"AND on a certain night I heard in sleep a voice saying to me: 'Thou
fasteth well; fasting thou shalt return to thy own native country'"
(patria). "And again, after a little, I heard a response, saying to me:
'Behold thy ship is ready'" (St. Patrick's "Confession").
St. Fiacc suggests, Probus asserts, and Professor Bury admits that St.
Patrick, after his captivity, fled to Gaul, and not to Great Britain.
Gaul, therefore, and not the Island of Britain, was St. Patrick's
native land.
If either Northern or Southern Britain were St. Patrick's native
country, it seems incredible that the-Saint should be required to
travel a distance of 200 Roman miles, from the North-East to the West
of Ireland, in order to embark for Britain, when Lough Larne is but 30
nautical miles from Scotland,, and not more than 15 miles from Mount
Slemish, and while Belfast and Strangford Loughs were within easy
distance of the place of his captivity, and more suitable for
embarkation than any seaport in the West of Ireland if North Britain
were his destination.
A voyage from the west coast of Ireland to the Clyde would take the
Saint a very unnecessary journey of 200 miles by land to the port of
embarkation, and from thence an equally unnecessary voyage by sea, from
the west around the northern coast of Ireland, past North Antrim--the
county from which he started,--in order to reach Dumbarton, Kilpatrick,
or Hamilton on the Clyde.
There are some indications which suggest that St. Patrick, when
returning to his native country, sailed from Killala Bay. Although
Killala is only 130 miles distant from Mount Slemish, as the crow
flies, the Saint would have had to travel around Slieve Gallion, and
make a circuit around the mountains of Tyrone, which stood directly
across the path of a direct route. Lough Erne, in the County of
Fermanagh, and Lough Gill, in the County of Sligo, and the inland flow
of Killala Bay would add to the obstacles to be encountered, sufficient
when all taken together to account for the 53 miles difference between
130, as the crow flies, and 183 English or 200 Roman miles which had to
be travelled before he joined his ship.
Moreover, the woods of Foclut were situated within five miles of
Killala, and St. Patrick in his "Confession" speaks in familiar terms
of the inhabitants who dwell in the neighbourhood of the woods, whose
voices sounded familiar to his ears when far away in Gaul.
This, indeed, would suggest that the Saint had made acquaintance with
them during his flight, for he distinctly states when alluding to the
place of his embarkation: "I had never been there, nor did I know any
one that lived there" ("Confession"). His acquaintance with the
inhabitants of Foclut must have been made after he had journeyed there,
and previous to his embarkation.
Readers of the "Confession" will remember how touchingly he described
the cordial manner in which he was welcomed by his relatives, who, to
use the Saint's own words, "received me as a son, and besought me that
then at least, after I had undergone so many tribulations, I should
never depart from them again. Then in the middle of the night, a man
who seemed to come from Ireland, whose name was Victoricus, the bearer
of innumerable letters, one of which he handed to me; and I read the
beginning of the letter, entitled 'The Voice of the Irish.' As I was
reading the beginning of the letter, I thought that I heard in my mind
the voices who dwelt near the woods of Foclut, which is near the
Western sea, and they cried out: 'We entreat thee, O holy youth, to
come and walk still with us.' My heart was deeply touched; I could read
no more; and I awoke" ("Confession").
Being then in his thirtieth year when he had this vision, St. Patrick
could not be called a youth. He was a youth, however, at the time when
he escaped from his first captivity, and became acquainted with the
inhabitants of Foclut, who appealed to him in the vision as the youth
they had formerly known. They, consequently, besought him to come and
abide with them as he had done formerly, for this is the obvious
meaning of the words "We entreat thee, O holy youth, to come and walk
still with us."
It is probable, therefore, that St. Patrick sailed back from Killala
Bay, the nearest port to the woods of Foclut. It may readily be
surmised that if the saintly youth, so full of holy zeal, had to remain
for a few weeks, or even a few days, whilst the ship was completing its
cargo, he would have time to make friendly acquaintance with the
inhabitants near the woods, who doubtless received the friendless
stranger with kind hospitality.
