"The present volume has three objects in view: first, to present the life of Saint Patrick without writing a history of the national church which he founded or introducing irrelevant matter; secondly, to place hi life and character before the reader as they have been handed down to us in the most ancient extant documents, without overcoating or withholding anything in the originals; and, thirdly, to deliver to the public at as low a price as possible the original documents grouped together."
Many of the original documents reproduced here are available only at the Irish College in Rome and at Trinity College, Dublin. Included are the lives of St. Patrick written by St. Fiech, St. MacEvin and Jocelin. The Life of Saint Patrick by Saint Fiech will convey an estimate of his character about the time of his death; the Tripartite life by Saint Fiech will probably impart the notions of the eighth century; and the life by Jocelin will communicate the exaggerations of medieval times in the twelfth century.
