St. Patrick after his Captivity returns to (Gaul) his Native Country
"AND on a certain night I heard in sleep a voice saying to me: 'Thou fasteth well; fasting thou shalt return to thy own native country'" (patria). "And again, after a little, I heard a response, saying to me: 'Behold thy ship is ready'" (St. Patrick's "Confession").
St. Fiacc suggests, Probus asserts, and Professor Bury admits that St. Patrick, after his captivity, fled to Gaul, and not to Great Britain. Gaul, therefore, and not the Island of Britain, was St. Patrick's native land.
If either Northern or Southern Britain were St. Patrick's native country, it seems incredible that the-Saint should be required to travel a distance of 200 Roman miles, from the North-East to the West of Ireland, in order to embark for Britain, when Lough Larne is but 30 nautical miles from Scotland,, and not more than 15 miles from Mount Slemish, and while Belfast and Strangford Loughs were within easy distance of the place of his captivity, and more suitable for embarkation than any seaport in the West of Ireland if North Britain were his destination.
A voyage from the west coast of Ireland to the Clyde would take the Saint a very unnecessary journey of 200 miles by land to the port of embarkation, and from thence an equally unnecessary voyage by sea, from the west around the northern coast of Ireland, past North Antrim—the county from which he started,—in order to reach Dumbarton, Kilpatrick, or Hamilton on the Clyde.
There are some indications which suggest that St. Patrick, when returning to his native country, sailed from Killala Bay. Although Killala is only 130 miles distant from Mount Slemish, as the crow flies, the Saint would have had to travel around Slieve Gallion, and make a circuit around the mountains of Tyrone, which stood directly across the path of a direct route. Lough Erne, in the County of Fermanagh, and Lough Gill, in the County of Sligo, and the inland flow of Killala Bay would add to the obstacles to be encountered, sufficient when all taken together to account for the 53 miles difference between 130, as the crow flies, and 183 English or 200 Roman miles which had to be travelled before he joined his ship.
Moreover, the woods of Foclut were situated within five miles of Killala, and St. Patrick in his "Confession" speaks in familiar terms of the inhabitants who dwell in the neighbourhood of the woods, whose voices sounded familiar to his ears when far away in Gaul.
This, indeed, would suggest that the Saint had made acquaintance with them during his flight, for he distinctly states when alluding to the place of his embarkation: "I had never been there, nor did I know any one that lived there" ("Confession"). His acquaintance with the inhabitants of Foclut must have been made after he had journeyed there, and previous to his embarkation.
Readers of the "Confession" will remember how touchingly he described the cordial manner in which he was welcomed by his relatives, who, to use the Saint's own words, "received me as a son, and besought me that then at least, after I had undergone so many tribulations, I should never depart from them again. Then in the middle of the night, a man who seemed to come from Ireland, whose name was Victoricus, the bearer of innumerable letters, one of which he handed to me; and I read the beginning of the letter, entitled 'The Voice of the Irish.' As I was reading the beginning of the letter, I thought that I heard in my mind the voices who dwelt near the woods of Foclut, which is near the Western sea, and they cried out: 'We entreat thee, O holy youth, to come and walk still with us.' My heart was deeply touched; I could read no more; and I awoke" ("Confession").
Being then in his thirtieth year when he had this vision, St. Patrick could not be called a youth. He was a youth, however, at the time when he escaped from his first captivity, and became acquainted with the inhabitants of Foclut, who appealed to him in the vision as the youth they had formerly known. They, consequently, besought him to come and abide with them as he had done formerly, for this is the obvious meaning of the words "We entreat thee, O holy youth, to come and walk still with us."
It is probable, therefore, that St. Patrick sailed back from Killala Bay, the nearest port to the woods of Foclut. It may readily be surmised that if the saintly youth, so full of holy zeal, had to remain for a few weeks, or even a few days, whilst the ship was completing its cargo, he would have time to make friendly acquaintance with the inhabitants near the woods, who doubtless received the friendless stranger with kind hospitality.
This gives a simple solution of the difficulty proposed by Professor Bury, who, relying on St. Patrick's friendly acquaintance with the inhabitants of Foclut, states that Croagh Patrick, which is not far from Foclut, and not Mount Slemish, was the scene of the Saint's captivity.
If the ship's cargo consisted chiefly of Irish wolfhounds, so greatly appreciated in Gaul, as Professor Bury suggests (p. 30), it would take more than "a day or two" to collect a sufficient number for exportation. There is nothing stated in the "Confession" to limit the time that St. Patrick had to wait before the ship, sailed away from port.
