15.08.2013
Saint Patrick – A New Theory Of Origins Proposed by Wicklow Cleric
A new book by a Wicklow based Church of Ireland cleric presents evidence that St Patrick was from France and not Britain, as is commonly believed.. A four year search for evidence of the origins of our Patron Saint has led the Revd Marcus Losack to Brittany rather than Wales, Scotland or England. His hypothesis challenges our understanding of St Patrick and therefore the origins of the Irish Church, the author contends.
Based in Annamoe and a former rector of Newcastle, County Wicklow, Mr Losack believes his research has led him to the true homeland of St Patrick. His new book ‘Rediscovering Saint Patrick: A New Theory of Origins’ has recently been published by Columba Press and will be officially launched by Archbishop Michael Jackson in the Deanery of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, on October 24 at 6.30 pm.
Details of St Patrick’s early life have always been vague. It is accepted that he was captured from his home by pirates when he was a teenager and sold into slavery in Ireland. He escaped after seven years but returned later as Ireland’s famous apostle.
In his ‘Confession’, which is written in Latin, St Patrick mentions places that have never been clearly identified. However, Mr Losack has discovered a local tradition at Chateau de Bonaban, near St Malo in Brittany claiming that the first building on the site dated back to the late Roman period and belonged to St Patrick’s father, Calpurnius. Irish pirates landed nearby at Cancale, crept through a forest called Quokelunde, then attacked the estate and burned it to the ground. Tradition has it that the youngest son, Patrice, was the only member of his family to survive and that he was abducted and brought to Ireland.
At the time the area was called Bonavenna de Tiberio. Mr Losack says this name bears an uncanny resemblance to Bannavem Tiburniae which appears in St Patrick’s Confession as the location of his father’s house. He also believes that the Wood of Foclut, mentioned in the Confession could be a reference to the forest called Quokelunde. It has been thought that the Wood of Foclut, described as being beside the Western Sea, was in County Mayo, however, Mr Losack now challenges that and suggests that Patrick was referring to the forest that existed in the place where he was taken captive in a coastal region of north–east Brittany and not where he was held captive in Ireland.
Mr Losack’s research led him to the library in St Malo and the intriguing accounts of several of the early Breton historians, together with intriguing references that are preserved in the ancient ‘Lives’ of St Patrick which he feels add to the evidence that St Patrick was taken captive from Brittany. His contention that our current understanding of St Patrick’s origins are flawed and that the experts may have got it wrong is not entirely new. In the 1840s a French historian declared that the suggestion that St Patrick came from somewhere in Britain was a “gross historical error”. Dr John Lannigan, a magnificent Irish scholar who published an ‘Ecclesiastical History of Ireland’ in 1823 was also convinced that St Patrick was taken captive from a place on the continent.
“This book challenges our traditional understanding of St Patrick and therefore the origins of the Irish Church. It raises serious questions concerning the truth about St Patrick and therefore our traditional understanding of our own heritage and culture,” Mr Losack said. “If St Patrick was referring to Brittany rather than Britain when he used the Latin phrase ‘in Brittanniis‘ to describe his homeland then established academic translations of St Patrick’s Confession will need to be revised, as will much of what has been written about St Patrick.
He is now in communications with the new owners of the Chateau, Mesa Hotels and Resorts, hoping that a small archaeological excavation could be carried out at the site. If more remains from the late Roman period were found, this could be a significant further step towards confirming his theory.
‘Rediscovering Saint Patrick – A New Theory of Origins’ by Marcus Losack is published by Columba Press in Ireland and is now available as a paperback or ebook, directly from the publishers www.columba.ie, online through Amazon.com , or from all good bookstores.