The ''Vita tripartita Sancti Patricii'' (''The Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick'') is a bilingual Life of
Patrick Patrick may refer to:
* Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name
* Patrick (surname), list of people with this name
People
* Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint
*Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...
, written partly in Irish and in parts in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
. It is a
hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...
focusing on Patrick. The text is difficult to date.
Kathleen Mulchrone
Kathleen "Kate" Mulchrone ( ga, Caitlín Ó Maolchroín or Ní Maolchroín; 22 November 1895 – 13 June 1973) was an Irish Celtic scholar.
Biography
Kathleen Mulchrone was born in Kilbeggan, County Westmeath on 22 November 1895. She was the y ...
had assigned a late ninth century date based on the latest historical reference in the text. However, on linguistic grounds, it has been dated to as late as the twelfth century. The text as it stands probably reflects various stages of development.
Máire Herbert
Máire R. M. Herbert , also known as Mary Herbert, is an Irish historian and academic, specialising in early medieval Irish history and Irish saints. She is Emeritus Professor of Early and Medieval Irish at University College Cork, and was prev ...
summarises:
It was meant to be read in three parts over the three days of the Patrick's festival. James F. Kenney said that the Tripartite Life represents 'the evolution of the Patrick legend nearly completed.'
[, p. 344.] While the Tripartite Life bears many similarities with earlier texts, and developed from them, the text as a whole is more brazen, and has a polemical character.
Editions and translations
*
**
University of Frankfurt: in four parts
*
The Tripartite Life of Patrick: With Other Documents Relating to that Saint Vol. II
Further reading
*
References
History books about Christianity
Saint Patrick
Irish manuscripts
Christian manuscripts
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