The Palladii are reckoned among the noblest families of France and several of them held high rank in the Church of Gaul.

Palladius is the son of Exuperantius of Poitiers, of whom the contemporary pagan poet Rutilius Claudius Namatianus wrote: "Even now his father Exuperantius trains the Armoric sea-board to love the recovery of peace; he reestablishes the laws, brings freedom back and suffers not the inhabitants to be their servants' slaves."

Exuperantius was apparently praefectus praetorio Galliarum ("Praetorian prefect of the Gallic provinces") in 424 when killed in an army mutiny at Arles.

Prosper of Aquitaine describes him as a deacon.

Some writers regard Palladius as deacon of St. Germanus, but it appears more probable that he held the high rank of Deacon of Rome; it can hardly be supposed that a deacon of Auxerre would exercise such influence in Rome as that assigned to Palladius, and it is in accordance with St. Prosper's usage to indicate the Roman deacon by the simple title diaconus.

Palladius was married and had a young daughter.

He is described as a friend and younger kinsman by Namatianus.

In Rome, he had kissed his family goodbye in the manner of the Apostles, and lived as an ascetic in Sicily about 408/409, giving his daughter to a convent on that island.

He seems to have been ordained a priest about 415.

He had lived in Rome between 418–429, and appears to be the "Deacon Palladius" responsible for urging Pope Celestine I to send the bishop Germanus to Britain, where he guided "the Britons back to the Catholic faith."

It is a question whether or not it is the same person who, in 431, was sent as first bishop to the Christians of Ireland: Palladius, having been ordained by Pope Celestine, was sent as first bishop to the Irish believing in Christ.

Palladius landed at Hy-Garchon, where the town of Wicklow now stands.

The Irish writers of the lives of St. Patrick say, that St. Palladius had preached in Ireland a little before St. Patrick, but that he was soon banished by the king of Leinster, and returned to North Britain.

According to Muirchu, who lived two centuries later, in the Book of Armagh, God hindered him...and neither did those fierce and cruel men receive his doctrine readily, nor did he himself wish to spend time in a strange land, but returned to him who sent him.

Palladius was accompanied by four companions: Sylvester and Solinus, who remained after him in Ireland; and Augustinus and Benedictus, who followed him to Britain, but returned to their own country after his death.

Palladius is most strongly associated with Leinster, particularly with Clonard, County Meath.

Palladius, a Roman deacon appointed first bishop of the Ireland in 430 by Pope Celestine, had intended to stamp out Pelagianism and reorganize the Irish church.

He had met with little success, however, and has turned to preaching the gospel in Scotland.

Patrick, who tradition has spending fifteen years in the church of Auxerre (or Lerins), is ordained a bishop and sets out for Ireland, landing at County Wicklow.

…Wicklow, and …

…Limerick, using them as bases from which to attack Strathclyde, Mercia, and Northumbria.

...rebel-held areas in counties Wicklow and ...

News of the rising spreads panic and fear among loyalists in County Wicklow; they respond by massacring rebel suspects held in custody at Dunlavin Green and in Carnew.

A baronet, Sir Edward Crosbie, is found guilty of leading the rebellion in Carlow and executed for treason.

Large numbers have risen in Wicklow but chiefly engage in a bloody rural guerrilla war with the military and loyalist forces.

...reach the Wicklow hills on July 5, having fought off a pursuit led by General James Duff (perpetrator of the Gibbet Rath massacre) at the battle of White Heaps/Ballygullen.

Some rebels take to the hills to fight on in a protracted guerrilla war; some return to their homes; but the bulk set off on a march into the midlands to revive the rebellion under the effective leadership of Perry and Father Mogue Kearns.

General Joseph Holt, leading up to a thousand men in the Wicklow Hills, forces the British to commit substantial forces to the area until his negotiated surrender in October 1798.

Small fragments of the great rebel armies of the Summer of 1798 have survived in Ireland for a number of years, waging a form of guerrilla or "fugitive" warfare in several counties.

It is not until the failure of Robert Emmet's rebellion in 1803 that the last organized rebel forces under Captain Michael Dwyer capitulate.

Emmet, who begins his rebellion on July 23, 1803, is captured and tried, then executed on September 20.