Did Irish Pirates Abduct St. Patrick (and Sell Him Into Slavery)?

Did you know Saint Patrick wasn’t originally from Ireland?

Some scholars think he was from Brittany. But the more widely accepted origin story places him in Roman Britain.

Of course, that doesn’t really narrow it down, as some scholars argue he was from what is now England—either Northamptonshire or Cumbria.

Others peg Ireland’s most prominent patron saint to the aptly named Kilpatrick in Scotland.

And still others grant that Glamorgan in Wales is St. Patrick’s ancestral home.

Precise location aside, we know this much for sure:

In his Confession, which is recorded in the 9th-century Book of Armagh but was most likely penned by Patrick in the 5th-century, the Apostle of Ireland gives the name of his family’s villa as Bannavem Taburniae.

Which isn’t all that helpful because there is no modern British location with that name.

Or is there?

We’ll get into it. 

Pssst. You can watch a video adaptation of this essay right here. Text continues below.

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Stolen From Britain, Brought to Ireland

It was from near the Romano-British villa of Bannavem Taburniae that Patrick was allegedly abducted by Irish raiders.

Specifically raiders from the Gaelic Dál Riata Kingdom which, at its height, would cover part of County Antrim in Northern Ireland and much of Scotland’s western seaboard.

Patrick was taken to the former territory, where he would be enslaved by the king/chieftain Miliucc.

Or so the story goes.

For the next six years, he’d herd sheep in the hills of Antrim, somewhere between Lough Neagh, Ireland’s largest lake, and Sliabh Mis (i.e., Slemish Mountain).

Granted, some argue Patrick’s six years of enslavement took place farther west, in what is now County Mayo.

Regardless, It was a hard life, which was not made easier by the harsh weather.

Fortunately, God had Patrick’s back. 

While in his younger years he’d been a self-described sinner who did not know the true God, his enslavement in Ireland would make a true believer of him yet.

To quote Patrick’s Confession:

“After I arrived in Ireland, I tended sheep every day, and I prayed frequently during the day. More and more the love of God increased, and my sense of awe before God. Faith grew, and my spirit was moved, so that in one day I would pray up to one hundred times, and at night perhaps the same. I even remained in the woods and on the mountain, and I would rise to pray before dawn in snow and ice and rain. I never felt the worse for it, and I never felt lazy – as I realise now, the spirit was burning in me at that time.”

All of this prayer culminated in a voice telling Patrick that his ship was ready. All he had to do was walk two hundred miles to get to it (gee, thanks God) and bada-bing bada-boom, he’d be free.

Patrick’s Great Escape (From Slavery)

Okay, maybe that was a premature bada-bing, because after the two hundred-mile trek, Patrick would have to deal with pagans asking him to suck their breasts, otherwise they wouldn’t let him aboard their ship.

FYI: the breast-sucking thing was apparently a common way of demonstrating that you were now under someone’s protection. 

Patrick, for his part, was like, nuh-uh, no thanks, I love God too much to be sucking your breasts. And fortunately, the pagans let him on board anyway.

The motley crew reached land after three days, but this was followed by 28 days of wandering in the wilderness, during which time they ran out of food and the ship’s captain was like, hey, you’re always talking about God and this Jesus fella, why don’t you put your money where your mouth is and miracle us up some grub?

(Paraphrasing.)

So Patrick prayed for food aaand a herd of pigs wandered right up to them. Dinner was served.

And because they were so impressed with His divine delivery service, all of the pagans gave thanks to God.

(But they didn’t tip.)

Then that night Patrick was tested by Satan who sort of pinned him down but after a bit of praying Jesus helped him out of it.

And flash forward a few years, and Patrick would make it back to Britain and be reunited with his family. 

What. A. Story.

It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

Early medieval history scholar Roy Flechner, for one, certainly thinks so. 

Saint Patrick: Slave or Slave-Owner?

