ion of
St. Fiacc's ode:

I.

"At Nemthur, as our minstrels own,
Heaven's radiance first on Patrick smiled,
But fifteen summers scarce had thrown
A halo round the holy child,
When captured by an Irish band
He took their Isle for fatherland.
Succat by Christian birth his name,
Heir to a noble father's fame.
Calphurnius' son, of Potit's race,
And deacon Odis' kin and grace,
Six years of bondage he must bear
With faithful fast from heathen fare.
And Cothriagh now his name and due,
Who holding high allegiance true,
Yet served four little lords of earth
(God's servant he of forefold worth)
Till Victor bade him Milchu's slave
To fly across the freeman's wave.
He fled, but first upon the rocky shore
His footprint set a seal for evermore.

II.

Then far away beyond the seas,
In happy flight o'er many a land,
O'er many a mountain on he flees
To face Lethania's southern strand,
Nor rested long upon the road
Until he gained Germain's abode."

St. Fiacc states that the Apostle of Ireland was born at Nemthur--
Nemthur, as all commentators agree, is not the name of a town, but of a
tower. "Neam-thur Hebernica vox est quse coelestem, sive altam turrim
denotat." "Neamthur is an Irish word which denotes a heavenly, or a
high tower" (Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres, Tom i., p. 96--
O'Conor).

Assuming that St. Patrick was born in the suburbs, and close to the
town of Bononia, or Banaven, as it has already been proved from his
"Confession," St. Fiacc's declaration that his Patron was born at
Nemthur admits of a very lucid explanation. Nemthur was situated in the
suburbs and close to the town of Bonaven. St. Fiacc gives the name of
the district, but St. Patrick gives the name of the town near which he
was born.

Singularly enough Caligula's famous tower on the sea coast of Boulogne
was called Turris Ordinis by the Romans, but Nemtor by the Gauls, as
Hersart de la Villemarque clearly proves in his "Celtic Legend" (p.
213), and the tower itself has given its name to the locality where it
once stood, which is called even at the present time Tour d'Ordre--the
French translation of "Turris Ordinis."

The history of this tower, on account of its close connection with the
history of St. Patrick, cannot fail to be interesting. Caligula, or
Caius Caesar, who died A.D. 41, meditated a descent upon Britain, and
with that object marshalled his troops at Bononia. Fearful, however, of
the dangers and fatigues of a long campa