The Confession of St. Patrick

Translated from the Original Latin with an Introduction and Notes

By: St. Patrick

Narrated by: Bill Shanks

Length: 1 hr and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

It has been remarked by Lord Bacon, in one of his happy illustrations, that time is like a river, which, as it flows on, bears on its surface only what is light and trivial, while all that is solid and valuable sinks beneath its waters. The history of St. Patrick is an instance of the truth of this observation; his real character was for ages unknown; his name was associated, in the popular belief, only with puerile fables and ridiculous miracles, and no one thought of doubting that the doctrines which he taught were those of the modern Church of Rome.

Of late years, however, it has been otherwise, for extracts from his writings have been published, and other proofs given, that the popular traditions were unfounded, and he has been shown to have higher claims on our esteem and admiration that was at one time supposed.

The source from which the most important evidence has been derived, is the confession, which has been brought out of its obscurity, and many passages of great interest quoted from it, by various writers. But, as these, however accurate they may be, will not supply the place of the work itself nor afford as satisfactory evidence to the inquirer, it cannot but be useful to render it accessible to the general listener, by means of an English translation; and to enable every one to judge for himself of the purity of the faith originally planted in Ireland.

Public Domain (P)2022 CrossReach Publications

Very disappointed

There are only three things wrong with this. First of all, this translation contains Thomas Olden's extensive, scholarly introduction and all of his notes and commentary. To call them "extensive" is an understatement, as they are longer than the actual Confession of St. Patrick. If I did the math right, the actual part of the book that was written by St. Patrick took up 46 minutes. Considering that this is a one hour and fifty seven minute book, that should tell you exactly how extensive Rev. Olden's notes and commentary are. One gets the impression that Rev. Olden thought somewhat highly of himself.

Secondly, Thomas Olden wrote this in the late 18th Century, and he was a Curate of the Anglican Church of Ireland, which is the Irish branch of the Anglican Communion. Since Irish independence the Church of Ireland has shrunk quite a bit, As of 2016 it has approximately 384,176 total members and 58,000 active baptized members out of an Irish population of approximately 5,281,600.

This is important to note because, given his time and sectarian allegiance, Rev. Olden is decidedly anti-catholic, and it shows. That's just how things were 130 years ago, and as a Catholic I don't see it as anything to get upset or bothered about, That being said, if you decide to spend an hour of your life listening to his VERY, VERY, VERY, extensive notes and commentary (not much of which is actually about St. Patrick himself) you probably want to be aware of Olden's point of view going in. For example, early on Rev. Olden complains that St. Patrick "..was associated, in the popular belief, only with puerile fables and ridiculous miracles" and that "...no one thought of doubting that the doctrines which he taught were those of the modern Church of Rome".

The last complaint I have is about the reader, mainly because there isn't one. This is pretty obviously the product of an A.I. I first noticed that the reading was somehow a little off. It is a very good A.I. and not nearly as monotone as you would expect from a computer, but the pauses seemed unnatural. What finally gave it away was when Rev. Olden used the then popular abbreviation for manuscript, "ms". Apparently this wasn't included in the A.I.'s programming because instead of saying "manuscript" it actually said the letters "m.s.". That took me a bit to figure out. Then when it read out roman numerals by individually pronouncing each letter in "xviii" instead of saying "18" it all came together.

That being said, the "reader' is very clear and understandable, and at no point did I have any difficulty following the story or the action. Also his voice while not pleasant, was far from unpleasant. I know of more than a few human readers of which neither of those things can be accurately said.

Given that this work is in public domain, and they didn't even bother to hire a flesh and blood reader, I can only suppose that the folks who put this edition out are still making bank even at the low $4.76 price I paid. That being said, the "Confession" itself is well worth the low price, especially if you skip all the commentary.

from separating the truth from the legend.

this audible book is a sober review of the truthful information on the life of St Patrick and IT addresses some of the mythology and legends that have grown up around St Patrick and Wyatt has. not an easy listen if one is tired but it is informative and hearing the words that Saint Patrick wrote is invigorating.

Patrick is fine. Intro is defense of Protestantism

Listen to St. Patrick's own words first. The intro is so blatantly an attempt to use St Patrick as a defense of English and Irish Protestantism that it was a real distraction by the time I finally got to St Patrick's own words.
The intro has some great historical content though. Such as 5 kingdoms in Ireland with own kings and sub chieftains. One king over all who had little power, but who received tribute. Slavery integral part of ancient Irish society. Bribery/tribute seemed to be pretty prevalent. Druid leadership and worship, which included wells, sacred fires, and sacrifice of first-born children and livestock. Saving the first-born babies seems to be the meaning of one of Patrick's dreams: come to this place and save us. The editor includes the end of the prayer called the Breastplate of St Patrick, citing lack of space for not including more. But a simple examination of the whole prayer would have given considerable insight into St Patrick's spirituality and provided a more visceral connection to the historical context, i.e his kidnappings and confrontations with the kings, chieftains, and spiritual battle against the druids and antichristian practices. It would have also given a better understanding of his understanding of creation than the editor's diatribes against Catholicism.
St. Patrick himself is interesting, but a little thick and thin at the same time. Thick in what is there requires some sifting to get significant meaning from it. Thin in that it's not a lot of detailed story or theology.
Always nice to see a Saint through their own words.

What you never knew about St. Patrick

The author does a good job introducing St. Patrick's Confession and explaining his background and dispelling myths and errors about Patrick. The book concludes with Patrick's actual confession that shows agreement with the author's premise.

Patrick speaks for himself

Glory be to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Patrick speaks for himself, echoing very closely St Paul. I would love to hear more. The ending came too soon!

The Confession is great, but not the rest

This is the first time I've left a review on Audible (I usually review on another website), but I feel I need to warn others: I've listened to over 200 audiobooks and this narrator was the first narrator that I could not stand. His pacing and strange breaks continually distracted me. The only reason I struggled through and completed this audiobook is because it was so short. The narration was genuinely bad.
On the material itself, the Confession is fine (but also be warned: the introduction to the Confession is longer than the Confession itself).