The Hiberno-Latin tradition of rhetorical formulation: reading Saint Patrick's Confessio

Abstract

Until the last decade of the last century, a common feature in historiography has been to characterize St Patrick as a poor writer, with no literary devices and his writing as completely devoid of rhetoric. Only recently, a new interpretation on this issue became available, particularly through the contributions of David Howlett and Máire de Paor. In order to demonstrate that Patrick built in his Confessio a complex rhetoric system, both authors provided an analysis of the literary and grammatical structure of the text. This contribution was fundamental to the current developments of Patriciology. However, a detailed analysis of Patrick’s discourse is also a path that can lead us to the conclusion that Patrick in fact was very well educated and explored rhetorical tools in his argumentation. This is the aim of this article.