From Confessio to Calderón de la Barca: the Literary Evolution of St. Patrick’s Biography and the Question of his Legacy

Abstract

In the following text, I will discuss the gradual erosion of historical accuracy in connection to a series of hagiographic texts concerning the biography of Saint Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint. I will outline each one against a wide historical and cultural backdrop and subsequently ascertain whether or not the changes that hagiographers introduced over the centuries have been detrimental to his legacy. The texts I have chosen to analyse can be separated into two major time periods: the first being the trio of works that construct the absolute basics of the Saint Patrick legend, all originating from the 5th to 7th centuries, which are the autobiographical Confessio, with its heavy focus on relaying a Christian moral about sin, and the historical sources Bishop Tírechán's Account of St. Patrick's Journey and Muirchú's Life of St. Patrick. With these early hagiographic texts serving as reference points, I will, however, primarily study two Spanish Patrician works from the 17th Century: Pérez de Montalbán’s 1627 work Vida y Purgatorio de San Patricio and Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s play El purgatorio de San Patricio, or The Purgatory of Saint Patrick in its English translation. Within my analysis I will determine whether or not the changes integrated into his story by Montalbán and Calderón in fact matter to the overall legacy of Saint Patrick in the modern-day and if they had any lasting impact to readers, bearing in mind that both texts, more or less, retain the essentials of his Christian message and promote him as an exemplary spiritual figure within history.