The Best Argument

For a Married Priesthood

SAINT PATRICK.

   Universally believed to be the grandson of a Priest-  if John the Baptist, son of a priest Zechariah didn't impress you. (who is not getting born because priests can't marry......hmmmmm)

From an official 'Catholic' on line publication.
Patrick (385-461) — Patron saint of Ireland and one of the most beloved of all saints. Magonius Sucatus Patricius was a Roman citizen, born in the Roman province of Britain near Bannavem Taburniae (an unknown location, perhaps in the region of the lower Severn, in North Wales),

 the son of Calpurnius, a deacon, and a grandson of Potitus, a priest (it was still not uncommon for deacons and priests to be married). Captured at the age of sixteen by Irish raiders, he was taken to Ireland and sold into slavery. He tended flocks in County Antrim (although tradition places him "beside the Wood of Voclut, which is near the Western Sea," near Killala in County Mayo). During the six years he spent in servitude, Patrick underwent a profound religious transformation, and in the summer of 407 was commanded in a dream to escape. He journeyed some two hundred miles to board a ship transporting Irish hounds to the Continent. Upon landing in Gaul (modern France), which was then under assault by the Germanic and Gothic hordes, Patrick came into the spiritual care of the monastic institutions of the region; one of his most notable teachers was St. Germanus of Auxerre. Patrick took to his training, making possible the fulfillment of his absolute longing for an Irish apostolate. As Patrick himself noted: "The voice of the Irish . . . cry out as with one mouth: ‘We ask thee, boy, come and walk amongst us once more.’ " In the Confession, Patrick declares his vocation to be a mandate of the divine and founded not upon human learning, and so his preparation for a return to Ireland was largely a spiritual one. He admitted freely his lack of learning, writing that "I blush and fear exceedingly to reveal my lack of education." Nevertheless, he mastered the essentials of the faith and grew very familiar with Scripture, although scholars have long questioned where exactly his education was conducted. Some agree that he spent time in Gaul, but others prefer Britain as the place of his learning. Regardless of his length and location of learning, Patrick proved a brilliant missionary. Patrick was not the first missionary bishop appointed to bring Christianity to the Irish. Palladius was named to the post in 431 by Pope St. Celestine I (r. 422-432), but he either died or, as seems likely, he met with little success and went to Scotland some time after 431. In his place was appointed Patrick, who was consecrated a bishop and sent to the Irish mission. For the next twenty-nine years, Patrick traveled across the five kingdoms of the island and won the conversion of virtually the whole of the Irish people. It is likely that in his later years he established Armagh as the primatial see of Ireland. He wrote before his death: "Hence, did it come to pass in Ireland that those who never had a knowledge of God . . . have now been made a people of the Lord, and are called Sons of God." His two primary achievements were the promotion of a native clergy and the careful integration of the Christian faith with native Irish-Celtic culture. He used a simple, sincere, biblical style of preaching that won both hearts and minds. Unfortunately, details of his life and labors are fraught with questions owing to the large body of legends that sprang up about him and the general unreliability of the main source available, including the Life of St. Patrick by Muirchu, the Irish Annals, and the Breviarium Tirecham. Patrick himself was the author of Confessio (a moving testimony of his personal faith) and Letter to Coroticus, a troublesome chieftain. Legends about St. Patrick abound, perhaps the most famous being that of his expulsion of snakes from Ireland. National holidays in his honor are held in numerous countries, including Ireland, the United States, and even Russia. Feast day: March 17.


HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY-
And Blessings On All Priestly Progeny - past and future.