The Life of St.Patrick and His Place in History [Paperback]

The book is 404 pages long excluding the introduction and preface and consists of four main sections. The first section is 224 pages long: Bury's account and discussion of St. Patrick's life, its significance and context. The print is large and considered by itself this section could serve as a quick introduction to the basic narrative of St. Patrick's life and times. However, as de Paor notes, the scholarship on this subject has progressed significantly since 1905 and there were several instances where I had wished that the author had explored his subject further. For example, it appears that St. Patrick had designated funds for the manumission of Christian slaves in Ireland and had established rules for the use thereof. Pope Gregory apparently OK'd this procedure for use in Britain as well. Was this standard procedure for proselytizing missions in the 5th Century AD or was it confined to the far reaches of the occident? Were there any Papal rulings on the institution of slavery or was this just a tactic used in the far West, perhaps one that originated with St. Patrick given that much of his youth was spent as a captive sold into slavery? In any case, at least for me, there were several instances where I supposed the author presumed his audience was familiar with more of the context of those times than I think most general readers could be reasonably expected to know.

Pages 295 to 391 are Appendices A - C: notes on the sources, notes on the text, and extended discussions on particularly vexing questions, respectively. The print for these is quite small, and there are a number of difficulties for the general reader. To begin with, readers without Latin will find it difficult to tease out useful information from these as much of the critical evidence is presented in Latin which is not translated. (The main narrative also contains Latin, but I think the context makes it comprehensible.) There is also some -- though not much -- ancient Greek. Also, the text itself infrequently indicates when you should refer to the endnotes and sometimes refers you to endnotes that do not exist. The maps included do not highlight those places in Ireland that St. Patrick visited, there is no map for Britain or Gaul (which are important elements of the story), no line indicating the suggested paths St. Patrick took and no chronology. Moreover, since much of the endnotes are concerned with scholarly disputes that were current in 1905, which may or may not have much relevance to the current discussion, I imagine that they are of much more moment to those interested in the historiography of the study of St. Patrick in the early 20th century than they are to generalists like myself.

To sum up, I think that the general reader will profit from Bury's basic account of St. Patrick's life, but should be aware that much of the scholarship is outdated and that much of the supporting notes will be dated and unintelligible to him if he does not know Latin. Paor, in the introduction, mentions two studies "which should be consulted by the serious inquirer into these matters" (p. xix), R.P.C. Hanson's "St. Patrick--His Origins and Career" and E.A. Thompson's "Who Was St. Patrick?", but I cannot vouch for their accessibility to the general reader because I have not read them. Bury's index is good and comprehensive.