Patrick, Saint

Saint Patrick (387-493) was a Romano-British and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints. Two authentic letters from him survive, from which come the only generally accepted details of his life. When he was about 16, he was captured from his home by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After becoming a cleric, he returned to Ireland as an ordained bishop in the north and...