Att text: The text itself attributes the canons to St. Patrick, and this was accepted by medieval compilers (Sowerby, 2023). However, modern scholarship maintains they probably originate after Patrick lived, from the 6^th or 7^th century (Freeman, 2014).

Freeman, P. (2014) ‘The First Synod of Saint Patrick’, in The World of Saint Patrick. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Evidence used here from the chapter abstract.
Sowerby, R. (2023) ‘The “Second Synod of St. Patrick” and the “Romans” of the Early Irish Church’, Traditio, 78, pp. 47–78. Evidence used here from the article PDF and abstract.

1. Here begins the synod of the bishops, that is, of Patrick, Auxilius, Iserninus #

¹ We give thanks to God the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. To the presbyters and deacons and all the clergy, Patrick, Auxilius, Iserninus, bishops, greeting. It is better for us to warn the negligent than to blame what has been done; as Solomon says, “It is better to rebuke than to be angry” [Ecclesiastes 7:5]. The examples of our determination are written below, and thus they begin:

² 1. If anyone shall have made inquiry concerning captives among the people by his own right without permission, he has deserved to be excommunicated.

³ Let readers moreover know, each one, the church in which he sings.

⁴ Let not a wandering cleric be in the people.

⁵ If anyone shall have received permission, and a collection has been made, let him not exact more than necessity requires.

⁶ If anything shall remain over, let him place it upon the altar of the bishop, that it may be given to another in need.

⁷ Whatever cleric, from the doorkeeper up to the priest, shall have been seen without a tunic, and does not cover the shame of his belly and his nakedness, and if his hair shall not be cut in the Roman manner, and if his wife shall have walked without a veiled head, let them be equally despised by the laity and separated from the Church.

⁸ Whatever cleric, through neglect, shall not have come to the gatherings in the morning or evening, let him be held as an outsider, unless perhaps he be detained under the yoke of servitude.

⁹ If a cleric shall have become surety for a pagan man in any amount, and if it should happen (which is not surprising) that by some deceit that pagan should defraud the cleric, let that cleric pay the debt from his own goods; for if he shall have fought with him in arms, let him deservedly be reckoned outside the Church.

¹⁰ A monk and a virgin, one from here and the other from elsewhere, shall not remain in one lodging, nor travel in one cart from village to village, nor continually engage in conversation with one another.

¹¹ If anyone has shown the beginning of a good work in singing, and now has ceased, and wears long hair, he is to be excluded from the Church, unless he shall have restored himself to his former state.

¹² Whoever of the clergy shall have been excommunicated by someone, and another shall receive him, let both undergo equal penance.

¹³ Whoever of the Christians shall have been excommunicated, let not his alms be received.

¹⁴ It is not permitted that alms offered by pagans be received into the Church,

¹⁵ A Christian who has killed, or committed fornication, or has sworn in the manner of the pagans to a soothsayer, for each crime shall do a year of penance; when the year of penance has been completed, let him come with witnesses, and afterward he shall be absolved by the priest.

¹⁶ And he who has committed theft, let him do half penance; for twenty days with bread; and, if it is possible, let him restore what was taken; thus he shall be received into the Church.

¹⁷ A Christian who has believed that there is a lamia in the world, which is interpreted as a witch, is to be anathematized; whoever shall have imposed this report upon a soul is not to be received into the Church until he shall again revoke with his own voice the crime which he has committed, and thus perform penance with all diligence.

¹⁸ A virgin who has vowed to God to remain chaste, and afterward has married a carnal spouse, let her be excommunicated until she is converted: if she shall have been converted, and has dismissed the adultery, let her do penance; and afterward let them not dwell in one house nor in one village.

¹⁹ If anyone shall have been excommunicated, let him not enter into the church even on the night of Easter, until he shall receive penance.

²⁰ A Christian woman who has taken a husband in honorable marriage, and afterward has departed from the first, and has joined herself in adultery; she who has done this, let her be excommunicated.

²¹ A Christian who defrauds the debt of anyone according to the custom of the pagans, let him be excommunicated until he pays the debt.

²² A Christian to whom someone has made a complaint, and he summons him into judgment, and not into the Church, so that the case may be examined there; he who has done thus, let him be considered an outsider.

²³ If anyone shall have given his daughter to a man in honorable marriage, and she has loved another, and he consents to his daughter, and has received a dowry; let both be excluded from the Church.

²⁴ If any of the presbyters shall have built a church, let him not offer before he brings his bishop, that he may consecrate it; for thus it is fitting.

²⁵ If any stranger shall have entered a people, let him not baptize, nor offer, nor consecrate, nor build a church, until he has received permission from the bishop; for he who hopes for permission from pagans, let him be an outsider.

²⁶ If any things shall have been given by religious men, on those days on which the bishop shall have stayed in the individual churches, the episcopal gifts (as is the ancient custom) shall belong to the bishop to arrange, whether for necessary use or to be distributed to the needy, as the bishop himself shall determine.

²⁷ But if any cleric shall act against this, and shall be found to have seized gifts, as one desirous of base gain, let him be separated from the Church.

²⁸ Any cleric of a bishop, any new arrival in a people, it is not permitted for him to baptize or offer, nor to perform anything; and if he does not act thus, let him be excommunicated.

²⁹ If any of the clergy shall have been excommunicated, let him pray alone, not in the same house with the brethren, nor is it permitted to offer or consecrate, until he has amended himself; and if he shall not do so, let him be punished doubly.

³⁰ If anyone of the brethren shall wish to receive the grace of God, let him not be baptized before he has performed forty days.

³¹ Any bishop who proceeds from his own into another diocese, let him not presume to ordain, unless he has received permission from him who is in authority there; on the Lord’s Day let him only offer by reception, and let him be content with this service.

³² If anyone shall have hired from two clerics, who happen to be at odds through some dispute, and has set one of the two as an enemy against the other to be killed, it is fitting that he be called a murderer; that cleric is regarded as an outsider by all the upright.

³³ If any of the clergy shall wish to help a captive, let him assist him with his own money; for if he shall violate him through theft, many clerics are blasphemed because of one robber; he who shall have done thus, let him be excommunicated.

³⁴ A cleric who comes to us from the Britons without a letter, even if he lives among the people, it is not permitted for him to minister.

³⁵ Likewise a deacon among us, who without consulting his abbot departs without letters into another diocese, it is not fitting for him to minister food; and let him be corrected by penance by his presbyter, whom he has despised. And a monk wandering without consulting his abbot ought to be corrected.

³⁶ Here end the decrees of the synod.