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The Problem of St. Patrick the Missionary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
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The problem of St. Patrick the Missionary centers upon two assumptions. One is that both the Letter to Coroticus and the Confession were written by the same person. This assumption would explain why the two have so many points in common but does not explain their differences. The similarities could be caused by the copying of one by the other: the differences by the fact that there were two authors. The other assumption is that the King Lughaid in whose reign the deaths of Patrick and some of his followers occurred was the Lughaid of the fifth century rather than the king of the same name in the third century. The alternative possibilities will be examined in this short study.
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References
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