lural, whilst in the
Bollandist's copy of the "Confession" the name is printed once in the
singular and twice in the plural. St. Jerome uses the singular always
when referring to Britannia; and St. Bede, in his "History," uses the
plural and singular indiscriminately. Whenever Britannia is mentioned,
the context alone can guide us in distinguishing which Britain is
meant. ("Ireland and St. Patrick," by the Rev. Bullen Morris, pp. 24,
25).

St. Patrick also mentions Gaul in the plural ("Gallias"), for although
the whole country was subdivided into three separate nationalities--the
Gauls, the Aquitanians, and the Britons--as Sulpicius Severus had
already mentioned, the three provinces were called Gallise, or the
Gauls, by the Romans. Galliae in the plural, therefore, either meant
the whole country or any one of its sub-divisions, and the context
alone could determine which province was meant.

Having these facts in mind, it is easy to interpret the words of St.
Patrick: "Though I should have wished to leave them, and had been ready
and very desirous of going to Britain [Britanniis], as if to my own
country and parents; and not that alone, but to go even to Gaul
(Gallias) to visit my brethren, and to see the face of the Lord's
Saints, and God knows how ardently I wished it but I was bound in the
Spirit, and He Who witnesseth will account me guilty if I do so--and I
fear to lose the results of the labour which I have begun. And not I,
but the Lord Jesus Christ, Who commanded me to come and remain with
them for the rest of my life--if the Lord so will it, and keeps me from
every evil way, that I should not sin before Him" ("Confession").

St. Patrick's relatives resided in the Gaulish province of Britain, and
the disciples of St. Martin--"the Lord's Saints"--lived at Marmoutier
in the province of Gaul. St. Patrick's natural desire was first to
visit his relatives in Armorican Britain, and next to renew his
friendship with the followers of St. Martin at Marmoutier, but God had
decreed that he should spend all the rest of his days in the land of
his adoption.

Gaul was not only the name of the whole country, which embraced three
provinces--Gallia, Aquitania, and Britannia--it was also the name of
one of the provinces. As Gaul in its widest sense was a different
country from the Island of Britain, so the province of Gaul was quite
distinct from the province of Armoric Britain. The Gauls, Aquitanians,
and Britons, all posse