Moreover, in the solitude of Mount Slemish, absorbed in prayer and in guarding his flock, the saintly shepherd had no opportunity of making any acquaintance whilst in slavery. "After I had come to Ireland I was daily attending sheep, and I frequently prayed during the day, and the love of God and His faith and fear increased in me more and more, and the spirit was stirred; so that in a single day I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that I remained in the woods and on the mountain. Even before the dawn I was roused to prayer in snow, in ice and rain, and I felt no injury from it, nor was there any want of energy in me, as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent in me." These certainly are not the words of a youth who was in the habit of journeying from Croagh Patrick to Foclut to make the acquaintance of the inhabitants. It is, on the contrary, easy to imagine what a powerful effect a Saint, so stirred by the Spirit of God as his words express, would have on all with whom he came in contact after he had been freed from his duties as a shepherd. St. Patrick's history of himself suggests at least that his acquaintance with others, except those of his master's household, must have been made after his escape from captivity.
Professor Bury, however, is the latest convert to the opinion that St. Patrick fled to Gaul, and not to the Island of Britain, after his escape from captivity in Ireland. The Professor narrates that considerable regions in Gaul were a desolate wilderness, according to contemporary rhetorical and poetical evidence, from A.D. 408 to 416, and, therefore, it might be argued, Gaul suits the narrative of St. Patrick in his "Confession." He and his companions reached land three days (post triduum) after they left the coast of Ireland, so that our choice lies between Britain and Gaul. The data do not suit Britain. We cannot imagine what inland part of Britain they could have wished to reach which would necessitate a journey of twenty-eight daysper desertum. Suppose the crew disembarked on the south coast of Britain, and that the southern regions had been recently ravaged by the Saxons, yet a journey of a few days would have brought them to Londinium, or any other place they could have desired to reach from a south port. Moreover, if they had landed in Britain, Patrick, when he once escaped from their company, could have reached his home in a few days, whereas he did not return for a few years. His own words exclude Britain. Having mentioned his final escape from the traders, he proceeds: "iterum post paucos annos in Britanniis eram cum parentibus meis." I believe that "post paucos annos" has been interpreted by some in this sense: "a few years after my capture." But this is an unnatural explanation. The words naturally refer to what immediately precedes, namely, his escape. The only thing that can be alleged in favour of Britain is the intimation in the dream that he would "quickly come to his native land" (cito iturus ad patriam tuam). "This, of course," continues the Professor, "represented his expectations at the time of his escape. But the very fact that he fails to say that the promise was literally fulfilled, and glides over the intervening years in silence, strongly suggests that his expectation was not realised" (Appendix C, pp. 339—340).
Professor Bury, being a Protestant, treats the Divine admonition given to the Saint as a dream; not as the voice of God speaking to His servant, but as an ardent desire on the Saint's part which met with disappointment. Catholics, on the contrary, fully believe that God's promise was fulfilled, and that St. Patrick did actually return to his own native country, which the Professor very satisfactorily proves was Gaul and not Britain. The Armorican theory of St. Patrick's birthplace affords a very natural and easy explanation of the difficulty which the Saint's return to Gaul from captivity must present to all who try to prove that he was a native of Great Britain.
St. Fiacc's Nemthur was situated in the Suburbs of Boulogne
I.
Natus est Patritius NemturriUt refertur in narrationibus,Juvenis (fuit) sex annorem decemQuando ductus est sub vinculis.
II.
Succat ejus notnen in Tribubus dictum,Quis ejus Pater sit notum,Filius (fuit) Calpurnii, filii Otidi,Nepos deaconi Odissi.
III.
Fuit sex annis in servitate,Excis hominum (Gentilium) non vescebat,Fuit ei nomen adoptivum CothriaghQuatuor Tribubus quia inserviit.
IV.
Dixit Victor(ei) servoMilchonis, Iret trans fluctus.Posuit suos pedes supra saxum,Manet exinde ejus vestigia.
Caligula's TowerCALIGULA'S TOWER, CALLED NEMTOR BY THE MARINI.
V.
Profectus est trans Alpes omnes,Trans Maria, fuit faelix expeditionEt remansit apud GermanumIn australi parte australis Lethaniae.
The following beautiful free translation of these verses is taken, with kind permission, from Monsignor Edward Watson, M.A.'s, translation of St. Fiacc's ode:
I.
"At Nemthur, as our minstrels own,Heaven's radiance first on Patrick smiled,But fifteen summers scarce had thrownA halo round the holy child,When captured by an Irish bandHe took their Isle for fatherland.Succat by Christian birth his name,Heir to a noble father's fame.Calphurnius' son, of Potit's race,And deacon Odis' kin and grace,Six years of bondage he must bearWith faithful fast from heathen fare.And Cothriagh now his name and due,Who holding high allegiance true,Yet served four little lords of earth(God's servant he of forefold worth)Till Victor bade him Milchu's slaveTo fly across the freeman's wave.He fled, but first upon the rocky shoreHis footprint set a seal for evermore.
II.
Then far away beyond the seas,In happy flight o'er many a land,O'er many a mountain on he fleesTo face Lethania's southern strand,Nor rested long upon the roadUntil he gained Germain's abode."
St. Fiacc states that the Apostle of Ireland was born at Nemthur—Nemthur, as all commentators agree, is not the name of a town, but of a tower. "Neam-thur Hebernica vox est quse coelestem, sive altam turrim denotat." "Neamthur is an Irish word which denotes a heavenly, or a high tower" (Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres, Tom i., p. 96—O'Conor).
