ST. MARY'S, MOORFIELDS,
LONDON, E.C.
CONTENTS.
[St. Patrick's Parentage]
[The Different Birthplaces assigned to St. Patrick]
[Bonaven Taberniae was well known to the Irish Scots]
[History of the Town Bonaven, or Bononia]
[St. Patrick made Captive by Niall of the Nine Hostages]
[St. Patrick after his Captivity returns to (Gaul) his Native Country]
[St. Fiacc's Nemthur was situated in the Suburbs of Boulogne]
[St. Fiacc describes St. Patrick's Flight from Ireland to Armorica]
[The Scholiast practically admits St. Patrick's Birth in Armorica]
[The "Trepartite Life" falls into the Same Error]
[All that the Second and Third "Lives" testify]
[The Fourth "Life"]
[The Sixth "Life of St. Patrick," by Jocelin]
[The Fifth "Life," by Probus, proves that St. Patrick was born in Bononia]
[St. Patrick's Flight to Marmoutier described by Probus]
[Britain in Gaul St. Patrick's Native Country]
[Britanniae in the Plural not appropriated to Great Britain]
[St. Patrick calls Coroticus, a British Prince, "Fellow Citizen"]
[Summary]
[The Site of the Villula where St. Patrick was born]
ABOUT the middle of the fourth century a noble decurion named Calphurnius espoused Conchessa, the niece of St. Martin of Tours. Heaven blessed their union with several children, the youngest of whom was a boy, who received at his baptism the name of Succath, which in the Gaelic tongue signifies "valiant."
Jocelin is responsible for the statement that the parents of the future Apostle of Ireland took, by mutual consent, the vow of celibacy after St. Patrick's birth, and that Calphurnius, like St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Hilary, and St. Germanus, who were all married men, "closed his days in the priesthood" (chap, ii., p. 2). "There were thousands of priests and Bishops," as Dr. Dollinger observes, "who had sons before their ordination" ("History of the Church," vol. ii., p. 23, note).
There are others, however, like Father Bullen Morris, who are of opinion that St. Patrick's declaration in the "Confession" that his father was "a deacon" is a mistake on the part of the copyist for "decurion," and, as a proof of this contention, they point to the words made use of by the Saint in his Epistle to Coroticus, which is admittedly genuine: "I am of noble blood, for my father was a decurion. I have bartered my nobility—for which I feel neither shame nor sorrow—for the sake of others." It is difficult to reconcile this statement with the assurance given in the "Confession" that his father was a humble deacon. "It is inconceivable," as Father Bullen Morris argues, "that the Saint, sprung from a noble family, should base his claim to nobility on the fact that his father, Calphurnius, was a deacon. On the other hand, the theory that Calphurnius was a Roman officer fits in with both statements of the Saint" ("St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," p. 285, Appendix).
The same author gives another reason for calling in question this part of the text of the "Confession" in the "Book of Armagh." A scribe made an addition to the genealogy of St. Patrick as recorded in the Book, writing on the margin "Son of Odisseus"; and these words are actually introduced into the text by Dr. Whitley Stokes, in his edition of the "Confession," without either note or comment. It is easy to imagine, therefore, that ancient Celtic writers, with their passion for genealogies, should tamper with the ancestors of St. Patrick. Nicholson, a distinguished Irish scholar, was, of opinion that the addition "a deacon" was mere guesswork on the part of the copyist, and wrote "incertus liber hic"—"the book is here unreliable" ("St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," Appendix, pp. 286—288).