Meet the real Saint Patrick.
Who was Patrick—really?
Not the parade-day saint. Not the shamrock symbol. The real Patrick: a teenager seized from Britain, enslaved in Ireland, and transformed by captivity into one of the most compelling voices in early Christian history.
Patrick of Ireland: From Slave to Apostle returns to the primary sources—Patrick’s own surviving writings, the Confession and the Letter to Coroticus—to recover the historical figure behind fifteen centuries of legend. Drawing on manuscript scholarship and early Irish hagiography, Eochaid Mac Colla separates the authentic Patrick from later mythologizing, tracing his theology of weakness, his confrontation with unjust power, and his call to return to the very land of his captivity.
Readers will discover:
- What Patrick actually wrote, and why it still startles
- How five distinct layers of tradition obscured the historical figure
- Patrick's theology of captivity, mercy, and compelled witness
- His fierce moral stand against Christian slave-raiders
- How to engage his legacy honestly today
For readers of Celtic Christianity, early medieval history, and anyone seeking the real man behind the legend.
