Armagh' was compiled, as Dr. Petrie has shown, in 807. When the false theory of Patrick's Roman mission was fully developed, it was necessary to assign it to a later date than the authentic facts of Patrick's career warranted. For Prosper's 'Chronicle' authoritatively stated that Pope Celestine sent Palladius, whose mission failed, as 'first bishop' ('primus episcopus') in 431 to the Irish, who at the time were believers in Christ ('ad Scotos in Christum credentes'). Patrick's Roman champions consequently averred that Pope Celestine also sent him, and, if that were so, since Celestine died in 432, that year must have been the date of Patrick's acceptance of his credentials. But the early biographers of Patrick perceived the further difficulty that if Prosper's account of Palladius were to be adopted, it followed that Ireland was a Christian country when Palladius arrived in 431, and that the conversion of Ireland could not therefore, on this evidence, be attributed to him, and still less to Patrick. To evade this inference another device was resorted to. Prosper's words were misquoted by Muirchu in the 'Book of Armagh,' who affirms that Palladius came 'to convert the island' ('ad insulam convertendam'), and he having failed in the attempt, the work remained for Patrick. No one has hitherto noticed this perversion of Prosper's words.
In order to meet another difficulty arising from the wilful postponement of his mission some thirty years, occupation had to be found for him during that period. According to one account he was engaged in study, in contradiction to his own words; another says he was wandering in the islands of the Tyrrhene Sea a strange occupation for a missionary passionately eager for the conversion of Ireland. In a like spirit the necessity of adding an additional tutor was acknowledged, for St. Martin flourished too early to act as Patrick's tutor at so late a period as 430 or thereabouts, and therefore Germanus was interpolated (Todd); but, unfortunately for the credit of the writer, he is placed before, instead of after, Martin. Again, if the commencement of his mission was to be postponed from 405 to 432, Amator, who died in 418, was too early as his consecrator, and therefore Celestine is joined with Amator, despite the date of the latter's death.
Subsequently the 'Confession,' the 'Epistle to Coroticus,' and the early life by Muirchu, were all tampered with, chiefly by way of liberal excision, in order to bring them into conformity with the elaborated version of the life of the apostle, according to which his varied foreign experiences deferred his arrival in Ireland till he was sixty years old. A comparison of the Armagh copy of the 'Confession' with the four others preserved in France and England shows it to have been mutilated in a most thoroughgoing fashion for this purpose. Such were the methods adopted by the party who favoured the new tradition to destroy the evidence against it. Similarly, in the first draft of the 'Chronicle' of Marianus Scotus (1072), Patrick was not said to have followed Palladius, but Marianus afterwards interpolated words to show that Patrick began his mission as Palladius's successor. The contrast between these misstatements and the genuine records led, at one time, to the belief that two persons were confused together—one the simple missionary of the 'Confession,' the other the great thaumaturge of whom so many marvels were told. Thus two Patricks came into existence, and two burial-places had to be invented, whence sprang the inconsistencies that characterise the traditional accounts of his tomb. The two Patricks appear for the first time in the 'Hymn of Fiacc,' where they are said to have died at the same time (Windisch). In this we see the idea in its rudimentary stage. A little later they are distinguished as Patrick Senior, or the elder Patrick, and Patrick the Apostle. Separate days were soon assigned to them; but the apostle, with his ever-growing tale of miracles, became the popular favourite, while Patrick Senior gradually faded from view, and in the later literature is never heard of.
Notwithstanding the insurmountable difficulties which the apocryphal story of Patrick involves, it was successfully palmed off on the Irish people by an active party in Ireland. This was rendered possible by the Danish tyranny and the exodus of learned men, for there was no one to criticise it until the revival of learning in the twelfth century, and then it was too firmly established to be overthrown. Patrick is usually termed apostle of Ireland; but as his labours did not extend to the entire country, it would perhaps be more correct to style him, with the 'Annals of Ulster' and the poet Ninnine, 'Chief Apostle of Ireland.' His day is 17 March. But he was never canonised at Rome, and his acceptance as a saint is the outcome of popular tradition.
[The Epistles of St. Patrick and other documents in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (Rolls Ser.); St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, by J. H. Todd, D.D.; Vita S. Patricii ex Libro Armachano, ed. R. P. Edmundus Hogan, S. J., Brussels, 1882; on the Patrician Documents, by Sir Samuel Ferguson (Trans. Royal Irish Acad. vol. xxvii. No. 6); Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga,
