Thus begins one of the most unusual and intriguing documents of late antiquity, the Confession of St Patrick, describing the circumstances in which a Romano-British teenager was taken from his home and sold into slavery in barbarian Ireland. The Confessio is Patrick’s defence against criticisms by certain members of the British church hierarchy who were attacking his past and his missionary efforts in Ireland. It was written sometime in the second half of the fifth century, but is plagued by chronological vagueness, references to unknown places, and a Latin that has suggested to some it was not his native tongue. Nevertheless, the Confessio is still the closest thing we have to a slave narrative from antiquity. It is one of only two authentic writings of St Patrick, the other being the earlier Epistola ad milites Corotici (Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus), addressed to the soldiers of a British warlord who had attacked and enslaved newly baptized Irish converts.

The responsory verses of early chant (Gregorian, Old Roman, Ambrosian, Beneventan, and Old Hispanic) were sung to recitation tones more elaborate than the tones of antiphonal psalmody. Eight standard responsory verse tones were in use in the ninth century on the Continent, but new melodies gradually replaced them. At first, these retained some characteristics of the old tones, then later abandoned them. Comparison of responsory verse melodies from offices for Irish, Anglo-Saxon, and selected Continental saints shows similar changes in the melodies over time, but also distinct stylistic characteristics in the treatment of text and in the development of melody within the prescribed tonal space. Cantors often sang responsory verses on the Continent in the earlier Middle Ages. This study reveals the musicianship of the corresponding medieval Irish and Insular singer-composers.