Patrick: The Pilgrim Apostle of Ireland

The man who came to be known as Patrick was at once a grand mythic figure and a very real historical figure: a slave turned missionary, a passionate pilgrim, and a revered religious writer and teacher. In Patrick, the period from his youth in Roman Britain to his emergence from slavery in Ireland is fully reconstructed and recaptured.Maire de Paor, a respected scholar of Irish language and history, examines Patrick's spiritual journey and highly complex personality in the context of fifth-century Britain and Ireland, and in light of the most recent research. While the conventional view of Patrick is that of a barely literate rustic, through a thorough investigation of his writing (including an analysis of his two influential contributions to literature, Confessio and the Epistola), de Paor finds a man of astounding literary skill and great spiritual depth. She illuminates the richness of the man and separates him from the many legends that have grown around him, restoring his place as Ireland's spiritual father -- and as a man who both embodied and transcended the conflicts of his time.Including the complete texts of his writings -- in Latin and English -- along with a detailed scholarly concordance, Patrick is a welcome addition to our understanding one of history's most misunderstood figures.