Assuming that St. Patrick was born in the suburbs, and close to the town of Bononia, or Banaven, as it has already been proved from his "Confession," St. Fiacc's declaration that his Patron was born at Nemthur admits of a very lucid explanation. Nemthur was situated in the suburbs and close to the town of Bonaven. St. Fiacc gives the name of the district, but St. Patrick gives the name of the town near which he was born.
Singularly enough Caligula's famous tower on the sea coast of Boulogne was called Turris Ordinis by the Romans, but Nemtor by the Gauls, as Hersart de la Villemarque clearly proves in his "Celtic Legend" (p. 213), and the tower itself has given its name to the locality where it once stood, which is called even at the present time Tour d'Ordre—the French translation of "Turris Ordinis."
The history of this tower, on account of its close connection with the history of St. Patrick, cannot fail to be interesting. Caligula, or Caius Caesar, who died A.D. 41, meditated a descent upon Britain, and with that object marshalled his troops at Bononia. Fearful, however, of the dangers and fatigues of a long campaign in that inhospitable island, and full of childish vanity, he determined at length, as Suetonius humorously observes, "to make war in earnest; he drew up his army on the shore of the ocean, with his ballistse and other engines of war, and, while no one could imagine what he intended to do, on a sudden commanded them to gather up sea shells and fill their helmets and the folds of their dresses with them, calling them 'the spoils of the ocean due to the Capitol and the Palatium.' As a monument of his success, he raised a lofty tower, upon which, as at Pharos, he ordered lights to be burnt in the night time for the guidance of ships at sea" ("Lives of the Twelve Caesars," Caligula, p. 283).
"It seems generally agreed," writes Forester, the translator of Suetonius' Lives, "that the point of the coast which was signalised by this ridiculous bravado of Caligula, somewhat redeemed by the erection of a high house, was Itium, afterwards called Gessoriacum and Bononia (Boulogne), a town belonging to the Gaulish tribe of the Morini" (note, p. 283).
For many centuries this tower called Turris Ordens, Turris Ardens, or Turris Ordinis by the Romans, and Neamthur by the Gauls, spread its light over land and sea on the north-eastern cliffs of Boulogne.
A description of the tower is given in the "Memoirs of the Academy of Inscription," quoted by Bertrand in his "History of Boulogne," as follows: "The form of this monument, one of the most striking erected by the Romans, was octagon. It was entirely abolished about a hundred years ago, but, fortunately, a drawing of it, made when the lighthouse was still perfect, is still in existence, and has been exhibited to the Academy by the learned Father Lequien, a Dominican monk, native of Boulogne. Each of its sides, according to Bucherius, measured 24 to 25 feet, so that its circumference was about 200, and its diameter 66 feet. It contained twelve entablatures, or species of galleries, on the outside, including that on the ground floor. Each gallery projected a foot and a half further than the one above it, and consequently their size diminished with each succeeding gallery. On the top fires were lighted to serve as a beacon to vessels at sea. A solid foundation was formed, not only under the lighthouse, but for some distance beyond the external walls. It was constructed of stones and bricks in the following manner: first were seen three layers of stones, found on the coast, of iron grey colour, then two layers of yellow stone of a softer nature, and upon these two rows of hard red bricks, two inches thick, and a foot and a half long, and a little more than a foot broad" ("Bertrand's History of Boulogne," pp. 13, 14).
"Caligula's tower was built on the north-eastern cliffs, about half a mile from the sea, but within the suburbs of Boulogne. The constant encroachment of the tide had reduced that distance to 400 feet in 1544, when Boulogne was captured, and fortifications built around the tower by the English troops. Still, however, the merciless waves rushed onward to the coast, undermining the cliffs more and more, until at length, on July 29th, 1644, Caligula's tower fell headlong with a crash into the sea.
"Passengers from Folkestone to Boulogne gaze with reverence or curiosity on the Calvary on the northeastern cliffs, which fishermen salute with uncovered heads when sailing out to reap the harvest of the sea. Close to the Calvary there is a mass of ruins overhanging the cliff, which is all that remains of the fortifications built round Caligula's tower by the English conquerors. The tower itself once stood over the site occupied by the Hotel du Pavillion et des Bains de Mer, opposite the place for sea bathing" ("Bertrand's History of Boulogne," pp. 15, 16).
"The Celtic Legend," published by Hersart de la Villemarque in 1864, clearly shows how the history of Bononia and of its celebrated tower is connected with his—St. Patrick's—life. One of the legends is entitled "St. Patrick," and commences as follows: "On the shore of the channel separating England from France, near the famous place from which Caesar embarked for the Isles of Britain, a fortified enclosure was erected overlooking and protecting the coast and territory which formed part of the possession of the Morini Gauls. This important strategic point was called in Latin, Tabernia, or the 'Field of Tents' (Le Champs du Pavilion), because the Roman army had pitched their tents there. About a mile distant, a group of buildings formed a fairly-sized village, which at first was called by the Gauls Gessoriac,then Bonauen Armorik, and afterwards named Bononia Oceasensis by the Roman Gauls, and finally Boulogne-sur-Mer by the French.
