of the Villula where St. Patrick was born

ST. PATRICK'S PARENTAGE.

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).

Moreover, if the word "a deacon" in the "Book of Armagh" is the true reading, it must surely be a matter for surprise that St. Patrick, who sternly enforced the law of celibacy in Ireland as part of the discipline of the Catholic Church, should describe himself as the son of a deacon without either comment or explanation, and more especially when we remember that the Council of Elvira, A.D. 305, and the Council of Aries, A.D. 314, had enforced the laws of celibacy—"The severe discipline of the Councils of Elvira and Aries," writes Alzog, "obtained the force of law and became general throughout the Western Church" ("Universal Church History," vol. i., chap, iv., pp. 280, 281). The practice of clerical celibacy, therefore, existed in the Western Church probably before Calphurnius was born, and certainly before he was old enough to get married.

Calphurnius was admittedly a decurion, or Roman officer. Now Pope Innocent I., in his Letter to Exuperius, Bishop of Toulouse, in the year 405, in answer to a number of questions submitted to him by the Bishop, stated that there was an impediment to the ordination of men who had served in the army on account of the loose morality prevalent in the camp. As the Pope was simply laying down the rules of discipline already existing in the Church, Calphurnius, being a Roman officer, could not have been ordained without the removal of the impediment. All this tends at least to prove that we should read "decurion" for "deacon" in the "Confession."

According to the "Book of Sligo," St. Patrick was born on Wednesday (373), baptized on Wednesday, and died on Wednesday, March 17th, A.D. 493.

The Different Birthplaces assigned to St. Patrick

BARONIUS and Matthew of Westminster declare that St. Patrick was born in Ireland, but scarcely any writer of the present day ventures to express that view. O'Sullivan, Keating, Lanigan, and many French writers contend that he was a native of Armoric Gaul, or Britain in France. Welshmen are strongly of opinion that Ross Vale, Pembrokeshire, was the honoured place; whilst Canon Sylvester Malone attributed the glory to Burrium, Monmouthshire, a town situated, as Camden narrates, near the spot where the River Brydhin empties itself into the Usk. The Scholiast, Colgan, and Archbishop Healy seem to have no doubt as to the Saint's birth at Dumbarton. Ware believes that a town that once stood almost under the shadow of the crag possessed a stronger claim; Usher and the Aberdeen Breviary are equally positive that Kilpatrick was the town. Cardinal Moran, on the other hand, has convinced himself that St. Patrick first saw the light of day at a place that once stood near the present town of Hamilton, just where the river Avon discharges itself into the Clyde. Some English writers have strongly advocated the claims of a Roman town named Bannaventa that once stood near the present site of Davantry, Northamptonshire. Professor Bury, in his "Life of St. Patrick," had the doubtful honour of inventing a new birthplace for the Saint; he tells us that St. Patrick was born at a Bannaventa, "which was probably situated in the regions of the Lower Severn."

ST. PATRICK WAS NOT BORN IN WALES.

The belief that St. Patrick was born in Ross Vale, Pembrokeshire, is founded principally on the supposed acceptance of that view by Camden, and on an old tradition to the effect that St. Patrick, having completed his missionary labours in Ireland, founded a monastery at Menevia and died there.

As the authority of the learned Camden carries with it great weight, it will here be not out of place to quote his own declaration, which is as follows: "Beyond Ross Vale is a spacious promontory called by Ptolemy Octopitarum, by the Britons Pebidiog and Kantev-Dewi, and by the English St. David's land. . . . It was the retiring place and nursery of several Saints, for Calphurnius, a British priest—as some have written, I know not hew truly—begot there St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland" ("Britannia," vol. ii., p. 32). The same author, in another place, gives expression to his own views on the subject, to which, indeed, he does not seem to have devoted very serious study. "St. Patrick," he writes, "was a Briton born in Clydesdale, and related to St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, and he was a disciple of St. Germanus" ("Britannia," vol. ii., p. 326).

The Ross Vale theory has, in truth, as little in its favour as the old, but groundless, tradition that St. Patrick founded a monastery and ended his days at Menevia. This is plainly contradicted by the Saint's assertion that after he had landed as a missionary in Ireland he never once left, and ended his days in the land of his adoption. "Though I could have wished to leave them" (the Irish), writes the Saint in his "Confession," "and had been desirous of going to Britain, as if to my own country and parents, and not that alone, but even to Gaul to visit my brethren, and see the face of the Lord's Saints. But I am bound in the spirit, and He who witnesseth all will account me guilty if I do it, and I fear to lose the labour which I have begun; and not I, but the Lord Christ, who