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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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St Patrick
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(5th century AD) Patron saint of Ireland with a feast day on March 17. Born somewhere on the west coast of Britain, he was captured at the age of 16 by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland. Six years later he escaped, but returned to preach the gospel, establishing his headquarters at *Armagh and making Ireland the firm base from which Christianity later spread back through England and into northern Europe. He wrote two short works which are unusual for the period in being accepted now as wholly authentic.
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Confessio (Confession) is his spiritual autobiography, and Epistola (Letter) a protest against the ill-treatment of Irish Christians by the soldiers of an invading British chieftain. There are many legends about him. One explains the absence of snakes in Ireland (he drove them out); another relates why the shamrock is Ireland's *emblem, widely worn on St Patrick's Day (he used its three parts to explain the mystery of the Trinity). The cross of St Patrick is one of the three elements of the *Union Jack.
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