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 the "Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the
Four Masters," assures us in a note, under the year 405, that Niall of
the Nine Hostages was assassinated by the banished Prince Eochaidh at
Muir N'Icht, which the translator identifies as Bononia, or Boulogne-
sur-Mer. Keating, on the other hand, narrates that King Niall received
his mortal wound on the banks of the Loire. It is easy to reconcile the
apparent difference between the two accounts, if we assume that the
wounded Monarch was carried in a dying state to join the fleet which
lay at anchor in the fine bay which then formed the outer harbour of
Boulogne, and that he had at least the consolation of dying on board
his own ship.
Muir N'Icht, or Portus Ictius, then possessed the finest harbour in
northern Gaul. From the days of Julius Caesar, Portus Ictius, or the
harbour of Boulogne, was the port from which the Roman troops sailed to
Britain, and the harbour to which they steered on their return. On top
of Caligula's tower there was a lighthouse for the guidance of vessels
at sea. The very fact that King Niall made use of this harbour when he
raided Armorica in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, makes it
likely that he sailed into the same harbour when first invading that
country in the ninth year of his reign. The sons of the soldiers who
took part in the second raid were still alive; and the memories of both
expeditions were still fresh in the minds of the brave Irish Scots when
St. Patrick wrote his "Confession."
The records of both expeditions were undoubtedly read at the annual
Feast of Tara, when the Kings, nobles and learned were accustomed to
meet annually and examine the National records (Keating, pp. 337--388).
The triumphant march of devastation made by the Irish Monarch in the
ninth year of his reign, when he led his troops "from the walls of
Antoninus to the shores of Kent"; the successful raid into Armorica
which commenced with the capture of the Roman encampment at Haute
Ville, Boulogne, and ended in the plundering of the surrounding
country, must have been the burden of many a warlike song whenever the
Irish minstrels chanted the glorious triumphs of King Niall's
invincible troops. It is, therefore, but natural to suppose every man,
woman, and child in Ireland had often heard the name of Bonaven, where
the soldiers of King Niall stormed the encampment, and where the
ever-conquering Monarch expired.
St. Patrick, who, according to the "Scholiast," the Fifth and
Tripartite Lives, and Heating's "History" (p. 312), was captured in
Armorica, and who, according to Hersart de la Villemarque and Dr.
Lanigan, was taken captive at Boulogne, was well aware that every
Irishman would know the town to which he was referring when he declared
in his "Confession" that his father, Calphurnius, and consequently he
himself, hailed from the suburban district of Bonaven Taberniae, or
Bononia, where the Roman encampment stood.