Saint Patrick's College was set up in Lisbon in 1590, under a board of Portuguese noblemen in conjunction with exiled Irish Jesuits, to finance a seminary for secular priests in the Portuguese capital during Penal Times. The book relates the main events in the colourful story of the institution and its survival through war, earthquake and even suppression (in 1759 under the government of the Marqués de Pombal, chief minister to King José) for over 200 years. The former college building still stands in a beautiful corner of old Lisbon and now functions as a municipal courthouse.