"A light-house, or Nemtor, as it was called in the Celtic language, kept watch during the night over the camp, village, and sea, preserving the Gaulish frontier from piratical incursions.
"At the foot of the light-house stood the residence of a Roman officer named Calphurnius, who had the supervision of the fire in the tower, amongst the more costly and ornamented houses than the others, where the free-and-easy life and customs of the Romans found a last refuge. He lived there attended by domestic and military servants. He had fought under the Imperial flag and attained the rank of a Decurion (p. 354). . . .
"Forgetfulness of God, disobedience to His laws, which are also the best laws of human society, led to the ruin both of the colony of Bononia and of St. Patrick's family. One day a mutiny, from which the servants of Calphurnius could not have kept aloof, broke out amongst the soldiers in the camp, just at the time when pirates, who had come from different parts of the Irish coast and formed themselves into a fleet so as to plunder the towns on the sea coast of Gaul with greater security, took advantage of the dissensions amongst the inhabitants of Boulogne and besieged the town. Fine furniture, carpets, and valuable garments, vessels of gold and silver, arms and instruments of every kind, everything that they could seize in the houses, in the town, in the camp, in the rural dwellings close by, in the stables, in the ox stalls, in the sheep pens: horses, cows, pigs, cattle and sheep were carried off and placed on board the ships. Those who attempted any resistance were put to death, whilst others, undergoing the fate of domestic animals, were sold into slavery. Amongst the defenders of the colony who perished were Calphurnius, his wife, and many of his household. St. Patrick was numbered amongst the captives. The corsairs, having set sail, landed him in Ireland, where they sold him to a small chieftain in Ulster named Milcho" ("La Legende Celtique," par le Vicomte Hersart de la Villemarque, Membre de l'Institut Paris, 1864, Librarie Academique. Dedier et Cie., Librarie Editeurs, 35 Quai des Augustines).
There is a constant tradition that St. Patrick was a native of Boulogne, and that tradition is expressed in the Celtic Legend just quoted. Even the present "Guide Book" of that town (Merridew's, 1905) volunteers the following information, which, although erroneous as to dates, is interesting as referring to St. Patrick's connection with the city: "About the year 249 St. Patrick arrived in Morinia, and for some time resided at Boulogne" (p. 10). Feather Malbrancq, in his "History of the Morini," quotes the "Chronicon Morinense," "The Life of St. Arnulphus," and "The Catalogue of the Bishops of that See" to prove St. Patrick's connection with the town. Although it is certain that St. Patrick never presided over that See, the fact of his being numbered amongst the Bishops admits of an easy explanation if he was a native of that town.
St. Fiacc describes St. Patrick's Flight from Ireland to Armorica
ST. FIACC poetically describes St. Patrick's flight to his-own native country in the fifth stanza of his hymn:
"Then far away beyond the seas,In happy flight o'er many a land,O'er many a mountain on he fleesTo fair Lethania's Southern strand,Nor rested long upon the roadUntil he gained Germain's abode."
It is evident from this that St. Patrick fled direct to Lethania after his escape from captivity in Ireland, having received the angel's promise that he should return to his native land. O'Conor testifies that the Irish called not only Armorica, Lethania, but all Western Gaul as far as the Diocese of Auxerre. ("Lethaniam appellabant Hiberni non modo Armoricam sed et occidentalem Galliam usque ad diocesim Antisiodorensem") ("Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres Tom," L, p. 91, note).
The Scholiast practically admits St. Patrick's Birth in Armorica
THE Scholiast, who annotated St. Fiacc's "Metrical Life of St. Patrick," flourished in the eleventh century, according to Professor Bury. The scholia of the Scholiast, however, should be received with great caution, as Lanigan points out: "The scholia of the Scholiast," he remarks, "are not the composition of one person. For instance, in scholion 5, the Letha mentioned in the hymn is properly explained by Armorica, or the maritime tract on the North-West of Gaul; while in scholion n it is interpreted of Latium, in Italy. In scholion 9 we read that on a certain occasion St. Patrick said, 'Dar mo dhe broth,' which is explained, 'God is able to do this if He choose'; and yet immediately after it is added that 'Dar mo dhe broth' was a sort of asseveration familiar to St. Patrick, signifying 'By my God, Judge, or judgment.' On the whole, it is evident that the scholia, as we have them at present, are a compilation of observations, some more, some less ancient, extracted from various writers" ("Eccl. Hist, of Ireland," vol. L, c. iii., p. 81).
