ick, the son of
Kalburnius, and Conchessa is my mother.' St. Patrick was, therefore,
born in a town called Nemthur, which signifies a heavenly tower. This
town was situated in Campo Tabernise, which is called the Field of
Tents because, at one time, the Roman army pitched their tents there.
In the British tongue Campus Tabern is the same as Campus
Tabernaculorum.

"XV.--But the first cause of his coming to Ireland, and the sequence of
events which hurried him there, are not to be passed over in silence.
By the divine providence of God, it so happened that in his tender
years he should be led to that nation, so that in his youth he should
learn the language of the people, whose apostle he was afterwards
destined to become. At that period Irish fleets were accustomed to sail
over to Britain for the sake of plunder, and to bring back to Ireland
whomsoever they made prisoners. It chanced, therefore, that the
venerated youth, with his sister, named Lupita, should be taken
captives amongst others. Some have written that the Saint at the time
was but seven years of age. It seems to me, however, more credible what
he himself states: 'When I fell into captivity I was sixteen years of
age.' He was taken to Ireland and sold in the northern regions to four
brothers, whom he served with a simple and devout heart. On that
account he was called Cothraigh. But he had four names, for he received
the name of Suchet at baptism; he was called Magonius by Germanus,
Bishop; lastly, when he was elevated to the Episcopal dignity, he
received his fourth name, Patrick."

It is suggestive how the Armorican tradition seems to manifest itself,
either directly or indirectly, in nearly all the "Lives" of the Saint
which are considered the best; in St. Fiacc's, in the annotations of
the Scholiast, in the "Tripartite Life," in the Fourth "Life," and in
the Fifth by Probus. In the Fourth "Life" it is stated that both
parents of the Saint were Armorican Britons, and that St. Patrick,
except for the accident of his place of birth, was an Armorican Briton.
The author of the Fourth "Life," moreover, calls Calphurnius and
Conchessa Armorican Britons, which serves to demonstrate that Armorica,
even in the early years of St. Patrick, fell under the name of
Britannia, and that its inhabitants were called Britons.

In this "Life" is to be found the mistake of the Scholiast, and of the
other "Lives" who have adopted his suggestion, that Nemthur was the
name o