Is the Consecration of a married Priest as Bishop a Celtic Orthodox practice?
The limiting of candidacy for Bishop to celibate clergy did not become the norm in Celtic countries until after the Roman-Norman suppression of the Celtic churches. The last of the Céli De Bishops, their wives and children were imprisoned and died in camps under the Roman church. We continue that tradition witnessed by their martyrdom. The Scriptural readings of the Consecration of a Bishop of the Celtic churches speak of married Bishops with children. Saint Patrick was himself a monk, but asked a friend to suggest a “a man of one wife and one child” for ordination. Saint Patrick decided to make the candidate, Saint Fiacc, the first native-born Bishop in Ireland. This choice may have been influenced by the fact that Saint Hilary of Poitiers had been a married Bishop. The father of the St. Gregory Nazianzus the Theologian, from Neocaesarea in Cappadocia, was also a married Bishop. In any case, Saint Patrick’s Consecration of Saint Fiacc was considered legitimate by the Undivided Church.
