Editorial note — THE BIRTHPLACE OF SAINT PATRICK. BY J. CASHEL HOEY.

[Footnote 124: Gibbon says ("Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," v. vi.) "At this period the meanest subjects of the Roman empire assumed the illustrious name of Patricius, which by the conversion of Ireland has been communicated to a whole nation." It is supposed that the name was conferred on St. Patrick in consideration of his parting with his nobility for a motive of charity, as he mentions in his Epistle to Coroticus. But he was certainly not the first of the name. Patricius was also the name of St. Augustine's father, born fully a century before.]