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The Celtic-Latin Church
The Christian faith was brought to Mann around 447 A.D. by Missionaries from the Celtic Church in Ireland, which differed in organisation and in the timing of the Christian yeare from the Latin Church. The Latin Church was brought to Canterbury by St. Augustine and his forty Benedictine Monks in 597 A.D. In the same yeare Saint Columba, the Celtic Monk, died. He was a follower of St. Bridget and St. Patrick. The bodies of all three of these Celtic Saints rest side by side in the Cathedral Church of Downpatrick in Ireland. The island was not divided into parishes till the episcopate of S. Maughold, about A.D. 500. It may be taken as certain, from Columban names surviving in the dedications of Insular churches, that the Iona missions extended to Mann. If Columban missionaries came here in Saint Columba’s lifetime, it means in the VI. century; the date of his death being 597.
The Abbot of Bangor and Sabal had the same manorial rights — claimed in freehold under ancient grants made by former kings — as the other Barons in Man who ‘ did their faith and fealtie ‘ to the King. The others were the Abbot of Rushen, the Lord Bishop, the Prior of Douglas, the Prior of Whithorn in Galloway, the Abbot of Furness and the Prior of St. Bees in Copeland. It has already been explained that the Barony was situated in the parish of Kirk Patrick, on the west coast south of Peel, comprising all the land between Glenmaye and Dalby. This consisted of six farms of about 120 acres each, and now known to us as Ballachrink, Cronkmoar, Balnalargy, Ballaquane, Ballelby and Ballahutchin. The creation of the original Early Christian church of Sabhal is told in Whitley Stokes’ Tripartite Life of St. Patrick: Touching first at a point on the Leinster Coast in Ireland, Patrick landed finally to begin his mission in Strangford Lough in the County Down. His first convert was a local chieftain named Díchu.
Saul, about two miles from Downpatrick, was the site of St. Patrick s first church in Ireland, and it was his place of burial. Bangor Abbey, also in Co. Down, was founded in the middle of the 6th century by St. Comgall, and rebuilt on a scale of magnificence by St. Malachy, who died in 1148. the Barony of Bangor and Sabal was in some way associated with Grey Abbey. Both are in County Down not far away from each other, and both are intimately connected with the Isle of Man. The Barony of Bangor and Sabal was in some way associated with Grey Abbey. Both are in County Down not far away from each other, and both are intimately connected with the Isle of Man. Grey Abbey was founded in AD. 1193 by Aifreca, daughter of Gødred II, King of Man (1153-1187), and sister of Reginald, King of Man (1187-1226). Her husband was the celebrated Norman warrior John de Courcy, the conqueror of Ulster. It is quite possible that it was from one or both of these monasteries of Bangor and Sabal that the first Irish mission reached our Island and obtained a settlement in the parish of Kirk Patrick.
The bodies of all three of these Celtic Saints rest side by side in the Cathedral Church of Downpatrick in Ireland. St. Sanctain's Church, Santon, stands on the site of an ancient Church or Keeill built about fifteen hundred years ago, which was well before St. Augustine came from Rome to Canterbury. It is strategically placed and commands a view of a large sweep of the sea looking towards the north-west coast of England and the mountains of North Wales. It can be seen by travellers sailing on the sea and flying by air as they come over the coastline towards Ronaldsway Airport. Thus for fifteen centuries the present Church, and its predecessors, have always been a landmark by sea, land and air. The present building was erected in 1774 and is a good example of an old Manx Church with its white walls and rectangular shape.
The original building was one of over a hundred Celtic Keeills or "treen" churches, which were scattered all over the Island. A " treen" was made up of four farms, or quarterlands and became a convenient fiscal unit with annual tax proportionate to its size. It was the duty of the treen chief to make provision for the spiritual welfare of those who were resident on his land. Twenty six treens made up a Sheading or ship district.
The religion and worship is exactly the same with that of the Church of England. The Isle of Man was converted to the Christian Faith by St. Patrick about the yeare 440, at which time the Bishoprick of Man; St. German, to whose name and memory the cathedral is dedicated, being the first bishop of Man, who, with his successors, had this island only for their diocese, till the Norwegians had conquered the Western Isles, and soon after Man, which was about the beginning of the eleventh century. It was about that time, that being thirty-two so called from the Bishoprick of Sodor erected in one of them, namely, the Isle of Ely, were united to Man, and from that time, the Bishops of the United Sees were stiled Sodor and Mian, and sometimes Mant and Insqtlar~trrt; and they had the Archbishop of Dronthem (stiled Nidorer~s) for their Metropolitan.
After being subject to the Saxons, having been added together with Anglesea to their dominion, accortling to Bede, by Edwin, one of the first of their kings who embraced Christianity; and successively afterwards to the Danes for a century, to the Norwegians, and to the Scotch, this Island was surrendered by the latter to Edward the First, king of England; and after having been possessed by the Scrope and Montacute families, was granted to the house of Stanley, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, by king Henry the Fourth. To the Danish prince Orry, who conquered the Hebrides in the tenth century. After being subject to the Saxons, having been added together with Anglesea to their dominion, accortling to Bede, by Edwin, one of the first of their kings who embraced Christianity; and successively afterwards to the Danes for a century, to the Norwegians, and to the Scotch, this Island was surrendered by the latter to Edward the First, king of England; and after having been possessed by the Scrope and Montacute families, was granted to the house of Stanley, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, by king Henry the Fourth. To the Danish prince Orry, who conquered the Hebrides in the tenth century