Clyde, in what is now the county of Dumbarton. His baptismal name
was Succath. His father was Calphurnius, a deacon, son of Potitus,
who was a priest. His mother's name was Conchessa, whose family may
have belonged to Gaul, and who may thus have been, as it is said she
was, of the kindred of St. Martin of Tours; for there is a tradition
that she was with Calphurnius as a slave before he married her.
Since Eusebius spoke of three bishops from Britain at the Council of
Arles, Succath, known afterwards in missionary life by his name in
religion, Patricius (pater civium), might very reasonably be a
deacon's son.

In his early years Succath was at home by the Clyde, and he speaks
of himself as not having been obedient to the teaching of the
clergy. When he was sixteen years old he, with two of his sisters
and other of his countrymen, was seized by a band of Irish pirates
that made descent on the shore of the Clyde and carried him off to
slavery. His sisters were taken to another part of the island, and
he was sold to Milcho MacCuboin in the north, whom he served for six
or seven years, so learning to speak the language of the country,
while keeping his master's sheep by the Mountain of Slieve Miss.
Thoughts of home and of its Christian life made the youth feel the
heathenism that was about him; his exile seemed to him a punishment
for boyish indifference; and during the years when young enthusiasm
looks out upon life with new sense of a man's power--growing for
man's work that is to do--Succath became filled with religious zeal.

Three Latin pieces are ascribed to St. Patrick: a "Confession,"
which is in the Book of Armagh, and in three other manuscripts;
{10a} a letter to Coroticus, and a few "Dieta Patricii," which are
also in the Book of Armagh. {10b} There is no strong reason for