Who was St Patrick? - 9780851157177

Who was St Patrick?Author(s): E.A. Thompson\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: The Boydell Press\nISBN-13: 9780851157177, 978-0851157177\nSynopsis\nThe classic study of the saint's life, presented with new introduction and bibliography.\n\nEveryone knows of St Patrick, but what do we know about him? Simply that it was he who `converted the Irish to Christianity'. The strange fact is that for two hundred years or so after his death, although his name was remembered with respect, everything else about him was forgotten. [url] Thompson pieces together the story of his life, drawing his evidence from the only real clues that exist, Patrick's own writings, not from the later Lives. He reveals him as coming from a well-to-do nominally Christian family in Britain, being captured by Irish raiders and forced into slavery in Co Mayo, converting to a most earnest Christianity, and eventually escaping from Ireland to the fulfillment of his calling..