Saint Patrick

(born perhaps 389)

Christian missionary Saint Patrick serves as patron of Ireland.

Saint Patrick reputedly founded Armagh.

People most generally recognize Patrick as a Romano-Briton and formally Saint Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille.

From two authentic letters that survive come the only universally accepted details of his life. From Britain, Irish raiders captured Patrick, then sixteen years of age circa 415, and took him as a slave; he lived for six years before he escaped circa 421 and returned to his family. After entering the Church, he returned as an ordained bishop in the north and west of the island, but we know little about the places, where he worked.

People came to revere Patrick before the 7th century. Patrick early tried to establish the diocesan model, but after his time, the Irish monastery system evolved, and the church developed otherwise.

From the 7th century onward, later hagiographies, now not accepted without detailed criticism, provide most available details of his life.

Uncritical acceptance of the

Annals of Ulster

implies that he lived from 340, ministered from 428 onward in modern north, and died in 440. We cannot fix the dates of life of Patrick with certainty, but on a widespread interpretation, he acted during the second half of the 5th century. People celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, that of his rebirth unto eternal life, on 17 March as a liturgical and secular holiday. This solemnity and a holy day of obligation in the dioceses can celebrate the emerald isle.