GIBBON narrates that about the middle of the fourth century the "sea
coast of Gaul and Britain were exposed to the depredations of the
Saxons" (vol. i., P- 739); and Bertrand, in his "History of Boulogne,"
admits that the city was plundered by the Saxons in the year 371, but
that the invaders spared Caligula's tower and lighthouse on account of
its usefulness for their safe navigation. The silence of local history
concerning two raids made by the Irish Scots into Armorica in the years
388 and 402 is not surprising, seeing that French writers admit that
there is practically no history of Armorica or more than a century
after the Saxon raid in the year 371. Gibbon, however, in his history
of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," narrates that "the
hostile tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the
King of the World, suspended their domestic feuds, and the barbarians
of the land and sea, the Picts, the Scots, and the Saxons, spread
themselves with rapid and irresistible fury from the walls of Antoninus
to the shores of Kent" (vol. i., p. 744). Keating supplements this
information by describing the two raids made by the Irish Scots into
Armorica; the first of which took place in the year 388, and the second
in 402, or about that time. This Irish historian is considered by
Professor Stokes to be a most trustworthy authority. "Keating," writes
the Professor, "had access to the Munster Documents, which are now
lost. He gives a long account of the Irish invasions of England and
France exactly corresponding to the statements of the Roman historian,
Amianus Marcellinus, and to the 'Annals of the Four Masters'" ("Ireland
and the Celtic Church," p. 38, note).
Of the raids of King Niall into Armorica the first is the more
interesting, for it proves, first, that St. Patrick was born in the
year 373, and, next, that he was captured neither in North Britain, nor
Wales, but in Armorican Britain.
To escape from these conclusions, Doctor Lanigan, who held that St.
Patrick was born in the year 387, writes as follows: "I find in Keating
but one expedition of Niall to the coast of Gaul, during which he says,
in another place, that St. Patrick with two hundred of the noblest
youth were brought away. . . . This event occurred in the latter end of
Niall Naoigiallach's reign, and not as early as the ninth year of it.
. . . We have no authority," continues Lanigan, "for his having visited
Gaul at any time until the period already given, and which is clearly
marked in Irish history. Our Saint's captivity may be assigned to 403,
and to a time not long prior to King Niall's death. Thus the date of
his birth and captivity, considering the circumstances now mentioned,
help to confirm each other, and, combined with his age at consecration,
authorizes his birth in 387" ("Eccl. Hist, of Ireland," vol. i., pp.
137, 138).
Contrary to what Dr. Lanigan has just stated, a close study of
Keating's "History" will prove that King Niall made two raids into
Armorica, the first in the ninth and the second in the twenty-seventh
year of his reign, and the account of the two expeditions is clear and
unmistakable. "There is an old manuscript in vellum, exceedingly
curious, entitled 'The Life of St. Patrick,' which treats likewise of
the lives of Muchuda Albain and other Saints, from which I," writes
Keating, "shall transcribe a citation that relates to St. Patrick.
"Patrick was a Briton born and descended from religious parents," and
in the same place is the following remark: "The Irish Scots, under
Niall the King, wasted and destroyed many provinces in Britain in
opposition to the power of the Romans. They attempted to possess
themselves of the northern part of Britain, and, at length, having
driven out the old inhabitants, these Irish seized upon the country and
settled in it." The same author (of the manuscript) upon this occasion
remarks that from henceforth Great Britain was divided into three
kingdoms, that were distinguished by the names of Scotia, Anglia, and
Britia.
This ancient writer likewise asserts that when Niall, the hero of the
Nine Hostages, undertook the expedition for settling the tribe of the
Dailraida in Scotland, the Irish fleet sailed to the place where St.
Patrick resided; "At this time the fleet out of Ireland plundered the
country in which St. Patrick then lived, and, according to the custom
of the Irish, many captives were carried away from thence, among whom
was St. Patrick, in the sixteenth year of his age, and his two sisters,
Lupida and Darerca; and St. Patrick was led captive into Ireland in the
_ninth_ year of the reign of Niall, King of Ireland, who was the mighty
monarch of the kingdom for seven-and-twenty years, and brought away
spoils out of England, Britain, and France."
"By this expression it is supposed," continues Keating, "that Niall of
the Nine Hostages waged war against Britain or Wales, and perhaps made
a conquest of the country; _and it is more than probable_ that, when
the Irish Prince had finished his design upon the kingdom of Wales, he
carried his arms in a fleet to France and invaded the country at the
time called Armorica, but now Little Brittany, and from thence he led
St. Patrick and his two sisters into captivity.
"And this I am rather induced to believe, because the mother of St.
Patrick was sister of St. Martin, the Bishop of Tours in France; and _I
have read in an ancient Irish manuscript, whose authority I cannot
dispute, that St. Patrick and his two sisters were brought captive into
Ireland from Armorica, or Brittany_, in the kingdom of France. It is
evident likewise that when Niall, the King of Ireland, had succeeded
with the Britons, he despatched a formidable fleet to plunder the coast
of France, and succeeded; and that he carried away numbers of captives
with him into captivity, one of which, it is reasonable to suppose, was
the young Patrick, who was afterwards distinguished by the name of the
Irish Saint.
