to Christianity of its Celtic Pagan population, most definitely provided Christianity with a safe haven, but it was the expansionist evangelical efforts of Pope Gregory (590-604) that prevented Christianity from dying out in Europe and remaining, if at all, as an essentially middle-eastern religion.

Historians claim that Ireland - an ethnic Celtic island at the westernmost part of Europe - is the cradle of western civilization, and Christianity is the religion upon which it was founded in 675 AD.

In that St. Patrick had Christianized Ireland from 432AD, and Rome was - and still is - the central power of Christianity in the western world, it does seem strange that Ireland, rather than Rome, is considered to be the cradle of western civilization and the savior of Christianity.

It is unclear whether it was the isolated western geographical region of Ireland, its distinctive race of white Celtic people or its devotion to Christianity that made it the historical birthplace of western civilization.

Actually, Ireland's geographic position had to be the definitive factor.

With the fall of the Roman Empire in 378AD, the European city states and the new religion of Christianity were in the throes of turmoil. Ireland was seen as being the last bastion - the last hope - for the continuation of any sort of European civilization, with or without Christianity, in the face of advancing hordes from eastern Europe, the far north and the Middle East. And, as it turned out, it was!

Here is what was happening in Europe at the time:

• 378 - the Visigoths defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople
• 395 - the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western parts
• 407 - the Romans evacuated Britain
• 410 - Rome sacked by the Visigoths
• 410-442 The Jutes, Angles and Saxons invaded Britain

At this point, in 432AD, when all appeared to be lost in Europe, St Patrick returns to Ireland - where he had previously been enslaved - on an evangelical mission to introduce Christianity to the Pagan Celtic race and hopefully convert the population to his faith. In the following years, things got worse in Europe.

• 450 - The Huns invade all Roman cities in the old Empire
• 455 - Rome, itself, was sacked by the Vandals

It took Rome nearly 150 years to recover from the invasion, and while Christianity was stagnating in Rome it was thriving in the eastern lands. The magnificent church of St Sophia - which later became a mosque - was built in Constantinople in 532-537 and stands as evidence that Christianity was seen more as an eastern religion than a European one.

Fearing loss of power, in 597 Pope Gregory sent St Augustine to England. It was expected that with the widespread conversion to Christianity in England that Rome would regain control of that part of the world - if not politically then at least in the hearts and minds of the population - but the new religion of Islam intervened.