The most authoritative modern biography of the patron saint of Ireland - an engaging account of a fascinating historical figure and the tumultuous times in which he lived.
St Patrick did not drive the snakes out of Ireland (the island had no snakes), nor did he engage in epic battles of supernatural power with Irish druids. But the facts revealed in this eminently readable biography are no less astonishing than the myths that surround them.
Born in Britain in the late fourth century, Patrick was raised as a Roman citizen and a Christian nobleman. Just before his sixteenth birthday, he was captured by Irish pirates and enslaved. He spent six years tending sheep in Ireland, escaped and returned whom to his astonished parents. Soon afterward, he announced that God wanted him to become a priest and convert the Irish to Christianity.
Patrick spent the rest of his life in Ireland, leaving behind two remarkable letters that reveal more about him than we know about almost any contemporary figure. In one, addressed to the soldiers of a warlord who attacked Patrick's Christian Irish followers, he denounces the soldiers' depredations and eloquently explains his beliefs. The other, written to British bishops who resented his independence, is a candid defence of his activities.
Philip Freeman brilliantly reconstructs daily life in the British Isles during the last days of the Roman Empire, putting Patrick's achievements in context with the beliefs of the day. The Patrick who emerges is even more extraordinary than the patron saint of legend - a passionate, courageous, and very human figure who exerted an incalculable impact on the course of Irish history.
