Boulogne-Sur-Mer / St. Patrick's Native Town

by William Fleming

Facing the site of the present town there was an island called Elna, and on it was built the ancient town of Gessoriac, which was connected with the mainland by a bridge. Realising the future importance of the place both for naval and military purposes, Caesar commissioned Pedius, a native of Bononia, in Italy, to lay out a town on the declivity of the Grande Rue, leading to Haute Ville, as the upper town and the hill leading to it are called at the present day. (Bertrand's "History of Boulogne-sur-Mer," pp. 17, 18. "Walkernaer's Geography," vol. i., p. 454).

The walls of the present fortifications of Haute Ville, built in the thirteenth century, rest on the ancient foundations of the old Roman encampment. This fact was proved at the time when a tunnelling was made for the railway from Boulogne to Calais under Haute Ville ("Dictionnaire Historique et Archeologique du Pas de Calais," vol. i, p. 22). The circuit of the present fortifications, about 700 yards square, present to-day the appearance pf the old Roman encampment. "The camp of a Roman legion," writes Gibbon, "presented all the appearance of a fortified city. As soon as the place was marked out, the pioneers carefully levelled the ground and removed every impediment that might interrupt its perfect regularity. It forms an exact quadrangle, and we might calculate that a square of 700 yards was sufficient for the encampment of 20,000 Romans, though a similar number of our troops would expose to an enemy a front of more than treble its extent. In the midst of the camp the pretorium, or general's quarters, rose above the others; the cavalry, the infantry, and the auxiliaries occupied their respective stations; the streets were broad and straight, and a vacant of 200 feet was left on all sides between the tents and the ramparts. The rampart itself was usually twelve feet high, and defended by a ditch twelve feet in depth, as well as in breadth. This important labour was performed by the legionaries themselves, to whom the use of the spade and the pick-axe was no less familiar than the sword and the pilum" ("Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," vol. i., p. 27.) This gives a faithful description of the Roman encampment (Castra Stativa) at Boulogne, which is described by St. Patrick as Bonaven Tabernise, or Bononia, where the Roman encampment was pitched. Bononia, according to Bertrand's "History of Boulogne," was regarded by the Romans as their "principal dockyard" in Northern Gaul; and Suetonius, in his "Lives of the Twelve Caesars," describes it "as the port from which the Roman legions successively departed for Britain" (p. 283, note).

Many err in supposing that Gessoriac and Bononia were one and the same town, originally called Gessoriac, and later, that is to say during the reign of Constantine the Great, known as Bononia. It is true, however, that during that Emperor's reign Gessoriac also came to be called Bononia.

It is well to observe that the Morini, or inhabitants of the coast in the neighbourhood of Boulogne, were converted to Christianity by St. Firmin about the close of the second century; and that St. Fusian built a chapel on the banks of the River Liane, which flows through Boulogne, in the year 275.

St. Patrick, in his "Confession," represents himself and the fellow-citizens of his youth as Christians who had not observed the Commandments of God, and who had not been obedient to their priests. At that time the Northern Britons were pagans; St. Ninian, who flourished about the year 400, was the first missioner who preached the Gospel to the Dalraida and Southern Picts. They could not, therefore, have been described in the year 388, when St. Patrick was made captive, as Christians who had ceased to practise their religion. "I knew not the real God," writes St. Patrick, "and I was brought captive to Ireland with many thousand men, as we deserved, for we had forgotten God and had not kept His Commandments, and were disobedient to our priests, who admonished us for our salvation. And the Lord brought down upon us the anger of His Spirit, and scattered us amongst many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where now my humble self may be witnessed among strangers" ("Confession").

[St. Patrick made Captive by Niall of the Nine Hostages]

GIBBON narrates that about the middle of the fourth century the "sea coast of Gaul and Britain were exposed to the depredations of the Saxons" (vol. i., P- 739); and Bertrand, in his "History of Boulogne," admits that the city was plundered by the Saxons in the year 371, but that the invaders spared Caligula's tower and lighthouse on account of its usefulness for their safe navigation. The silence of local history concerning two raids made by the Irish Scots into Armorica in the years 388 and 402 is not surprising, seeing that French writers admit that there is practically no history of Armorica or more than a century after the Saxon raid in the year 371. Gibbon, however, in his history of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," narrates that "the hostile tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the World, suspended their domestic feuds, and the barbarians of the land and sea, the Picts, the Scots, and the Saxons, spread themselves with rapid and irresistible fury from the walls of Antoninus to the shores of Kent" (vol. i., p. 744). Keating supplements this information by describing the two raids made by the Irish Scots into Armorica; the first of which took place in the year 388, and the second in 402, or about that time. This Irish historian is considered by Professor Stokes to be a most trustworthy authority. "Keating," writes the Professor, "had access to the Munster Documents, which are now lost. He gives a long account of the Irish invasions of England and France exactly corresponding to the statements of the Roman historian, Amianus Marcellinus, and to the 'Annals of the Four Masters'" ("Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 38, note).

Of the raids of King Niall into Armorica the first is the more interesting, for it proves, first, that St. Patrick was born in the year 373, and, next, that he was captured neither in North Britain, nor Wales, but in Armorican Britain.

To escape from these conclusions, Doctor Lanigan, who held that St. Patrick was born in the year 387, writes as follows: "I find in Keating but one expedition of Niall to the coast of Gaul, during which he says, in another place, that St. Patrick with two hundred of the noblest youth were brought away. . . . This event occurred in the latter end of Niall Naoigiallach's reign, and not as early as the ninth year of it. . . . We have no authority," continues Lanigan, "for his having visited Gaul at any time until the period already given, and which is clearly marked in Irish history. Our Saint's captivity may be assigned to 403, and to a time not long prior to King Niall's death. Thus the date of his birth and captivity, considering the circumstances now mentioned, help to confirm each other, and, combined with his age at consecration, authorizes his birth in 387" ("Eccl. Hist, of Ireland," vol. i., pp. 137, 138).

Contrary to what Dr. Lanigan has just stated, a close study of Keating's "History" will prove that King Niall made two raids into Armorica, the first in the ninth and the second in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, and the account of the two expeditions is clear and unmistakable. "There is an old manuscript in vellum, exceedingly curious, entitled 'The Life of St. Patrick,' which treats likewise of the lives of Muchuda Albain and other Saints, from which I," writes Keating, "shall transcribe a citation that relates to St. Patrick.