Saint Patrick

My name is Patrick

I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers. I am looked down upon by many.

My father was Calpornius. He was a deacon; his father was Potitus, a priest, who lived at Bannavem Taburniae.

His home was near there, and that is where I was taken prisoner.

I was about sixteen at the time.

My name is Patrick is a web site dedicated to the patron saint of Ireland. The site has rich contents and is maintained by the Royal Irish Academy.


Dating of St. Patrick's life
There is a problem in the historical dating of the Apostle of Ireland, Saint Patrick.

Uncritical acceptance of the Annals of Ulster would imply that he lived from 340 to 440, and ministered in what is modern-day Northern Ireland from AD 428 onwards. The dates of Patrick's life cannot be fixed with certainty but, on a widespread interpretation, he was active as a missionary in Ireland during the second half of the fifth century.
wikipedia

Birth 387 at Kilpatric near Dumbardon, Scotland
Died 493 at the age of 106 at Saul Dumpatric, Ireland
Catholic Encyclopaedia 1913, St Patrick

Alternative year for his death is 460 at the age of 73
St. Patrick's Day is March 17
Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England, Holy Days
 


The writings of St. Patrick
 Wikipedia summarizes

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 entering the Church, he returned to Ireland as an ordained bishop in the north and west of the island, but little is known about the places where he worked. By the seventh century, he had come to be revered as the patron saint of Ireland. Most available details of his life are from later hagiographies from the seventh century onwards, and these are now not accepted without detailed criticism.

Two Latin letters survive which are generally accepted to have been written by St. Patrick. These are the Declaration (Latin: Confessio) and the Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus (Latin: Epistola). The Declaration is the more important of the two. In it Patrick gives a short account of his life and his mission.
wikipedia

Catholic Encyclopaedia (1913 )has the following to say about the surviving documents

• The "Confessio" and the "Epistola ad Coroticum" are recognized by all modern critical writers as of unquestionable genuineness. The best edition, with text, translation, and critical notes, is by Rev. Dr. White for the Royal Irish Academy, in 1905. 
• The 34 canons of a synod held before the year 460 by St. Patrick, Auxilius, and Isserninus, though rejected by Todd and Haddan, have been placed by Professor Bury beyond the reach of controversy. 
• Another series of 31 ecclesiastical canons entitled Synodus secunda Patritii, though unquestionably of Irish origin and dating before the close of the seventh century, is generally considered to be of a later date than St. Patrick. 
• Two tracts (in P.L., LIII), entitled De abusionibus saeculi, and De Tribus habitaculis, were composed by St. Patrick in Irish and translated into Latin at a later period. Passages from them are assigned to St. Patrick in the Collectio Hibernensis Canonum, which is of unquestionable authority and dates from the year 700 (Wasserschleben, 2nd ed., 1885). This Collectio Hibernensis also assigns to St. Patrick the famous synodical decree: "Si quae quaestiones in hac insula oriantur, ad Sedem Apostolicam referantur." (If any difficulties arise in this island, let them be referred to the Apostolic See). 
• The beautiful prayer, known as Faeth Fiada, or the Lorica of St. Patrick (St. Patrick's Breast-Plate), first edited by Petrie in his History of Tara, is now universally accepted as genuine. 
• The Dicta Sancti Patritii, or brief sayings of the saint, preserved in the Book of Armagh, are accurately edited by Fr. Hogan, S.J., in Documenta de S. Patritio (Brussels, 1884). 
• The old Irish text of The Rule of Patrick has been edited by O'Keeffe, and a translation by Archbishop Healy in the appendix to his Life of St. Patrick (Dublin, 1905). It is a tract of venerable antiquity, and embodies the teaching of the saint. 

 Catholic Encyclopaedia