The different birthplaces assigned to St. Patrick

Rev. William Fleming
1907
The different birthplaces assigned to St. Patrick

Baronius and Matthew of Westminster declare that St. Patrick was born in Ireland, but scarcely any writer of the present day ventures to express that view.

O’Sullivan, Keating, Lanigan, and many French writers contend that he was a native of Armoric Gaul, or Britain in France.

Welshmen are strongly of opinion that Ross Vale, Pembrokeshire, was the honoured place; whilst Canon Sylvester Malone attributed the glory to Burrium, Monmouthshire, a town situated, as Camden narrates, near the spot where the River Brydhin empties itself into the Usk.

The Scholiast, Colgan, and Archbishop Healy seem to have no doubt as to the Saint’s birth at Dumbarton.

Ware believes that a town that once stood almost under the shadow of the crag possessed a stronger claim; Usher and the Aberdeen Breviary are equally positive that Kilpatrick was the town.

Cardinal Moran, on the other hand, has convinced himself that St. Patrick first saw the light of day at a place that once stood near the present town of Hamilton, just where the river Avon discharges itself into the Clyde.

Some English writers have strongly advocated the claims of a Roman town named Bannaventa that once stood near the present site of Davantry, Northamptonshire.

Professor Bury, in his “Life of St. Patrick,” had the doubtful honour of inventing a new birthplace for the Saint; he tells us that St. Patrick was born at a Bannaventa, “which was probably situated in the regions of the Lower Severn.”

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