Saint Patrick & Names along the Antonine wall

[Nathan Ross]

The Antonine wall was a former area of Roman colonisation.

Was it, though? I don't know of any Roman coloniae north of Hadrian's Wall. A few of the Antonine Wall forts had vici - Castlecary did, I think - but they were only occupied for a short period of time in the 2nd century. Coin evidence tells us only that the Romans had trade links with the area.

it would be a place that those wishing to leave the Roman empire would go to... I think if I were a Christian living in St.Albans at that period I would be considering moving elsewhere.

Albanus was a military martyr, executed for refusing his military oath iirc, and if he existed at all he probably died under Severus. Crucially, he is the only known Roman martyr from Britain - and there are very few from northern Gaul either. The various persecutions of the 2nd and 3rd centuries were not enforced to any degree in Britain or the west: Constantius Chlorus was believed to be sympathetic to Christians anyway, and only took the mildest steps against them in AD303-304 (removing the doors of churches, for example).

So I suggest there would be no reason for any Christians in the west to flee from imperial persecution, and certainly not for them to cross the frontier into barbarian country (however 'friendly' the barbarians!).

"...in the town of Bannaventa Berniae, for he had a little villa nearby, where I conceded capture..."

The 'little villa' (villula) is quite telling too - wherever this Bannauem place was, it had to have (in the early-mid 5th century) not only an established Christian clergy, with priests and deacons, and civic structure, with decurions, but also to be sufficiently settled as to support small villa estates (evidence for which is almost nonexistent in the far north). I really don't think the Romanised fringe around Strathclyde would have boasted such things.

All this points towards a settled, secure and Romanised district - precisely the sort of place Irish sea raiders would have wanted to plunder, of course!

I've not seen anyone who doesn't suggest Mumrills is Volitanio.

It seems to me that you're doing two different things with this subject. On the one hand, engaging in the old antiquarian quest for names of places mentioned in ancient sources - which seems fairly uncontroversial, although without direct evidence it's always going to be guesswork - and on the other hand the old antiquarian quest for St Patrick's birthplace. Using one hypothetical answer to support another hypothetical answer might make for a neat 'solution', but the whole thing remains entirely... hypothetical.