Saint Patrick, A.D. 493-1993 (Studies in Celtic History)

St Patrick's contribution to Irish history has been much celebrated but is also the subject of intense controversy. This book is to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of his death - 17 March, 1993 - an event which has already been celebrated once, in 1961. The death-date of 461 is questioned here and examination of the chronological evidence leads to the conclusion that 17 March, 493, should be commemorated as the day of St Patrick's death.
With respect to the saint's career, Patrick's own impassioned apologia pro uita sua is a text to whose detailed message access is not easy. The later Irish sources about St Patrick are also difficult, but they cannot be cast aside. It is doubtful whether they tell us much more about St Patrick, yet they may bring us material about Palladius, sent from Rome in A.D. 431 as first bishop for Irish Christians but left ultimately without subsequent history or cult in his adopted country. The invention of two Patricks seems to belong, at the latest, to the 8th century and may be a reflex of the largely successful 7th-century conflation of the careers of Palladius and Patrick.
The continuing mediaeval development of the legend and cult of St Patrick has its own interest as well as illuminating a wide variety of other historical and literary-historical issues, several of which are explored in this volume.