PATRONUS (or godfather):

Young males in Early Brittany occasionally had godparents. In these situations, each boy (filiolus) was given some property by the godfather (patronus).

Sometimes this happened when the filiolus was tonsured as a cleric (ie. part of the procedure of taking holy orders, or making a religious commitment, in rural contexts). For example, in about 832, a machtiern called Jarncolin gifted his godson Anowareth some of his land when his godson was tonsured.

At other times, the godfather-godson arrangement was a means for the boy’s parents to acquire some interest in the property of his maternal kin.

The godfathers (patroni) did not usually adopt or raise their godsons (filoli); and filioli did not tend to live in the same households as their patroni. For example; godfather Jarncolin lived in Anast (and seems to have been machtiern of Anast); while his godson Anowareth was machtiern & priest of the adjacent parish of Pipriac.

SOURCE – Small Worlds: The Village Community in Early Medieval Britanny,  By Wendy Davies.