The scholion (i) on St. Fiacc's opening words: "Natus est Patritius Nemturri"—"St. Patrick was born at Nemthur"—is as follows: "Nemthur is a city in the Northern parts of Britain, viz. Alcluid (nempe Alcluida)." By comparing this scholion with the scholion given later on (c. iii.), it will be seen that the same pen has not written both scholia. The scholion referred to is this: "The cause of St. Patrick's captivity was this: His father, Calphurnius, and his mother, Conchessa, and his five sisters, Lupita, Tigris, Liemania, and Darerca, Cinnena was the name of the fifth, and his brother deacon, Senanus, all together travelled from Britain Alcluid southwards over the Sea of Ictium to Armorican Lethania, or Britannia Lethania, both on business and because a certain relative of theirs dwelt there, and the mother of the above-named children, namely Conchessa, was of the Franks, and a near relative of St. Martin. At that time, however, seven sons of Fachmad, King of the Britons, broke loose from Britain and plundered Armorican Britain in the territory of Letha, where St. Patrick happened to be living with his family. They slew Calphurnius there, and carried off St. Patrick and his sister Lupita captives to Ireland. They sold Lupita 'in Connallia Murthemnensi' [a territory in Ulster], and Patrick in the northern parts of the territory of the Dal-aradia."
The contradictory nature of the accounts given by the Scholiast as to St. Patrick's supposed birth in Alcluid, or Dumbarton, and his capture in Armorica will be seen by comparing them with the statement made by the Saint himself in his "Confession": "I, Patrick, a sinner and the most uncultured and humblest of all the faithful, had a father named Calphurnius, a deacon, the son of Potitus, a priest, who hailed from the suburban district of Bonaven Taberniae, for he possessed a little country seat close by from whence I was led captive." This statement of the Saint disproves the assertion of the Scholiast that Calphurnius and his family were on a friendly visit to Armorica when all the calamities befell them, for the Saint distinctly states that his father hailed from Bonaven Taberniae, and that he himself was actually residing at his father's little country seat in the suburbs of that town at the time when he was forced into captivity.
It is evident, therefore, from the Scholiast that Bonaven Tabernise was situated in Armorican Britain; and from St. Patrick's "Confession," that the town from which he was led captive was his own native town. The Apostle of Ireland could not, therefore, as the Scholiast suggests, have been born at Alcluid, or Dumbarton. It is curious to observe how unconsciously the Scholiast connects Calphurnius and his family with Boulogne. Calphurnius and his family are made to sail from Dumbarton, over the Sea of Itius or Ictius, to Armorica. Hersart de la Villemarque has already identified Bonaven under its various names as Bononia or Boulogne. It was called Itius or Ictius by Caesar, Bononia by the Romans, and Bonauen Armorik by the Gaulish Celts. The Scholiast, therefore, when he directs the course of Calphurnius and his family across the Sea of Ictius, seems to be steering their ship directly to Boulogne.
Nemthur cannot possibly be the name of the town near which St. Patrick was born, simply because the Saint gives the name of Bonaven, or Bononia, as the city of his birth. St. Fiacc does not name Nemthur as a town; he simply tells us that St. Patrick was born at Nemthur, which, as has been proved, was both the name of the Caligula's tower and of the district in which that tower stood in the suburbs of Bonaven. The Scholiast is the first to call Nemthur a town, and evidently puts it down as the ancient name of Alcluid, or Dumbarton. This is the obvious meaning of the scholion: "Nemthur est civitas in septentrional! Britanni nempe Alcluida." Nemthur is a city in northern Britain, namely Alcluid. The "nempe Alcluida" looks very much like an interpolation, and if an interpolation, the statement of the Scholiast that Nemthur is a city in northern Britain, without the addition "nempe Alcluida," might easily refer to Northern Britain in Gaul where, however, Nemthur was not the name of a city, but the name both of a tower and of the district of the city where St. Patrick was born.
Neither the Scholiast, nor those who have adopted his views as to the Saint's birth at Dumbarton, have ever answered Lanigan's challenge, who boldly states that the name Nemthur is not to be found in Nennius's "List of British Towns," which Usher himself had illustrated, nor in any of the old "Itineraries," or in Ricardus Corinensis, or in Camden, or Horsley &c. (vol. i, b. 3, p. 91).
The learned Cardinal Moran, in the March of theDublin Review, 1880, endeavoured to take up the gauntlet and answer Lanigan's challenge by quoting one of Taliessin's poems from the "Black Book of Carmarthen," which represents a Welsh hero sailing away with an army to Scotland and recovering his lost inheritance in a battle fought and won at Nevthur in Clydesdale.
Besides the fact that no small stretch of imagination is required to believe that Nevthur and Nemthur are one and the same, nearly all the poems attributed to Taliessin are regarded as spurious by learned critics, as Chamber's "Encyclopaedia," under the heading Welsh Literature, evidently points out.
