Note 445 — APPENDIX C EXCURSUS (continued 2)

There is, however, another consideration which may be taken into account by those who wonder at the absence of any reference to Patrick in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. The Latin literature concerning St. Patrick only began to appear in Bede’s time. Tírechán’s Memoir cannot have been written long before his birth; and he was nearly thirty years old when Muirchu’s Life was composed. The older Patrician literature, as we have seen reason to believe, was in Irish, and inaccessible to Bede. The Columban church in north Britain was not concerned to propagate the fame of Patrick. There was rivalry between the Columban and Patrician communities in Ireland (cp. Tírechán, 314₈).