Bolougne-Sur-Mer | Page 3

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 commanded me to come and remain with them for the

rest of my life, if the Lord prolongs it, and keeps me from all sin before
Him." This statement, which was made by St. Patrick just before his
death, when he wrote the "Confession," could never have been
volunteered if he had once left the country where the Lord had
commanded him to remain for the rest of his life.
THE SCOTCH THEORIES ON THIS SUBJECT.
The Scholiast and Colgan, who identify the Crag of Dumbarton with
the Nemthur of the Saint's nativity, are faced by the unanswerable
difficulty that though Nemthur may be the name of a tower, or may be
the name of the district in which the tower stood, it cannot be the name
of a town. The Saint in his "Confession" states that his father hailed
from the suburban district of a town called Bonaven Tabernise, where
he possessed a country seat, from which he (the Saint) was carried off
into captivity. Bonaven, therefore, is rightly regarded as St. Patrick's
native town. St. Fiacc simply states that St. Patrick was born at
Nemthur, but he does not assart that Nemthur was a town, otherwise he
would be at variance with his Patron, who plainly gives us to
understand that he was born at Bonaven Tabernise, The only way of
reconciling this apparent conflict of evidence is to assume that St.
Fiacc is giving the name either of the tower or the district in which St.
Patrick was born, while the Saint is giving the name of the town of
which he was a native, but not the name of the district which was
honoured by his birth.
Dr. Lanigan, however, objects "that no sensible writer, wishing to