"Mr. Nash, the author of 'Taliessin and the Bards and Druids of Wales,' enables us to form an independent judgment on this point, for he translates some fifty of the poems, and we find that, instead of their exhibiting an antique Welsh character, they abound in allusions to mediaeval theology, and frequently employ mediaeval Latin terms. It is certainly unfortunate for the reputation of the 'Chief of Bards' that the specimens of his poems, which are considered genuine, possess exceedingly small merit. The life of this famous but over-rated genius is, of course, enveloped in legend." Lanigan's challenge, therefore, still remains unanswered, and a town mamed Nemthur is not to be found in any ancient history, geography, or map. The error, therefore, of the Scholiast consisted in stating that Alcluid and Nemthur were identical, but his statement that St. Patrick was captured in Armorica is historically true.
The "Trepartite Life" falls into the Same Error
THE following account is given in the "Trepartite Life" concerning St. Patrick's native town, and the country from which he was taken captive:—
"Patrick, then, was of the Britons of Alcluid by origin. Calphurn was his father's name. He was a noble priest. Potit was his grandfather's name, whose title was a deacon. Conceis was his mother's name. She was of the Franks, and a sister to St. Martin. In Nemthur, moreover, was the man Patrick born. . . .
"The cause of Patrick's coming to Erin was as follows: 'The seven sons of Fachmad, namely—the seven sons of the King of Britain—were on a naval expedition, and they went to plunder Armoric Letha; and a number of Britons of Strath-Cluaidh were on a visit with their kinsmen—the Britons of Armoric Letha—and Calphurn, son of Potit, Patrick's father, and her mother Conceis, daughter of Ocbas of the Gauls, that is of the Franks, were killed in the slaughter in Armorica. Patrick and his two sisters, viz. Lupait and Tigris, were taken prisoners, moreover, in that slaughter. The seven sons of Fachmad went afterwards to sea, having with them Patrick and his two sisters in captivity. The way they went was around Erin, northwards, until they landed in the north, and they sold Patrick to Miluic, son of Baun, that is, the King of Dal-Araidhe.
"They sold his two sisters in Conaille Muirthemne. And they did not know this. Four persons, truly, that purchased him. One of them was Miluic. It was from this that he received the name Cothriage, for the reasons that he served four masters. He had, indeed, four names" (W. M. Hennessey's Translation of the "Trepartite Life").
The author of the "Trepartite Life" repeats the contradictory statements of the Scholiast, namely, that St. Patrick was born at Dumbarton and captured in Armorica, and it stands refuted by St. Patrick himsel in his "Confession," who declares that his father hailed from Bonaven, where the Roman encampment stood, and that he himself was captured whilst residing at his father's villula, or country seat, close by the town. Just as we are bound to credit St. Patrick's "Confession;" the statements of the Scholiast, and of the author of the "Trepartite Life," that he was simply on a visit to his relatives in Armorica when captured, must be discredited.
Ignoring the fact that the author of the "Tripartite Life" and Probus tell the same tale, the Archbishop of Tuam, in his excellent "Life of St. Patrick," states "that the Scholiast on St. Fiacc whilst expressly declaring that Nemthur, St. Patrick's birthplace, was in North Britain, namely, Ail Cluade, adds that young Patrick, with his parents, brother and sisters, went from the Britons of Ail Cluade over the Ictian Sea, southwards, to visit his relatives in Armorica, and that it was from Latevian Armorica that Patrick was carried off captive to Ireland. The Scholiast here confounds the Armoric Britons of the Clyde with the Armoric Britons of Gaul, or Letavia, who had no existence then at so early a date. No doubt they were kindred Britons, but the name Britannia and Britons were not at that time given to Armorica of Gaul" (Appendix i., p. 585).
Nothing is here said by His Grace about Probus or the "Tripartite Life," who agree with the Scholiast that the Saint was captured in Armorica. When treating of Britannia in Gaul, it will be proved from the "Sacred Histories of Sulpicius Severus" that Armorica was called Britannia when the Council of Ariminium was held in the year 359. It is evident, however, that the author of the "Tripartite Life" was firmly convinced that St. Patrick was captured in Armorica, from the description he gives of the flight of his captors: "The seven sons of Fachmad went afterwards on the sea, having with them Patrick and his two sisters in captivity. The way they went was northward around Erin, until they landed in the north, and they sold Patrick to Miluic."
From this narrative it is evident that the captives were carried by the fleet northwards around Erin until they arrived in the neighbourhood of Lough Larne, Antrim, where St. Patrick was sold as a slave. The captors afterwards sailed southwards and sold St. Patrick's sisters at Louth. They must, therefore, as Father Bullen Morris surmises, have sailed around the western coast of Erin after sailing away from Armorica. It is clear, as the same writer does not fail to observe, that such a course cannot fit in with the Dumbarton theory: "A voyage northwards from the mouth of the Clyde would take the Irish fleet to the North Pole" ("Ireland and St. Patrick," p. 26).
The Scholiast and the author of the "Tripartite Life" are of opinion that St. Patrick was made captive by the seven sons of Fachmad, King of Britain, who are represented as making a raid into Armorica. Jocelin declares that the capture was made by pirates. The Second, Third, and Fourth "Lives" are unanimous in stating that the Saint was captured by the Irish Scots. St. Patrick's own words in the Epistle to Coroticus, "Have I not tender mercy on that nation which formerly took me captive?" leave no doubt as to his capture by the Irish Scots. Colgan endeavours to harmonise both accounts by suggesting that the sons of Fachmad were British exiles in Ireland, who fought under the standard of King Niall when he invaded Armorica, and that they may have been the actual captors of the Saint.
