Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus

Patristic · Letter · c. 450 · Latin

An excommunication in the form of a letter. Coroticus' soldiers had raided newly baptised converts, killing some and selling others to the Picts, and Patrick writes to shame the Christians who trade with them: he asks that it be read aloud before them all. It is the earliest surviving European text to condemn slaving in these terms, by a man who had been a slave.

To: the soldiers of Coroticus, and the Christians who tolerate them