Patrick of Ireland: from Slave to Apostle

By Eochaid Mac Colla

Who was Patrick - really?

Not the parade-day saint. Not the shamrock symbol. The real Patrick: a teenager seized from Britain, enslaved in Ireland, and transformed by captivity into one of the most compelling voices in early Christian history.

Patrick of Ireland: From Slave to Apostle returns to the primary sources - Patrick's own surviving writings, the Confessio and the Letter to Coroticus - to recover the historical figure behind fifteen centuries of legend. Drawing on manuscript scholarship and early Irish hagiography, Eochaid Mac Colla separates the authentic Patrick from later mythologizing, tracing his theology of weakness, his confrontation with unjust power, and his call to return to the very land of his captivity.

This is not a devotional retelling. It is a serious, accessible account of a man whose authority came not from status but from suffering - and whose writings remain one of the earliest first-person testimonies in Irish history.

Readers will discover:

What Patrick actually wrote, and why it still startlesHow five distinct layers of tradition obscured the historical figurePatrick's theology of captivity, mercy, and compelled witnessHis fierce moral stand against Christian slave-raidersHow to engage his legacy honestly today

For readers of Celtic Christianity, early medieval history, and anyone seeking the real man behind the legend.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1069942561
• ISBN13: 9781069942562
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Holy Well Books
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"