All that the Second and Third "Lives" testify
As the Second and Third "Lives of St. Patrick" are practically and almost verbally identical up to the end of Section XL, the same translation up to that point will suffice for both.
"Patrick was born at Nemthur. He had a sister named Lupita, whose relics are preserved at Armagh. Patrick was born in the Field of Tents. It was called Campus Tabernaculorum because the Roman army, at some time or other, pitched their tents there during the cold winter season.
"IV.—The boy, however, was reared at Nemthur. . . .
"XI.—This was the cause of his exile and arrival in Ireland: An army of Irish Scots embarked, as usual, in their ships, and forming a large fleet sailed over to Britain, and brought back from thence many captives and carried them to Ireland, the captives numbering altogether one hundred of both sexes. Patrick was, as he himself testifies, in his sixteenth year at that time."
The following addition is given in the Third "Life": "Patrick, who was also called Suchet, was sprung from the British nation, and his country and the place where he was born was situated not far from the sea. His father's name was 'Calburnius,' the son of a venerable man named Potitus; but his mother, Conches by name, was the daughter of Dechusius. Both parents of this holy man were devoted to religion."
Controversially speaking, neither of these two "Lives" are of any value. Nemthur is not identified with Dumbarton, and it is not clearly stated whether the Irish fleet raided the island of Britain or Armorican Britain, or whether St. Patrick was descended from the Island or Armorican Britons. A recent writer lays much stress on the fact that the British word Tabern is used to denote a tent field in the Second, Third, and Fourth "Lives," but the argument does not carry with it much weight, for according to Camden the British and Gaulish Celts spoke the same language, so that it is just as favourable to Armorica as to the island of Britain (" Britannia," vol. i., p. 11).
THE FOURTH "LIFE"
"SOME say that St. Patrick was of Jewish origin. After Our Lord had died on the Cross for the sins of the human race, a Roman army, avenging His Passion, laid Judea waste, and the captive Jews were dispersed amongst all the nations of the earth. Some of their number settled down among the Armorican Britons, and it is stated that it was from them that St. Patrick traced his origin." This may be gathered from the book of Epistles composed by himself, "on account of our sins, and because we had neither observed the precepts of the Lord nor obeyed His Commandments, we are dispersed to the uttermost ends of the earth."
"But, however, it is more credible and more certain that he speaks of that dispersion into which the Britons were driven by the Romans, in order that they might become possessed of the land near the Tuscan Sea which is called Armorica. After that dispersion, therefore, his parents went straight to Strath Clyde. There St. Patrick was conceived and born, his father being 'Kalburnius,' and his mother Conchessa, as he testifies in the book of his Epistles: 'I am Patrick, the son of Kalburnius, and Conchessa is my mother.' St. Patrick was, therefore, born in a town called Nemthur, which signifies a heavenly tower. This town was situated in Campo Tabernise, which is called the Field of Tents because, at one time, the Roman army pitched their tents there. In the British tongue Campus Tabern is the same as Campus Tabernaculorum.
"XV.—But the first cause of his coming to Ireland, and the sequence of events which hurried him there, are not to be passed over in silence. By the divine providence of God, it so happened that in his tender years he should be led to that nation, so that in his youth he should learn the language of the people, whose apostle he was afterwards destined to become. At that period Irish fleets were accustomed to sail over to Britain for the sake of plunder, and to bring back to Ireland whomsoever they made prisoners. It chanced, therefore, that the venerated youth, with his sister, named Lupita, should be taken captives amongst others. Some have written that the Saint at the time was but seven years of age. It seems to me, however, more credible what he himself states: 'When I fell into captivity I was sixteen years of age.' He was taken to Ireland and sold in the northern regions to four brothers, whom he served with a simple and devout heart. On that account he was called Cothraigh. But he had four names, for he received the name of Suchet at baptism; he was called Magonius by Germanus, Bishop; lastly, when he was elevated to the Episcopal dignity, he received his fourth name, Patrick."
It is suggestive how the Armorican tradition seems to manifest itself, either directly or indirectly, in nearly all the "Lives" of the Saint which are considered the best; in St. Fiacc's, in the annotations of the Scholiast, in the "Tripartite Life," in the Fourth "Life," and in the Fifth by Probus. In the Fourth "Life" it is stated that both parents of the Saint were Armorican Britons, and that St. Patrick, except for the accident of his place of birth, was an Armorican Briton. The author of the Fourth "Life," moreover, calls Calphurnius and Conchessa Armorican Britons, which serves to demonstrate that Armorica, even in the early years of St. Patrick, fell under the name of Britannia, and that its inhabitants were called Britons.
