3 - St Patrick and the Rhetoric of Epistolography

Summary

The following section seeks to contribute to an understanding of Patrick's rhetorical education, as well as demonstrate his position as an inheritor of, and contributor to, a decidedly Christian art of rhetoric in the late antique west. In order to realize such an end, the methodology employed will combine rhetorical analysis with an investigation of socio-historical context in a comparative framework. In other words, this study employs a close textual reading in order to detect rhetorical strategies indicative of contemporary trends in rhetorical practice. My interests here are the rhetorical dimension of Patrick's writings, so this chapter should not be read as an attempt to offer a complete reappraisal of the myriad thorny issues that have plagued Patrician studies for more than a century.

In this case study, I will analyse Patrick's Epistola, which provides evidence of the significant role of epistolography–a performative genre in which ritualized delivery was central–in early Gallo-Roman and Romano-British contexts. The Epistola is primarily demonstrative and in it Patrick admonishes the British Church, or a British faction in the Irish Church, to ransom slaves taken into captivity by slave raiders. However, it also possesses a forensic dimension in condemnation of Coroticus and his men who had raided, murdered, and abducted a number of Patrick's recent converts. In addition, there is evidence for the continued use of progymnasmata, Biblical texts for grammatical and rhetorical education, and imitatio, a practice that took the Pauline Epistles as the primary text of study.

The Historical Context of Patrick's Mission to Ireland

The arrival of Christianity in Ireland was motivated from the outset by political concerns. The same controversies that had drawn the attention of Rome to Britain and North Africa seem to have inspired an interest in Ireland. The entry for 429 in Prosper's Chronicle reads:

Agricola the Pelagian, the son of Bishop Severianus the Pelagian, corrupted the churches of Britain by introducing his own doctrine. On the recommendation of the deacon Palladius, Pepe Celestine sent Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, as his representative, and when the heretics had been cast down, he guided the Britons to the Catholic faith.