St. Paul daily globe., 1892-03-13
STORY OF ST. PATRICK
His Personality as Related by
the Tongue Of Ancient
Tradition.
The Ideal as Drawn by Poets
and Pictured by Various
Artists.
How He Appeared as a Boy,
as a Beautiful Youth and
as an Old Man.
The Weight Of Evidence in
Favor of France as His
Native Place.

There has been much speculation
among historical writers as to the ma
tionalitv and pareRtage of st. Patrick.
The most general opinion on the Sub
jeet has allotted The birthplace of ,lhe
saint to a place called fitzpatrick, near
Dunbarton in Scotland, writes Pat
Grant in the Chicago lnter-Ocean. DR..
.Iaingan, in his exhaustive treatise on
Irish ecclesiastical history, thinks
the weight of evidence is in
favor of France as his native country,
and he gives the birthplace at or
near BouIogne-S -Sur-Mef. Probus, also
very ancient writer, assures us that st.
Patrick governed the diocese OF Bou-
logne as bishop before he set out for Ire
land. Cardinal Moran, who wrote an
article on the birthplace of st. Patrick
in the Dublin Review in 1880. states that
he was q Scotchman, and Father Hogan,
a learned Jesuit. inclineS to the same
opinion, while Cashel Hoey, we'll
known writer, says that he was the son
of a British official employed under the
Romans. who had previously achieved
the conquest Of England. In work of
rare historical value preserved iii the
library of Trinity college, Dublin, and
known as
The Book of Armagh.
It is Stated that he was born in Britain,
not far from the shores of the Irish sea,
and ST. Patrick himself, i'll one of the
fragmentary epiStleS which have de-
Bcended TO us from that misty and re-
mote period in which he lived, says:
II was born the son Of Calpurnlus, who
was of the village of BOnavOn Tha-
buria" mot far from the sea-. Further
more, the saint distinctively speaks of
himself in his "ConfeSsiOn' as being
latter few years again in Britain with
my parents" from which it appears that
he originally came from Britain, and
that, as has been stated by Cashel Hoey,
he and his parents resided there. The
venerable Oeugns, the Culdee, who
wrote long anterior to many OF these
authorities, also traces st. Patrlck'S
mother, ConeSsa, to British source,
while his biographer, Probus, who is ell
titled to exceptional weight OIL account
of the early period in which he lived "a.
u. 652), says: while as yet he (Pat-
rick was i'll this country with his
father. CalpurnluS, and his mother Con
assa, his brother, Ruchti, and his sister,
Mia, in their city, Arimuric "a Roman
camp, there took place great sedition
In these parts of the sons of Rethmit,
the king of Britain, devastating Arim-
uric and other adjoining places. and
killed Calpurnius and his wife, and car
rying away captiyeS their children,
Patrick and his brother, Ruchti, with
their sister, landed in Ireland. (Qiuta
Vita, cap. xiii While, therefore,
Nothing Is Positively known
of st. Patrick's exact birthplace, no au
thor claims him as an IriShman. The
probabilities are that he was the son OF
all English official who resided at for
mer Roman camp near Bath, and that |
the place whicn the SAINT speaks of as |
.3onaVon" is the river Avon, which |
runs into the Irish sea, as recorded |
in the book of Armagh, and which |
sea IN those early Saxon times
was visited by pirates who
carried the boy slave to Ireland. Pat
rick also, in his epistle to his friend
Coroticus, speaks Of the Irish as "a for
eign nation:' Gers exteral, and he in |
turn, according to the book of Armagh. |
was referred to by the pagan Druids of |
ancient Ireland, whom he was destined |
to suppIant in royal favor, as "a for
eigner coming from over the sea-" But |
whatever place or nation has had the
honor of his birth, whether France, |
England. or Scotland, he is essentially
the patron SAINT of Ireland, and
stands out after the long lapse of ages
as the most typical representative OF
both the piety and patriotism of its peo-
pie. What St. David is to the ancient
Cymric nation, what st. George is to
England, or st. Andrew to Scotland.
that st. Patrick is to Ireland and Irish
men.
or his youth little is known, but at
the age of sixteen, or about the year A.
u. 403, he and his sister were carried
captives to Ireland, the destination of
Patrick being in the northern part
of the island, where he was sep
arated from his sister, who was
located on the eastern coast. For six
wears the future missionary, like the
Prodigal Son of the New Testament,
was engaged in herding cattle and