In this "Life" is to be found the mistake of the Scholiast, and of the other "Lives" who have adopted his suggestion, that Nemthur was the name of a town, and not of a tower or district, as may be gathered from the history of the tower itself.
The Second, Third, and Fourth "Lives" of the Saint, however, "are filled with fables," according to Canon O'Hanlon. "Their acts seem to have been either borrowed from one another, or are copies of versions taken from the same source" ("Lives of the Irish Saints," March 17th).
The Sixth "Life of St. Patrick," by Jocelin
"THERE was a man named Calphurnius, the son of Potitus, a presbyter, by nation a Briton, living in the village Taburnia (that is the Field of Tents), near the town of Empthor, and his habitation was nigh unto the Irish Sea. This man married a French damsel named Concuessa, niece of the blessed Martin, Archbishop of Tours, and the damsel was elegant in her form and in her manners, for, having been brought from France with her elder sister into the northern parts of Britain, they were sold at the command of her father. Calphurnius being pleased with her manners, charmed with her attentions, and attracted by her beauty, very much loved her, and from the state of serving maid in his household, raised her to be his companion in wedlock. And her sister, having been delivered unto another man, lived in the aforementioned town of Empthor.
"And Calphurnius and his wife were just before God, walking without offence in the justifications of the Lord, and they were eminent in their birth, and in their faith, and in their hope, and in their religion. And though in their outward habit and abiding they seemed to serve under the yoke of Babylon, yet did they in their acts and in their conversation show themselves citizens of Jerusalem. Therefore out of the earth of their flesh, being freed from the tares of sin and from the noxious weeds of vice by the ploughshare of evangelic and apostolic learning, and being fruitful in the growth of all virtues, did they, as the best and richest fruit, bring forth a son, whom, when he had at the font put off the old man, they caused to be named Patritius, as being the future father and patron of many nations; of whom, even at his baptism, the God that is Three in One was pleased by the sign of a threefold miracle to declare how pure a vessel of election should he prove, and how devoted a worshipper of the Holy Trinity. But after a little while, this happy birth being completed, they vowed themselves by mutual consent unto chastity, and with a holy end rested in the Lord. But Calphurnius-first served God a long time in the deaconship, and at length closed his days in the priesthood. . . ."
Chapter XII.—"As, according to the testimony of Holy Writ, the furnace tries the gold, so did the hour of trial draw near to Patrick that he might the more provedly receive the crown of life. For when the illustrious boy had perlustrated three lustres, already attaining his sixteenth year, he was, with many of his-fellow-countrymen, seized by the pirates who were ravaging the borders, and was made captive and carried into Ireland, and was there sold as a slave to a certain pagan prince named Milcho, who reigned in the Northern parts of the island, even at the same age when Joseph is recorded to have been sold in Egypt. . . ."
Chapter XVII.—"And St. Patrick, guided by his angelic guide, came to the sea, and he there found a ship that was to carry him to Britain, and a crew of heathens, who were in the ship, freely received him, and hoisting their sails with a favourable wind, after three days they made land. And, being come out of the ship, they found a region deserted and inhabited by none, and they began to travel over the whole country for the space of twenty-eight days; and for want of food in that fearful and wild solitude were they perishing of hunger" (Jocelin's "Life of St. Patrick," translated by E. L. Swift).
Jocelin's "Life of St. Patrick" deserves the harsh sentence pronounced upon it by Canon O'Hanlon: "It is incomparably the worst" of all the Latin "Lives" of the Saint. Jocelin represents Conchessa, St. Patrick's saintly mother, as a niece of St. Martin of Tours, and, almost in the same breath, suggests that either St. Martin's brother, or his brother-in-law, sold Conchessa and her elder sister to Calphurnius, a Briton of Clydesdale, as slaves. Although Conchessa was sold as a slave "at the command of her father," she is said to have succeeded in captivating and marrying her master Calphurnius.
Whilst Ware and Usher sneer at Jocelin's statement that Calphurnius and Conchessa took the vow of celibacy and devoted themselves to a religious life immediately after St. Patrick's birth, they eagerly adopt Jocelin's statement that the Apostle of Ireland was born at "Empthor," and that the home of The Sixth "Life," Calphurnius was "not far from the Irish Sea," although this untrustworthy author stands alone among the ancient writers in making this assertion.
Although Jocelin is responsible for the statement that St. Patrick fled to the island of Britain after his escape from captivity in Ireland, the subsequent three days' voyage by sea and twenty-eight days' journey by land before reaching his home are fatal to Jocelin's contention, as Professor Bury clearly demonstrates.
Ware's Empthor was near Dumbarton; Colgan's, Dumbarton itself; Usher and the "Aberdeen Breviary" identify it as Kilpatrick; Cardinal Moran rests sure that it is Hamilton, at the mouth of the Avon in Scotland; but St. Patrick's ship, chartered by Heaven to carry him to his "own native land," could, if any of the places named were St. Patrick's native town, have borne him directly almost to his destination, and saved part at least of the three days' journey by sea and the whole of the twenty-eight days' journey by wilderness before joining his relatives.