It must, however, be acknowledged that there is a considerable amount of obscurity about the meaning of the words, which are so confidently interpreted as signifying that the Apostle of Ireland was a native of Great Britain. But the words as they stand cannot be fairly assumed to prove that St. Patrick was a "fellow countryman" of the soldiers of Coroticus, unless they prove with equal force that the Romans were of the same nationality as the soldiers of Coroticus. The quotation proves too much and, therefore, it proves nothing.
HAVING given the different theories concerning the native country of St. Patrick, and having faithfully quoted all that the Seven old Latin "Lives" of the Saint have narrated on this subject, and given our reasons for accepting the Armoric theory as the most reasonable solution of the problem, it will be advisable to give a brief summary of the arguments brought forward to prove that St. Patrick was an Armorican Britain, born at Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Boulogne-sur-Mer, or ancient Bononia, was called by the same name, "Bonaven," as the town in which St. Patrick implies that he was born. Boulogne possessed a Roman encampment, and it was, therefore, Bonaven Taberniae, mentioned in the "Confession."
Caligula's tower, on the north-eastern cliffs, in the town and within the suburbs, was called "Turris Ordinis" by the Romans, but "Nemtor" by the Gaulish Celts, as Hersart de la Villemarque states in his "Celtic Legend."
It is certain that Niall of the Nine Hostages made use of the Port of Boulogne when he invaded Armorica in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, and that he died at that port after his assassination.
It is probable that Niall sailed to Boulogne when invading Armorica on the first occasion, for he was carrying his arms into the same country, of which Boulogne was the principal port, and the only one used by the Romans when invading England.
The return "of Niall" from his first expedition into-Armorica with captives, including St. Patrick, on board in the year 388, corresponds precisely with the fifteenth year of St. Patrick, who was born in the year 373. This fact is not only testified by Keating, but by Hersart de la Villemarque in his "Celtic Legend," who narrates that Calphurnius, St. Patrick's father, was a Roman officer in charge of Nemtor, near which his family resided in a Roman villa, and that Calphurnius was slain, and St. Patrick made captive by a hostile fleet that came from Ireland.
As Nemtor was not only the name of the tower, but the district of the tower, and situated within the suburbs of Bonaven, St. Fiacc's account of his patron's birthplace, which simply gives the name of the district, and St. Patrick's statement that his home was in the suburban district of Bonaven, harmonise together.
The Scholiast and the author of the Trepartite "Life," by admitting that the Saint was captured in Armorica, annul their assertion that he was born in Scotland, because St. Patrick distinctly states that his family hailed from Bonaven Tabernise, or Boulogne, and that he was captured while residing at his father's villula. The Scholiast and Tripartite "Life" consequently admit that Bonaven Taberniae was situated in Armorica.