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 of a town, and not of a tower or district, as may be gathered from
the history of the tower itself.

The Second, Third, and Fourth "Lives" of the Saint, however, "are
filled with fables," according to Canon O'Hanlon. "Their acts seem to
have been either borrowed from one another, or are copies of versions
taken from the same source" ("Lives of the Irish Saints," March 17th).



THE SIXTH "LIFE OF ST. PATRICK" BY JOCELIN.

"THERE was a man named Calphurnius, the son of Potitus, a presbyter, by
nation a Briton, living in the village Taburnia (that is the Field of
Tents), near the town of Empthor, and his habitation was nigh unto the
Irish Sea. This man married a French damsel named Concuessa, niece of
the blessed Martin, Archbishop of Tours, and the damsel was elegant in