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Calphurnius espoused Conchessa, the niece of St. Martin of Tours.
Heaven blessed their union with several children, the youngest of
whom was a boy, who received at his baptism the name of Succath,
which in the Gaelic tongue signifies "valiant."
Jocelin is responsible for the statement that the parents of the future
Apostle of Ireland took, by mutual consent, the vow of celibacy after St.
Patrick's birth, and that Calphurnius, like St. Gregory of Nyssa, St.
Hilary, and St. Germanus, who were all married men, "closed his days
in the priesthood" (chap, ii., p. 2). "There were thousands of priests
and Bishops," as Dr. Dollinger observes, "who had sons before their
ordination" ("History of the Church," vol. ii., p. 23, note).
There are others, however, like Father Bullen Morris, who are of
opinion that St. Patrick's declaration in the "Confession" that his father
was "a deacon" is a mistake on the part of the copyist for "decurion,"

and, as a proof of this contention, they point to the words made use of
by the Saint in his Epistle to Coroticus, which is admittedly genuine: "I
am of noble blood, for my father was a decurion. I have bartered my
nobility--for which I feel neither shame nor sorrow--for the sake of
others." It is difficult to reconcile this statement with the assurance
given in the "Confession" that his father was a humble deacon. "It is
inconceivable," as Father Bullen Morris argues, "that the Saint, sprung
from a noble family, should base his claim to nobility on the fact that
his father, Calphurnius, was a deacon. On the other hand, the theory
that Calphurnius was a Roman officer fits in with both statements of the
Saint" ("St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," p. 285, Appendix).
The same author gives another reason for calling in question this part
of the text of the "Confession" in the "Book of Armagh." A scribe made
an addition to the genealogy of St. Patrick as recorded in the Book,
writing on the margin "Son of Odisseus"; and these words are actually
introduced into the text by Dr. Whitley Stokes, in his edition of the
"Confession," without either note or comment. It is easy to imagine,
therefore, that ancient Celtic writers, with their passion for genealogies,
should tamper with the ancestors of St. Patrick. Nicholson, a
distinguished Irish scholar, was, of opinion that the addition "a
deacon" was mere guesswork on the part of the copyist, and wrote
"incertus liber hic"--"the book is here unreliable" ("St. Patrick, Apostle
of Ireland," Appendix, pp. 286--288).
Moreover, if the word "a deacon" in the "Book of Armagh" is the true
reading, it must surely be a matter for surprise that St. Patrick, who
sternly enforced the law of celibacy in Ireland as part of the discipline
of the Catholic Church, should describe himself as the son of a deacon
without either comment or explanation, and more especially when we
remember that the Council of Elvira, A.D. 305, and the Council of
Aries, A.D. 314, had enforced the laws of celibacy--"The severe
discipline of the Councils of Elvira and Aries," writes Alzog, "obtained
the force of law and became general throughout the Western Church"
("Universal Church History," vol. i., chap, iv., pp. 280, 281). The
practice of clerical celibacy, therefore, existed in the Western Church
probably before Calphurnius was born, and certainly before he was old

enough to get married.
Calphurnius was admittedly a decurion, or Roman officer. Now Pope
Innocent I., in his Letter to Exuperius, Bishop of Toulouse, in the year
405, in answer to a number of questions submitted to him by the Bishop,
stated that there was an impediment to the ordination of men who had
served in the army on account of the loose morality prevalent in the
camp. As the Pope was simply laying down the rules of discipline
already existing in the Church, Calphurnius, being a Roman officer,
could not have been ordained without the removal of the impediment.
All this tends at least to prove that we should read "decurion" for
"deacon" in the "Confession."
According to the "Book of Sligo," St. Patrick was born on Wednesday
(373), baptized on Wednesday, and died on Wednesday, March 17th,
A.D. 493.
THE DIFFERENT BIRTHPLACES ASSIGNED TO ST. PATRICK
BARONIUS and Matthew of Westminster declare that St. Patrick was
born in Ireland, but scarcely any writer of the present day ventures to
express that view. O'Sullivan, Keating, Lanigan, and many French
writers contend that he was a native of Armoric Gaul, or Britain in
France. Welshmen are strongly of opinion that Ross Vale,
Pembrokeshire, was the honoured place; whilst Canon Sylvester
Malone attributed the glory to Burrium, Monmouthshire, a town
situated, as Camden narrates, near the spot where the River Brydhin
empties itself into the Usk. The Scholiast, Colgan, and