This gives a simple solution of the difficulty proposed by Professor
Bury, who, relying on St. Patrick's friendly acquaintance with the
inhabitants of Foclut, states that Croagh Patrick, which is not far
from Foclut, and not Mount Slemish, was the scene of the Saint's
captivity.
If the ship's cargo consisted chiefly of Irish wolfhounds, so greatly
appreciated in Gaul, as Professor Bury suggests (p. 30), it would take
more than "a day or two" to collect a sufficient number for
exportation. There is nothing stated in the "Confession" to limit the
time that St. Patrick had to wait before the ship, sailed away from
port.
Moreover, in the solitude of Mount Slemish, absorbed in prayer and in
guarding his flock, the saintly shepherd had no opportunity of making
any acquaintance whilst in slavery. "After I had come to Ireland I was
daily attending sheep, and I frequently prayed during the day, and the
love of God and His faith and fear increased in me more and more, and
the spirit was stirred; so that in a single day I have said as many as
a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that I remained
in the woods and on the mountain. Even before the dawn I was roused to
prayer in snow, in ice and rain, and I felt no injury from it, nor was
there any want of energy in me, as I see now, because the spirit was
then fervent in me." These certainly are not the words of a youth who
was in the habit of journeying from Croagh Patrick to Foclut to make
the acquaintance of the inhabitants. It is, on the contrary, easy to
imagine what a powerful effect a Saint, so stirred by the Spirit of God
as his words express, would have on all with whom he came in contact
after he had been freed from his duties as a shepherd. St. Patrick's
history of himself suggests at least that his acquaintance with others,
except those of his master's household, must have been made after his
escape from captivity.
Professor Bury, however, is the latest convert to the opinion that St.
Patrick fled to Gaul, and not to the Island of Britain, after his
escape from captivity in Ireland. The Professor narrates that
considerable regions in Gaul were a desolate wilderness, according to
contemporary rhetorical and poetical evidence, from A.D. 408 to 416,
and, therefore, it might be argued, Gaul suits the narrative of St.
Patrick in his "Confession." He and his companions reached land three
days (_post triduum_) after they left the coast of Ireland, so that our
choice lies between Britain and Gaul. The data do not suit Britain. We
cannot imagine what inland part of Britain they could have wished to
reach which would necessitate a journey of twenty-eight days _per
desertum_. Suppose the crew disembarked on the south coast of Britain,
and that the southern regions had been recently ravaged by the Saxons,
yet a journey of a few days would have brought them to Londinium, or
any other place they could have desired to reach from a south port.
Moreover, if they had landed in Britain, Patrick, when he once escaped
from their company, could have reached his home in a few days, whereas
he did not return for a few years. His own words exclude Britain.
Having mentioned his final escape from the traders, he proceeds:
"iterum post paucos annos in Britanniis eram cum parentibus meis." I
believe that "post paucos annos" has been interpreted by some in this
sense: "a few years after my capture." But this is an unnatural
explanation. The words naturally refer to what immediately precedes,
namely, his escape. The only thing that can be alleged in favour of
Britain is the intimation in the dream that he would "quickly come to
his native land" (_cito iturus ad patriam tuam_). "This, of course,"
continues the Professor, "represented his expectations at the time of
his escape. But the very fact that he fails to say that the promise was
literally fulfilled, and glides over the intervening years in silence,
strongly suggests that his expectation was not realised" (Appendix C,
pp. 339--340).
Professor Bury, being a Protestant, treats the Divine admonition given
to the Saint as a dream; not as the voice of God speaking to His
servant, but as an ardent desire on the Saint's part which met with
disappointment. Catholics, on the contrary, fully believe that God's
promise was fulfilled, and that St. Patrick did actually return to his
own native country, which the Professor very satisfactorily proves was
Gaul and not Britain. The Armorican theory of St. Patrick's birthplace
affords a very natural and easy explanation of the difficulty which the
Saint's return to Gaul from captivity must present to all who try to
prove that he was a native of Great Britain.