"How The Irish Saved Civilization", by Thomas Cahill, details the role of the Irish from the fall of Rome to the rise of medieval Europe. Cahill tells how the Irish helped save classical works and thus preserve a civilization that might otherwise have been lost. .
The beginning of the book places the reader in the time just before the Roman Empire falls. Ireland, a little island on the edge of Europe, is neither civilized nor very important in the eyes of the empire. The people are as barbaric and illiterate as the Germanic tribes who would eventually topple the great Roman civilization. In the slavery business, there was no warrior more feared than the Irish. .
Cahill writes of a young Roman man, Patricius, who was kidnapped and cast into slavery by the Irish. In his isolation and despair, he has no one to turn to but the Christian faith of his father. After six, long years, Patricius has a vision, which tells him to return home. He puts his faith in that vision and escapes successfully. At home, Patricius cannot put Ireland out of his thoughts. He begins to have visions that his destiny is among the Irish people. Eventually Patricius, once a slave, returns to Ireland as Christian missionary, St. Patrick. With St. Patrick's knowledge of Ireland, his gentle nature, and his strong faith he manages to convert Ireland to Christianity without bloodshed. The Irish adopt this new religion, and yet make it their own.
St. Patrick devoted his last thirty years of his life to Ireland. By the time of his death around 461, the Roman Empire is already in chaos, vanishing into thin air leaving few traces of its former civilization. The barbarians are sweeping into the empire, destroying everything in their path. Invaders plunder much of the art, architecture and literature of the time. According to Cahill, "A world in chaos is not a world in which books are copied and libraries maintained." The barbarians were not an educated people.