St. Patrick: The Life and World of Ireland's Saint

by John Bagnell Bury, T.M. Charles-Edwards (Foreword)

St. Patrick is perhaps the most venerated saint of the modern age, whose feast day is marked each year by massive celebrations across the world, from Dublin to New York and Sydney to Rio de Janeiro. In spite of his popularity very little is known of his life, which is clouded by myth and uncertainty. The facts that are known--that he was born in the late fourth century in Roman Britain, was captured by Irish raiders at the age of 16 and sold into slavery, and escaped six years later to Britain where he became a priest and later a bishop before returning to Ireland to proselytize--give only a vague sense of the man behind the legends.

J.B. Bury’s biography, which remains the definitive work on the saint, dispels many of the myths and paints a vivid and exacting portrait of the world around St. Patrick, revealing the influences and inspirations that transformed him from a minor fifth century missionary into the patron saint of Ireland and a source of living inspiration for countless people--the Irish above all--some 1,500 years after his death.

Genres: History

404 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

John Bagnell Bury (often published as J.B. Bury) was a classical scholar, historian, and philologist. He held the chair in Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin, for nine years, and also was appointed Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity, and Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University.

Reviews

[Margaret Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting biography on the life of who we know today as St. Patrick. It's interesting to note that amount of gaps we have in his history but I appreciated Bury sharing the myths and then pulling them apart to reveal a nugget of truth in some of them. Bury also looks at the social, cultural and religious context of the time giving a fuller picture of the world patrick was working in and with. The real heart of Patrick is a revealed: a man who was humble, passionate, faith-filles and full of integrity with a love and concern for the irish people he was among.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although more than one hundred years old this account of the life and world of St Patrick is still highly readable. Although I am not in a position to know how J B Bury's account stands in modern scholarly opinion, I found the book a valuable introduction to St Patrick's mission to Ireland, in so far as it can be deduced from the extant historical sources.

[Liz Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can tell this book is a much older work of history, which means that it doesn't always focus on aspects of Patrick's life that I would personally like to hear more about, but it's good and clear. Always interesting to see the preoccupations of earlier church historians. :)

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Irish kings did not adopt, but they also didn't mind.
They let Patrick build his churches, leave a legacy behind.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

How fortunate that the premier historian of the last 150 years, J.B. Bury, demystified the Life of St. Patrick. The probable truths he culls from myths are brillaint.

Due to his rusticitas ("lack of a liberal education"), Patrick was not the church's 1st choice to evangelize Ireland and to repel the Pelagian heresy. In 432, after Bishop Palladius had failed miserably, Patrick, who had spent nearly 20 years in France preparing, was ordained a bishop and finally sent to Ireland.