"The author now ventures upon the bold attempt of annihilating St.
Patrick. It is an undoubted fact, that this saint is not mentioned in
any author, or in any work of veracity, in the fifth, sixth, seventh or
eighth centuries. His name is in Bede's _Martyrology_; but it is more
than probable that that martyrology is not Bede's: nor can it be
conceived that Bede, in his other works, should never notice the signal
service rendered by Patrick to the Roman church, and the signal
miracles wrought by him in its behalf, if he had ever heard of them;
for the old venerabilis was zealously devoted to that church and its
mythology."
The saint certainly vanishes into "an airy nothing," if we are to credit
the above authors. I have also consulted Ware, a Roman Catholic writer,
author of the _Antiquitates Hibernicæ_, and nowhere can I find a trace of
St. Patrick's birthplace, although he is frequently mentioned. In his
seventh chapter he says, "Sancti præcipui Hibernici Seculi quinti, qui
Euangelium in Hibernia prædicærunt, fuerunt Palladius, Patricius," and many
others. The twenty-sixth chapter entitled "Monasteriologia Hibernica, sive
Diatriba de Hiberniæ Coenobiis, in qua Origines eorum et aliæ Antiquitates
aperiuntur," gives the names and titles of the founders of monasteries, as
also their dates, and, in speaking of one of them, but in this case
specifying no date, relates a curious circumstance as to the building of a
church. It may perhaps interest your readers, and I will therefore quote
the passage (p. 212.):
"Sanctus Patricius construxit hoc coenobium Canonicis regularibus,
eique præfecit Abbatem S. Dunnium: Ecclesiam verò adjecit (juxta
Jocelinum Furnessensem), contra morem receptum, non ab Occidente in
Orientem, sed à Septentrione in Austrum protensam."
This nevertheless hangs upon the reality of a St. Patrick. In another part
of the same work it is said of a monastery (p. 219.):
"S. Dabeocum fundâsse ferunt Seculo 5, vivente S. Patricio. Alii S.
Patricium fundatorem volunt."
From these quotations it is clear Ware treated him as a real actor in Irish
ecclesiastical affairs; but the two first-named authors appear to set the
matter at rest.