St. Patrick's Day, 17 March

"From the seventh century onward, Patrick was regarded as pre-eminent among Ireland's early saints. His feast day, as a kind of national day, was already being celebrated by the Irish in Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. In later times he become more and more widely known as the patron of Ireland." Liam de Paor

Two interesting books dealing with Ireland's patron saint and available in the Library are the following:

St. Patrick's World, The Christian Culture of Ireland's Apostolic Age
Translations and Commentaries by Liam de Paor
Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1993

This book gathers together a number of texts, written in Latin in the fourth and fifth centuries AD, which illustrate the spread of Christianity through Western Europe to Ireland.

Liam de Paor was born in Dublin in 1926. He worked for a number of years in the Office of Public Works, and afterwards taught archaeology and history at University College, Dublin, and elsewhere.

Patrick, the Pilgrim Apostle of Ireland
An Analysis of St. Patrick's Confessio and Epistola
Veritas Publications, Dublin, 1998

The author examines the saint's spiritual journey and highly complex personality in the light of the most recent research. Her detailed study confounds the conventional view of Patrick as a barely literate rustic, revealing him rather as an artist of astounding literary skill and a man of great spiritual depth.

Máire B. de Paor is a Presentation Sister and former teacher. A review of the book can be found at this site.

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