A book by a Church of Ireland clergyman is challenging the traditional story of St Patrick and his background.
It has been a long held belief that Ireland’s patron saint had come from somewhere in Britain with Wales, Scotland and South West England the most likely places of his birth.
Was St Patrick from France?
However, in a new book, ‘Rediscovering Saint Patrick: A New Theory of Origins’, author Rev Marcus Losack says there is strong evidence that he came from Brittany in France.
Scholars don’t have a detailed knowledge of St Patrick but in the text, ‘St Patrick’s Confession’ he writes his own account of his life.
Folklore in Brittany says that St Patrick’s father, who was a Scottish nobleman, was the first person to own a house on the site of the Chateau de Bonaban near St Malo.
When Rev Losack visited the chateau he learned that the site it was built on contained remains dating back to the Roman times.
At the time St Patrick’s father is said to have moved there, the place was known as Bonavenna de Tiberio.
Patrick’s text seems to name places in Brittany
Rev Losack told the Irish Independent: “I was dumbfounded. In ‘St Patrick’s Confession’ he told us he was taken captive when Irish pirates attacked his father’s house at ‘Bannavem Tiburniae’ in Latin.”
The place names are undoubtedly similar and other areas mentioned in St Patrick’s text also bear a resemblance to place names within the vicinity of the Chateau de Bonaban.
The author is hoping that an archaeological excavation will be carried out on the chateau which could help to confirm his theory.
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