In his groundbreaking paper, “Patrick’s reasons for leaving Britain,” which was published in the journal Tome in 2011, Flechner painted a very different portrait of Patrick.

For starters, Patrick wasn’t abducted by Dal Riata raiders and sold into slavery in Ireland. Instead, he absconded to Ireland to avoid inheriting a job he didn’t want, and may have even brought some of his own slaves with him to use as currency.

Ironically, this narrative largely hinges on what Patrick himself wrote about his family, as he noted that his grandfather, Potitus, was a priest and that his father, Calpurnius, was a Decurion turned deacon.

Now, a Decurion was a local senator, whose duties included collecting taxes. And while at first glance that may seem like a prestigious role within the Roman Empire, it really wasn’t.

To quote Flechner:

“In the troubled era in which Patrick lived, which saw the demise and eventual collapse of Roman government in Britain in 410, discharging the obligations of a Decurion, especially tax-collecting, would not only have been difficult but also very risky.”

The reason why this is relevant to Patrick’s story is because a Decurion was an inherited position, passed from father to son.

And one of the only ways out of it was to join the clergy, which is exactly what Patrick’s father did, his intention being to saddle his son with the job.

The Real Reason Patrick Went to Ireland

So here was a sixteen-year-old Patrick, too young to join the clergy himself, and facing the daunting prospect of having to become a Decurion.

So what does he do?

He f*cks off to Ireland.

And because Ireland doesn’t have a monetary economy at this time, Patrick brings along some of his family’s slaves in order to pay his way.

To quote Flechner:

“It may seem strange that a Christian cleric of Patrick’s stature would own slaves, but in late antiquity and the early middle ages the church was a major slave owner – early medieval Irish legal texts regulate the church’s ownership of slaves.

“The only objections to slavery in this period were cases in which Christian slaves were owned by non-Christian masters. Patrick is known to have attempted to free enslaved captives, but only those that were Christians he had converted himself.”

As for Patrick’s story of spending six years himself as a slave, this was likely an allusion to Exodus 21:2, which states:

“When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.”

Note: This same six-year time limit is given in Jeremiah 34:14.

And of course the whole wandering-in-the-wilderness and being-tested-by-Satan portion of Patrick’s escape story has obvious biblical parallels as well (re: the Exodus myth and the Temptation of Christ narrative).

Now, we could give Patrick the benefit of the doubt and assume he merely enhanced his story, or finessed the details a bit, but according to Flechner, the more likely explanation is that he invented it whole cloth.

And I quote:

“The traditional story that Patrick was kidnapped from Britain, forced to work as a slave, but managed to escape and reclaim his status, is likely to be fiction: the only way out of slavery in this period was to be redeemed, and Patrick was never redeemed. The traditional legend was instigated by Patrick himself in the letters he wrote, because this is how he wanted to be remembered.

“Escaped slaves had no legal status and could be killed or recaptured by anyone. The probability that Patrick managed to cross from his alleged place of captivity in western Ireland back to Britain undetected, at a time when transportation was extremely complicated, is highly unlikely.”

Speaking of getting back to Britain…

Bannaventa, England: Patrick’s Ancestral Home?

If we assume Patrick’s kidnapping story was fictional, pinpointing where he grew up becomes a lot simpler.

See, it’s been known for a while now that the name of the Romano-British fortified town of Bannaventa in Northamptonshire, England bears a striking resemblance to Bannavem Taburniae, the place name Patrick mentioned in his Confession.

But because Bannaventa is located smack dab in the middle of Britain, a good fifty miles from the nearest coast, many scholars have historically ruled it out as a candidate for Patrick’s childhood home.

After all, if Patrick didn’t live near the sea, how could he have been kidnapped by pirates?

Unless, of course, he wasn’t.

But what do you think about this theory? Let me know in the comments below.

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Want to learn more about Saint Patrick? Check out…

Saint Patrick in Your Pocket

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