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    St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography
    St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography
    St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography
    Audiobook6 hours

    St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography

    Written by Philip Freeman

    Narrated by Alan Sklar

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Ireland's patron saint has long been shrouded in legend: he drove the snakes out of Ireland; he triumphed over Druids and their super-natural powers; he used a shamrock to explain the Christian mystery of the Trinity. But his true story is more fascinating than the myths.

    Late in the 4th century Irish pirates captured a young, British citizen named Patricius from his parents' Roman villa. The boy was sold into slavery and sent to tend sheep in Ireland. After walking nearly 200 miles across bogs and mountains to the coast, he managed to escape on a ship full of pagan sailors and returned home to the astonishment of his family. Patrick was destined for the privileged life of nobility but, when he experienced a profound religious awakening, he decided to become a priest and return to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity.

    The Patrick who emerges is even more extraordinary than the patron saint of legend - a passionate, courageous, and very human figure who exerted an incalculable impact on the course of Irish history.

    "A fascinating and believable introduction to Ireland's patron saint... a colorful picture of Ireland at the end of the Roman Empire: its kings and headhunting warriors, gods and human sacrifices, belief in the Otherworld." ~Publishers Weekly (March 2004)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 1, 2004
    ISBN9781400171118
    Author

    Philip Freeman

    Philip Freeman is the Fletcher Jones Chair of Western Culture at Pepperdine University and was formerly professor of classics at Luther College and Washington University. He earned the first joint PhD in classics and Celtic studies from Harvard University, and has been a visiting scholar at the Harvard Divinity School, the American Academy in Rome, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC. He is the author of several books including Alexander the Great, St. Patrick of Ireland, Julius Caesar, and Oh My Gods. Visit him at PhilipFreemanBooks.com.

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    Reviews for St. Patrick of Ireland

    4/5

    41 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is a very helpful biography of one of the great Christian legends of all time. I most appreciated the citations from primary source material. Few Christians make a more profound mark on history than the beloved Patrick. Though almost universally mistaken for a Catholic missionary, Patrick was instead a Celtic Christian, which suited him far more effectively for his mission to the Irish. At a time when great corruption overwhelms the Catholic and Protestant churches, and consequently the politics of every nation on earth, may God raise up men and women cut out of the cloth of Patrick and Brigid and send them to all the nations of the earth! Therein lies the hope for all humanity and the restoration of this beautiful earth God created as a habitation for His family. All men owe a great debt to Patrick and all of those who gave all for the sake
      Of the Call.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Excellent introduction to the life of St. Patrick.
    • 4/5
      No nonsense straight forward handling based on primary and secondary source documents. It takes away the folklore, and discovers a real man...a real Christian...underneath.
    • 4/5
      A lovely exploration of the life of St. Patrick. Imaginative, with fact-based reconstructions of significant events. Paints an altogether human portrait of the man. Utterly readable.
    • 4/5
      There certainly is a very large amount of information packed into a very small book (by comparison) here. This is an excellent work for those who have been curious, or are curious, about this famous Irish Saint, yet who are not so curious that they want to dig through a mind numbing academic work which would be better than xanax to provide a good nap. I am one of those people and I am one who greatly appreciated this work. In other areas of history, yes, I want something more in depth, but not on this particular subject. It is written in a scholarly manner, appears to be very well researched, yet I found not one page that I did not learn something from nor one page that caused my eyes to roll back into my head and wish the author would just get on with it. It was a good and informative read.I certainly am not going to rewrite the entire work in this form and call it a review. That has already been done. For greater detail refer to one of the well done and very in depth reviews already posted here. What I found most interesting about the book was the author’s ability to paint a very vivid picture of the cultural and religious clash that too place in Ireland during St. Patrick’s time. I enjoyed the brief look at the state of the Christian Church at that time and how it affected the people of that time. That story, to me, was just as fascinating as the one told by the author of the Great Saint himself. The brief look at the Celtic religious practices and beliefs was excellent. I also appreciated the author’s ability to separate fact from all the fiction that has been dished out for years and years and do it in a nonoffensive way. This was quite refreshing. The author is quite careful to note fact from fiction, speculation from written and archeological fact. This was most helpful.The author has a wonderful popular history style, yet writes in a mode that does not insult your credulity nor does Freeman sensationalize events simply to hold the reader’s interest. The facts alone, and the way the author presents them, are enough to keep you turning the pages on this one. The black and white maps provided are quite helpful as is the “dictionary” and foot noting. I enjoyed the translation of the two surviving letters of St. Patrick’s “Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus” and the “Confession.” Both are a nice touch and added much to the value of the book. A work such as this, where so much has been lost down through the years is not an easy thing to write, but this author, Philip Freeman has done an excellent job. Now there are books out there that go into much greater depth on the subject of this obviously great man and I certainly would recommend further reading for those who are interested or who want to become experts on the subject. For myself, this work fit my needs perfectly. I wanted to know a bit about the man and I certainly learned it here. Recommend this one highly.Don Blankenship
    • 5/5
      This short book is a very good biography of St. Patrick. Using St. Patrick's surviving written work, Letter to Coroticus and Confession, Freeman paints of picture of what Patrick experienced in the late Roman Empire -- and as a slave and then bishop to the Irish. Freeman provides good historical background about Rome, the church and Ireland; and judicious interpretations and extrapolations from the written works. I highly recommend.