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As the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick is credited for bringing Christianity to the island. Yet St. Patrick himself remains in a mysterious fog of fact and legend.
No one can pinpoint the exact dates of St. Patrick's birth or death or where he originally was born, Mahony said. It is generally agreed that he was captured in his youth and sold into slavery, probably in the fifth century, in Ireland. "There is a combination of history and myth that is very difficult to sort out," Mahony said.
From Haggerty's perspective, it is clear from the stories, whether true or not, how St. Patrick won over the hearts of the Irish. "One of the things that endears him to the Irish ??? was the fact that, because he had been enslaved [in Ireland], he had learned the language and so he could preach to them in Irish."