"Niall, encouraged by the number of his captives and the success of his
arms in France, _resolved upon another expedition_, and accordingly
raised a grand army of his Irish subjects for that purpose, and sent a
commission to the General of the Dalraida in Scotland to follow him
with his choicest troops and assist him in the invasion. Niall having
prepared a sufficient number of transports and a full supply of
provisions, weighed anchor with his victorious Irish, and _steering his
course directly to France_, had the advantage of a prosperous wind, and
in a few days landed upon the coast. He immediately set himself to
spoil and ravage the country near the river Loire. Here it was that the
General of the Dalraida found him, and both armies being joined, they
committed dreadful hostilities, which obliged the inhabitants to fly
and leave the country to the mercy of the invaders.
"The commanding officer of the Dalraida in this expedition was Gabhran,
the son of Dombanguirt, who brought over with him Eochaidh, the son of
Ena Cinsalach, King of Leinster. This young Prince had been formerly
banished into Scotland by Niall, but resolving to be revenged when
opportunity offered, he desired to be admitted as a volunteer in the
service, and was by that means transported into France. The King of
Ireland being informed of his arrival, would on no account permit him
to visit him, nor suffer him in his presence. But Eochaidh soon found
an opportunity to execute his design; for one day, perceiving the King
sitting on the banks of the Loire, he hid himself secretly in an
opposite grove on the other side, and shot Niall through the body with
an arrow; the wound was mortal, and he died instantly" ("General
History of Ireland," pp. 311--313). According to O'Donovan's
translation of "Muir N'Icht," Niall lived long enough to reach his
fleet at Boulogne, where he expired.
Notwithstanding, then, Lanigan's positive assertion, it is quite
evident from Keating's history that King Niall twice invaded Armorica;
first, after he had devastated the Island of Britain in the ninth year
of his reign, when St. Patrick was captured, and again in the twenty-
seventh year of his reign, when he sailed directly from Ireland to Gaul
and expired at Boulogne.
The events may be briefly stated as follows: Niall succeeded Criomthan
in the year 376. In the ninth year of his reign, or A.D. 385, he
prepared an expedition against the Picts, who were harassing the Scots
settlers in North Britain. Having completed his task, he overran
England, and finished his raid by crossing over to Armorica, before
returning triumphant to Ireland with St. Patrick amongst his captives.
Now St. Patrick, who was born in the year 373, passed his thirteenth
and fourteenth years while King Niall was chastising the Picts in
Scotland and ravaging Britain; but he had reached his fifteenth year in
the year 388, when the Irish fleet sailed from Armorica to Ireland. The
words of the Saint in his Epistle to Coroticus: "Have I not tender
mercy towards the nation which formerly took me captive," place the
Saint's capture by the Irish Scots beyond doubt, whilst they confirm
Keating's declaration that King Niall captured St. Patrick in his first
raid to Armorica.
The capture of the Saint in Armorica is confirmed by the Scholiast, by
the Tripartite Life, and by Probus. St. Patrick, as we have already
seen, was captured while residing at his father's "villula" in the
suburban district of Bonaven Tabernise, or Bononia, where the Roman
encampment stood. This account harmonises with the "Celtic Legend,"
which narrates that at that period, "when Bononia was invaded by the
Irish pirates, a mutiny broke out among the soldiers in the encampment,
which rendered the city an easy prey to the invaders. Calphurnius, the
Roman officer defending Caligula's tower, was slain, and his son
Patrick was carried into captivity" ("La Legende Celtique per le
Vicomte Hersart de la Villemarque," p. 8).
According to the "Book of Sligo," as has been seen already, the Apostle
of Ireland first saw the light of day on Wednesday, April 5th; not on
Wednesday, April 5th, 372, as Usher imagined, for, as Ware points out,
April 5th did not fall on Wednesday, 372, but on Wednesday, 373. There
is overwhelming evidence to prove that St. Patrick died in the year
493, having attained the 120th year of his age. Usher, Ware, the
Tripartite Life, the "Vita Secunda," the "Vita Quarta," the "Leabhar
Braec," the "Annals of the Four Masters," the "Annals of Innisfail,"
the "Book of Howth," the "Annals of Tigernasch," the "Chronicon
Scotorum," the "Annals of Boyle," Marianus Scotus, Nennius, Geraldus
Cambrensis, Florence of Worcester, and Roger of Wendover all maintain
this. The year of the Saint's birth may, therefore, be accurately
obtained by subtracting 120 from 493, the date of his death. This
process will show that St. Patrick was born in 373, and captured in the
very year of King Niall's raid into Armorica, 388, when the Saint had
attained his fifteenth year.
The great age of the Saint at the time of his death, although
marvellous, is not incredible. In Chambers' "Book of Days," quoted by.
Father Bullen Morris, instances are given of 2,003 centenarians, 17 of
whom lived 150 years. Father Montalto, a Jesuit, who was born in 1689,
was present at the Church of the Gensu at Rome in the 125th year of his
age, when Pius VII. re-established the Society of Jesus. In 1881 the
photograph of Gabriel Salivar was sent to the Vatican as the oldest
inhabitant of the world. It was proved on convincing evidence that he
had reached 150 years. Thomas Parr, as is well known, attained the age
of 152 years and nine months before he bade adieu to the world.