HIS32340 St Patrick and His Times

Academic Year 2018/2019

This module explores the biography of St Patrick in light of recent research. It is also an introduction to the history of Late Antique Ireland and Britain in which Patrick was active. In the seminars we will attempt to view the insular world as Patrick would have seen it and as he might have interpreted it through the many facets of his cultural identity: as a Briton, as a Roman, and as an immigrant to Ireland who could comment on Irish society with both an insider’s and outsider’s view. Straddling, as he did, Late Roman Britain and Late Iron Age Ireland, Patrick would have bridged over worlds that went through far-reaching political, economic, and religious changes: from the Christianisation of the Roman Empire in the fourth century to the collapse of Roman Britain in the early fifth century.