The variety of opinions, and the many questions that have been agitated, concerning the country and time of the birth of S. Patrick, render it necessary to clear up these disputed points before proceeding with the main story of his life. It would be a waste of time to examine all the various opinions, that have been started on this subject, such as his having been born in Cornwall, in Pembrokeshire,[51] or, what is strangest of all, in Ireland itself. The prevalent opinion since Usher's time has been that he was born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton. Usher was led astray by the scholiast on Fiech's hymn. Fiech says that S. Patrick was born at Nemthur (the holy tower) in Britain, and the scholiast identified this place with Alcwith, now Dumbarton. The scholiast guessed this, not knowing that the term Britain also applied to the whole of the North of Gaul, inhabited by the Armorican Gauls.[52] Indeed Probus calls S. Patrick's country, and the town where his family lived, Arimuric, or Armorica. In the life of S. Fursey, we are told that this saint crossed the sea into the province of Britain, and proceeded through Ponthieu. Now Ponthieu is a maritime tract in Picardy, near Boulogne; and it is also to be observed that this district is said in the life of S. Fursey "to be called by the moderns Normandy." But S. Patrick in his confession says, "My father was Calpurnius, a deacon, son of Potitus, a priest, of the town of Bonavem Taberniæ. He had near the town a small villa Enon, where I became a captive." Bonavem (Ben-avon, British, the headland above the river) is the modern Boulogne-sur-mer, and the district of Taberniæ is Terouanne, in which it is situated. Boulogne was the Bonona[53] of the Romans, and its Gallic name Ben-avon, exactly describes its situation on the summit of a hill. On the very edge of the cliff, a little east of the port, are the remains of the tower built by Caligula (A.D. 40), when he marched to the shore of the channel with an army of 100,000 men, boasting that he intended to invade the opposite coast of Britain, but contenting himself with gathering a few shells, which he called the spoils of the ocean. The tower is supposed to have been intended for a lighthouse, and its modern name La Tour d'Orde, a corruption of Turris Ardens, points it out as having been used for this purpose. A very good case is, however, made out for a site on the Roman Wall, in which case Patrick would be the son of one of the Roman colonists or defenders of the wall, and a native of Cumberland. In his epistle against Coroticus, S. Patrick tells us he was of an honourable family according to the flesh, his father having held the office of decurion, which conferred a certain amount of nobility. Clerks were not then forbidden to hold such offices. He calls the Romans his fellow citizens, and this circumstance, coupled with the fact, that the names of S. Patrick, of his father, and of his grandfather, are purely Latin, points to the conclusion that the family was of Roman extraction; but his mother, whose name was Conchessa, was the daughter of Erkbalius, or Ocbasius, (Erkbald?) a Frank.
S. PATRICK. After Cahier.
March 17.
His birth took place about the year 387, for at his consecration to the episcopate, a person divulged a fault he had committed thirty years before, when a boy of fifteen; and he was consecrated at the end of 431, or the beginning of 432; when the news of the death of Palladius reached him.
When S. Patrick was sixteen years old, Nial Navigiallach, or Nial of the Nine Hostages, an Irish king, in ravaging the coasts of Great Britain and Gaul, entered the port of Bonona, in 403, and carried off S. Patrick and many other youths captive. On being brought to Ireland, S. Patrick became the servant or slave of a man named Miliac, or Milcho, who lived in Dalrhidia, which is now comprised within the county of Antrim. Some say that he was a prince; others that he was a magus, that is, invested with a religious function; and others represent him only as a rich man. S. Patrick calls his master merely "a man," without adding anything concerning his situation in life. With that profound humility, which every line written by this truly great saint breathes, he tells us that he had been very careless about religion when a boy; but that, when he found himself in the misery of slavery, God opened his eyes to behold the wondrous things of His law. His occupation was to tend sheep on the wild brown bogs; and amidst snow, frost, or rain, he rose before daylight, that he might "prevent the day-break" with his prayers.[54]
One night, after he had been in service for six years, as he slept, he heard a voice cry to him, "Thou fastest well, and soon shalt return to thy country." Presently once more the voice said, "Behold, a ship is ready for thee." He tells this story himself. Moreover he heard that the ship was far off on the coast, a great many miles from where he then lived. So he betook himself to flight. "And by God's power," he adds, "I came to a good end;[55] and I was under no apprehension until I reached the ship. She was then clearing out and I asked for a passage. The master of the vessel angrily bade me not think of going with him. On hearing this I retired to the hut where I had been received and lodged, and on my way prayed. But, before I had finished my prayer, I heard one of the men shouting after me, 'Come along! they are asking for thee.' So I returned immediately. And they said, 'Come, we will take thee on trust, (i.e., on the chance of getting paid the fare on reaching Bononia); we are about to sail, and hope to reach land in three days.'"
They at once set sail, and reached the coast of Gaul in three days, at Treguier, in Brittany. They travelled for twenty-eight days through a country rendered desolate by the ravages of the Franks. Whilst on their way, he and his fellow travellers were near perishing for want of food; and then the master of the ship or merchant, who had received Patrick and given him a passage, and who was now travelling along the same road with his wares, exclaimed, "Christian! thy God is powerful. Pray for us, for we are starving." The saint desired them to turn with faith to the Lord, and he prayed, and suddenly a drove of swine appeared crashing through the bushes, and they chased and killed many of them, and halted two days to recover and refresh themselves. The merchants gave thanks to the God of Patrick, and shortly after, finding some wild honey, they gave him a part, saying, "This is an offering. God be thanked."
A very curious story of this journey is told by the saint in his Confession. Having feasted on the pork, after long hunger, the natural result was an attack of night-mare, that same night, which he says seemed to him in his dream like Satan rolling a great rock upon his chest. In an ecstasy of fear he screamed out "Elias, Elias!" and thereupon he says, "Lo! the splendour of the sun shone on me, and dispelled all the burden on me." Dr. Lanigan says this is evidence of his invoking a saint. There can be little doubt that every well-instructed Christian of the time would have invoked a saint, but it seems probable here that this was not an invocation of the prophet Elias, but an invocation common perhaps among the heathen and half-converted Roman settlers, of "Helios!" the sun, which had passed into an exclamation; and this will explain the passage which immediately follows about the sun at once shining upon him. Patrick at this time was not well instructed in Christianity, and he had been stolen as a thoughtless boy from his home, before his education was complete, or his mind had turned to the truths of Christianity. In his old age he related this anecdote of himself, but it is impossible to conclude from the context what he meant by the exclamation.