The classical historian J. B. Bury (1861–1927) was the author of a history of Greece which served as a standard textbook for over a century (and of which the first edition is also reissued in this series). His interests ranged over a very wide period, and in this 1905 work he apparently abandons the classical world altogether to consider the life of St Patrick, patron saint of his native Ireland. However, as he points out in his preface, Bury was drawn to Patrick through study of the lives of other missionaries across the later Roman empire, and his first chapter surveys the context of the diffusion of Christianity. He considers the various accounts of the life of Patrick, and puts these into the context of what is known of the ancient Irish kingdoms and the coming of Christianity. An appendix supplies details of the original sources, including Patrick's own writings.
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