Patrick," translated by E. L. Swift).
Jocelin's "Life of St. Patrick" deserves the harsh sentence pronounced
upon it by Canon O'Hanlon: "It is incomparably the worst" of all the
Latin "Lives" of the Saint. Jocelin represents Conchessa, St. Patrick's
saintly mother, as a niece of St. Martin of Tours, and, almost in the
same breath, suggests that either St. Martin's brother, or his brother-
in-law, sold Conchessa and her elder sister to Calphurnius, a Briton of
Clydesdale, as slaves. Although Conchessa was sold as a slave "at the
command of her father," she is said to have succeeded in captivating
and marrying her master Calphurnius.
Whilst Ware and Usher sneer at Jocelin's statement that Calphurnius and
Conchessa took the vow of celibacy and devoted themselves to a
religious life immediately after St. Patrick's birth, they eagerly
adopt Jocelin's statement that the Apostle of Ireland was born at
"Empthor," and that the home of The Sixth "Life," Calphurnius was "not
far from the Irish Sea," although this untrustworthy author stands
alone among the ancient writers in making this assertion.
Although Jocelin is responsible for the statement that St. Patrick fled
to the island of Britain after his escape from captivity in Ireland,
the subsequent three days' voyage by sea and twenty-eight days' journey
by land before reaching his home are fatal to Jocelin's contention, as
Professor Bury clearly demonstrates.
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