THE following account is given in the "Trepartite Life" concerning St.
Patrick's native town, and the country from which he was taken
captive:--
"Patrick, then, was of the Britons of Alcluid by origin. Calphurn was
his father's name. He was a noble priest. Potit was his grandfather's
name, whose title was a deacon. Conceis was his mother's name. She was
of the Franks, and a sister to St. Martin. In Nemthur, moreover, was
the man Patrick born. . . .
"The cause of Patrick's coming to Erin was as follows: 'The seven sons
of Fachmad, namely--the seven sons of the King of Britain--were on a
naval expedition, and they went to plunder Armoric Letha; and a number
of Britons of Strath-Cluaidh were on a visit with their kinsmen--the
Britons of Armoric Letha--and Calphurn, son of Potit, Patrick's father,
and her mother Conceis, daughter of Ocbas of the Gauls, that is of the
Franks, were killed in the slaughter in Armorica. Patrick and his two
sisters, viz. Lupait and Tigris, were taken prisoners, moreover, in
that slaughter. The seven sons of Fachmad went afterwards to sea,
having with them Patrick and his two sisters in captivity. The way they
went was around Erin, northwards, until they landed in the north, and
they sold Patrick to Miluic, son of Baun, that is, the King of
Dal-Araidhe.
"They sold his two sisters in Conaille Muirthemne. And they did not
know this. Four persons, truly, that purchased him. One of them was
Miluic. It was from this that he received the name Cothriage, for the
reasons that he served four masters. He had, indeed, four names" (W. M.
Hennessey's Translation of the "Trepartite Life").
The author of the "Trepartite Life" repeats the contradictory
statements of the Scholiast, namely, that St. Patrick was born at
Dumbarton and captured in Armorica, and it stands refuted by St.
Patrick himsel in his "Confession," who declares that his father hailed
from Bonaven, where the Roman encampment stood, and that he himself was
captured whilst residing at his father's villula, or country seat,
close by the town. Just as we are bound to credit St. Patrick's
"Confession;" the statements of the Scholiast, and of the author of the
"Trepartite Life," that he was simply on a visit to his relatives in
Armorica when captured, must be discredited.
Ignoring the fact that the author of the "Tripartite Life" and Probus
tell the same tale, the Archbishop of Tuam, in his excellent "Life of
St. Patrick," states "that the Scholiast on St. Fiacc whilst expressly
declaring that Nemthur, St. Patrick's birthplace, was in North Britain,
namely, Ail Cluade, adds that young Patrick, with his parents, brother
and sisters, went from the Britons of Ail Cluade over the Ictian Sea,
southwards, to visit his relatives in Armorica, and that it was from
Latevian Armorica that Patrick was carried off captive to Ireland. The
Scholiast here confounds the Armoric Britons of the Clyde with the
Armoric Britons of Gaul, or Letavia, who had no existence then at so
early a date. No doubt they were kindred Britons, but the name
Britannia and Britons were not at that time given to Armorica of Gaul"
(Appendix i., p. 585).
Nothing is here said by His Grace about Probus or the "Tripartite
Life," who agree with the Scholiast that the Saint was captured in
Armorica. When treating of Britannia in Gaul, it will be proved from
the "Sacred Histories of Sulpicius Severus" that Armorica was called
Britannia when the Council of Ariminium was held in the year 359. It is
evident, however, that the author of the "Tripartite Life" was firmly
convinced that St. Patrick was captured in Armorica, from the
description he gives of the flight of his captors: "The seven sons of
Fachmad went afterwards on the sea, having with them Patrick and his
two sisters in captivity. The way they went was northward around Erin,
until they landed in the north, and they sold Patrick to Miluic."
From this narrative it is evident that the captives were carried by the
fleet northwards around Erin until they arrived in the neighbourhood of
Lough Larne, Antrim, where St. Patrick was sold as a slave. The captors
afterwards sailed southwards and sold St. Patrick's sisters at Louth.
They must, therefore, as Father Bullen Morris surmises, have sailed
around the western coast of Erin after sailing away from Armorica. It
is clear, as the same writer does not fail to observe, that such a
course cannot fit in with the Dumbarton theory: "A voyage northwards
from the mouth of the Clyde would take the Irish fleet to the North
Pole" ("Ireland and St. Patrick," p. 26).
The Scholiast and the author of the "Tripartite Life" are of opinion
that St. Patrick was made captive by the seven sons of Fachmad, King of
Britain, who are represented as making a raid into Armorica. Jocelin
declares that the capture was made by pirates. The Second, Third, and
Fourth "Lives" are unanimous in stating that the Saint was captured by
the Irish Scots. St. Patrick's own words in the Epistle to Coroticus,
"Have I not tender mercy on that nation which formerly took me
captive?" leave no doubt as to his capture by the Irish Scots. Colgan
endeavours to harmonise both accounts by suggesting that the sons of
Fachmad were British exiles in Ireland, who fought under the standard
of King Niall when he invaded Armorica, and that they may have been the
actual captors of the Saint.