Saint Patrick: His Origins and Career.
Author: HANSON, R. P. C.
Oxford University Press, 1968. 248 pages. Hardback.
This book, the first full-scale study of Patrick against his background to be published in this country since Bury’s Life of St. Patrick (1905), attempts to place the study of Patrick on a new basis by freeing it from the distortions imported into it by an excessive trust in later traditions. It outlines the history both of Britain and of the Church in Britain in the fifth century, analyses the sources for Patrick’s life, and argues that Patrick’s background and training must be located in Britain, not in Gaul. As almost the only British author before Gildas in the sixth century of whose identity we can be certain and the only Briton in the ancient world whose mind and personality we can inspect, Patrick is well worth a new consideration.
CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS
I. BRITAIN IN THE FIFTH CENTURY
II. THE BRITISH CHURCH IN THE FIFTH CENTURY
III. ASSESSMENT OF THE SOURCES
1. Writings of St. Patrick himself
2. Later Traditions about St. Patrick
3. Entries about St. Patrick in the Irish Annals
IV. ST. PATRICK’S CAREER
V. ST. PATRICK’S BACKGROUND
VI. ST. PATRICK’S DATE
VII. ST. PATRICK
APPENDIXES
1. Mention of St. Patrick in the Irish Annals
2. The ‘High-King’ of Ireland
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEXES
ISBN: None/Unknown
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