St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography. Philip Freeman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005. The book by Philip Freeman takes the reader deeper into the life and times of St. Patrick of Ireland than any previous publication has been able to do. Freeman's thesis is that there have previously been many unknowns about St. Patrick and the author was determined to solve those mysteries as thoroughly as he could. The work was written based on Freeman's passion to truly understand and share his knowledge of St. Patrick to readers around the world. Bringing St. Patrick's fascinating life into a well-thought-out narrative was a valuable historical service for Freeman. The purpose of this book review is to present a realistic portrait of St. Patrick, the saint after whom a special day is designated -- and while millions of people celebrate St. Patrick's Day, very few are likely to know anything at all about the man.

Brief Summary of the Book

After five hundred years of ruling the known world, the Roman Empire fell in A.D. 410, but England remained a Roman colony, and Ireland remained a wild society that used slaves, many of them captured in Britain and brought through the Irish Sea to Ireland. A fifteen-year-old upper class Roman citizen in Britain -- who had committed a horrific sin that was never revealed -- was kidnapped by the Irish and taken back to Ireland where he was sold into slavery. This was the beginning of the book. After six years in slavery (tending sheep) in Ireland he believe he heard God tell him he must return to England, so he escaped and returned to England but in time -- after becoming drawn to Christianity and hearing a call -- Patrick returned to Ireland where he began to serve as a missionary to Irish people who were pagans or at least had no religion. He built his reputation on that foundation and went on to become renowned, respected, and ultimately was made a saint.

Extensive Critique of Book's Strengths and Weaknesses

For the son of wealthy, educated parents, who was kidnapped and caught up slavery in Ireland, and then experienced freedom back in England -- and upon returning to Ireland (where he had been a slave) he began spread the Christian Gospel -- this is a rather amazing story. And the telling of the story without over-writing or exaggerated narrative for the most part is a major strength of the book. The author covers as much information as he could...

Freeman for the most part was very professional in his narrative, letting the reader know that, for example, that "Patrick's formal education probably followed the standard model." That word, "probably," is an admission that Freeman did not have historical biographical information on Patrick so he assumed certain things about the young man's upbringing. Freeman also inserts passages from Patrick's letters to fill in the blanks that Freeman could not possibly know for sure.
Another positive aspect of the book is the way in which Freeman presents much of the real evidence of what happened to Patrick -- through the letters that Patrick wrote. Freeman does use portions of the letters throughout the narrative, but he saves the full letters for the Epilogue, a major strength of this book. Those letters provide a wealth of information and understanding. Readers don't know much about Patrick's life as a slave until the Epilogue: Patrick's Letters. He watched over sheep but this caused a change in his spirituality. He had not been actively devoted to Christianity prior to being put into slavery, but during his enslavement he said, "…each day I would say a hundred prayers and almost as many each night…I would get up each morning before sunrise to pray, through snow and frost and rain."In addition, Freeman goes to great lengths to explain how the letters were discovered and specific incidents ("Viking raids, gnawing rodents, fires, floods, and general carelessness" resulted in their preservation being precarious, and problematic as well.)

Among the weaknesses of Freeman's book are the author's descriptions of various things that happened to Patrick; for example, on page 18 Freeman writes: "The heavy slave chains fastened around the necks of Patrick and the rest were designed for control, not comfort." Of course they were designed for control. That passage seems so obvious that a reader wonders why it was there; why would raiders use chains that would make captives comfortable? Profit, not comfort, was what these marauding rascals were thinking about. Also, as good as his narrative is, Freeman tends to…