7 Palladius
There were two readings in the MSS. of Muirchu as to the place of the death of Palladius: in Britonum finibus and in Pictorum finibus. It seems probable (see my “Tradition of Muirchu’s Text,” p. 205) that the author wrote Britonum (so Lib. Arm.), but that in one copy this was corrected to Pictorum from another source, presumably the same source which supplied W and Vit. Trip. with the details about Palladius. We may conclude, I think, that Pictorum represents the genuine tradition, and that Muirchu, taking it to refer to the Picts of north Britain—as was natural—substituted Britonum. But it seems most extraordinary that Palladius should have sailed off to the Picts of north Britain, seeing that he was ordained bishop for Ireland. I think we should interpret the land of the Picts or Cruithne (V. Trip. loc. cit., hitírib Cruithnech) to mean Dalaradia, the land of the Picts in Ireland. As I have pointed out in cap. iv., the assumption that there were Christian communities in this part of the island makes Patrick’s work there at the beginning of his bishopric more intelligible.396
Professor Zimmer’s theory that Palladius and Patrick were one and the same person (a theory which had been already maintained by Schoell and Loofs397) is at variance with the distinct tradition, and does not account for the change of name.398 It is based upon a paragraph which was added, probably by the Armagh scribe Ferdomnach, to his copy of Tírechán (Rolls ed. p. 333), where it is stated that Palladius was also called Patricius. It is also stated that Palladius suffered martyrdom among the Scots, ut tradunt sancti antiqui. This is at variance with W and V. Trip. which state that he died of disease. Muirchu says simply “died.” The same notice says that Patrick was sent by Celestine. This paragraph cannot carry any weight; it is not supported by the earlier sources.
But why, we must ask, should any one have invented the assertion that Palladius was also called Patricius? The answer seems to be that the two dates for Patrick’s death, the true 461 and the false 493, led, in the eighth century, to the belief in a second Patricius. This phantom is called “the other Patrick” in one of the interpolated stanzas in the hymn Genair Patraicc; and he came to be distinguished as senex Patricius (Ann. Ult. and Chron. Scot. 457) or Sen Patraicc (Calendar of Oengus, August 24).399 One attempt to give this fictitious personage a reality may have been to identify him with Palladius.400 Many wild and worthless speculations have been founded on this duplication of Patrick (see, for instance, Shearman’s chapter on the “History of the Three Patricks” in Loc. Patr. pp. 395 sqq.; Olden, Church of Ireland, Appendix A, and the article on Patrick in the Dictionary of National Biography, which is vitiated by the Sen Patraicc delusion). Another attempt to place the second Patrick was to connect him with Glastonbury, and thus account for the mediaeval Glastonbury tradition that the true Patrick was an abbot of that monastery (so Ussher, followed by Petrie, Tara Hill, p. 73).401 But there is no evidence that the Glastonbury story has any foundation or is older than the tenth century. It is to be observed that the date August 24, given in martyrologies as the day of Old Patrick, cannot be alleged as an argument for his existence. In the Mart. of Tallaght (ed. Kelly), p. xxxii, we find two Patricks under this date:
Patricii Abb. ocus Ep. Ruisdela.
Patricii hostiarii ocus Abb. Airdmacha.
It is clear that there was an obscure but historical Patrick, abbot of Rosdela (near Durrow), whose day was August 24; and that his name was the motive for placing “Old Patrick” here. Compare the glosses in the Calendar of Oengus.402 Armagh also wanted to appropriate “Old Patrick,” and so he appears in some of the lists of its abbots.