The Tripartite Life of Patrick

Celtic scholar and philologist Whitley Stokes (1830-1909) edited and translated many important early medieval texts from Ireland, in Latin and Irish, which remain standard reading. This two-volume edition of works about Patrick, the fifth-century apostle to Ireland, was first published in 1887. Volume 2 contains a range of works dating from the fifth to the eleventh century. It includes the two surviving works that can be attributed to Patrick himself, the Confession and Letter to Coroticus. The excerpts from the Book of Armagh from the seventh century onward reflect the growing nationwide cult of St Patrick, and Armagh's claim to ecclesiastical primacy by associating Patrick with its church. These include the accounts of Patrick by Tirechan and Muirchu, and the 'Book of the Angel'. There are also hymns by Secundinus and Fiacc, Ninnine's prayer and an Irish homily from the Lebar Brecc. Translations of the Irish, along with several appendices and indexes, are also provided.