St Patrick and the Rhetoric of Epistolography

The following section seeks to contribute to an understanding of Patrick’s rhetorical education, as well as demonstrate his position as an inheritor of, and contributor to, a decidedly Christian art of rhetoric in the late antique west. In order to realize such an end, the methodology employed will combine rhetorical analysis with an investigation of socio-historical context in a comparative framework. In other words, this study employs a close textual reading in order to detect rhetorical strategies indicative of contemporary trends in rhetorical practice. My interests here are the rhetorical dimension of Patrick’s writings, so this chapter should not be