Trinity joins Irish-German collaboration to restore damaged biography of St Patrick

Posted on: 01 November 2024

Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin TD has announced that the Department of Foreign Affairs together with Trinity College Dublin and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities are collaborating to fund the restoration of a previously unpublished biography of St Patrick, one of Ireland’s patron saints. This biography was compiled by one of Germany’s foremost Celticists, Heinrich Zimmer.

Heinrich Zimmer (1851-1910) was Germany’s first professor of Celtic Studies and an Ordinary Member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences. His thus far unpublished biography of St Patrick is regarded as a foundation document for modern scientific research on Ireland’s national saint.

Zimmer completed a 575-page study of St Patrick in 1894, but it was never published. When Zimmer’s private library burned down in 1903, the manuscript survived but with significant fire-damage. Subsequently it has been stored in the archive of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, unseen by scholars in decades due to its fragile state.

Given the historical relevance of the damaged manuscript, the three partners have decided to fund its restoration.

Speaking about the restoration project, the Tánaiste said: “I am delighted to announce this partnership with Trinity College Dublin and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities to restore what is an historic document about St Patrick.

“I am sure that this ambitious restoration will shine a new light on Ireland’s patron saint, contributing to the increasing popularity Irish studies has been enjoying across Germany in recent years.”

Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Linda Doyle (pictured above on right), said: "It is wonderful that this manuscript is now being restored and will be more widely available as the subject of academic scholarship.

“We are delighted to support Dr Immo Warntjes’ research in this fascinating field. I also welcome this opportunity to further deepen our research ties with Germany via the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, and I thank the Irish government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, for their generosity in facilitating this work.”

The President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Prof. Dr Dr h.c. mult. Christoph Markschies (pictured above on left with Ireland's German Ambassador Maeve Colllins centre) emphasised: “The archive of the Academy of Sciences possesses a tremendous treasure in the manuscript of the biography of the Irish national saint St Patrick. We are grateful that this treasure is now being restored with the generous support of the Embassy of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin and will therefore be made available to all interested researchers in the future - also in digital form. Our late member Heinrich Zimmer would certainly have been just as pleased about this news as we were."

ENDS