Bolougne-Sur-Mer | Page 6

history of every old town in the kingdom,

and Horsley's "Britannia Romana," which performs the same task,
make no mention of any other Bannaventa, whilst old maps and
itineraries are equally silent, the Professor seemingly rests satisfied
with his own mere conjecture, that there may have been another
Bannaventa, which was probably situated in the regions of the lower
Severn. Surely a speculation of this kind may well be called
unwarranted.
ST. PATRICK WAS A NATIVE OF ARMORIC GAUL.
Colgan, when he published his "Trias Thaumaturga" in 1647, admitted
that there was "A constant tradition amongst the inhabitants of that
country that St. Patrick was a native of Armorican Britain, which
tradition several Irishmen endorse," (In Britannia Armorica regione
Gallise natum esse vetus est traditio incolarum istius terrae cui nonulli
suffragantur Hiberni.) (Appendix 5, p. 2.)
Don Philip O'Sullivan, who published "Patriciana Decas" in 1621,
strongly upheld this view. Attempts, however, have more recently been
made to prove that St. Patrick was a native of Scotland, but there
undoubtedly existed a tradition in favour of the belief that St. Patrick
came from Gaul to Ireland, and this view is firmly held by Keating and
Lanigan, two of our ablest Irish historians.
St. Patrick narrates in his "Confession" that he was born in the suburbs
of a town called Bonaven, where there was a Roman encampment, and
that, when a youth in his fifteenth year, he was taken prisoner by the
Irish Scots, "the nation to whom he showed tender forgiveness." The
very year of his capture corresponds with the raid of Niall of the Nine
Hostages into Armorica. As the Irish Scots invaded that country just
when St. Patrick had attained his fifteenth year, and as the Saint
declared that he had been taken prisoner by men of the nation which he
had converted, it is more than probable that he was taken prisoner
during that raid.
As Bononia, or Boulogne-sur-Mer, was called Bonauen by the Gaulish
Celts, and as the "v" and "u" are convertible in Gaelic, the Bonauen of
the Gaulish Celts and the Bonaven of St. Patrick's "Confession" may

well be one and the same place. Indeed, there are arguments which
seem to place their identity beyond reasonable doubt.
St. Fiacc declares that the Apostle of Ireland was born at Nemthur.
Now, Nemtor was the name given by the Gaulish Celts to Caligula's
tower in the suburbs, and close to the City of Bononia, or Boulogne. St.
Fiacc, therefore, gives the name of the district--for the district about
Nemthur was named after the prominent landmark in its midst, and St.
Patrick the name of the town in the suburbs of which he was born.
According to the Celtic legend, Calphurnius was a Roman officer in
charge of the tower, and was slain on the occasion when his son
Patrick was made prisoner by the Irish Scots.
A close examination, however, of the "Confession" and of the old Latin
lives of the Saint, will, it seems to us, securely determine which of the
four theories--the Scotch, the Welsh, the English, or the French--
concerning St. Patrick's native country, carried with it the greatest
amount of probability.

BONAVEN TABERNIAE WAS WELL KNOWN TO THE IRISH SCOTS.
THIS will appear evident from a close study of the "Confession": "Ego
Patritius, peccator, rustissimus et minimus omnium fidelium, et
contemptabilissimus apud plurimos, patrem habui Calphurnium
diaconum, filium quondam Potiti, presbyteri, qui fuit vico Bonaven
Taberniae, villulam enim prope habuit ubi ego in capturam dedi.
Annorum tune eram fere XVI."
"I, Patrick, a sinner, the most uncultured and humblest of all the
Faithful, and, in the eyes of many, the most contemptible, had for father
Calphurnius, a deacon, and the son of Potitus, a priest, who hailed
from the suburbs of Bonaven, where the encampment stood, for he
possessed a little country seat close by, from whence I was taken
captive when I had almost attained my sixteenth year."
The primary meaning of "vicus" is a district, or a quarter of a city, and

"villula" signifies "a little country seat" (Smith's "Latin and English
Dictionary"). The district of the city of Bonaven alluded to was
evidently suburban, because the house in which Calphurnius and his
family dwelt was a "little country seat," which was, nevertheless, close
to ("prope") the town.
The Saint must have had some special reason for writing the name of
his native town in Gaelic, while the rest of the "Confession" is written
in Latin. There was a very important town in Armorican Britain at the
time, which was called Bononia by the Romans, and Bonauen by the
Gaulish Celts (Hersart de la Villemarque Celtic Legend, pp. 3, 4). In
the days of Julius Caesar its harbour was called Portus Ictius
("Dictionnaire Archeologique et Historique du Pas de Calais").
O'Donovan, who translated