Dance Saint Patrick's Day 5847

The patron saint of Scotland is St. Andrew the Apostle whose relics, an arm bone, three fingers and a knee-cap, were brought to Scotland by St. Regulus or St. Rule. By tradition St. Andrew was chosen as the nation’s patron at the time of the battle of Athelstanford in the 10th century when a Scottish and Pictish army under King Angus clashed with the Saxons under King Athelstan at the ford over Cogtail Burn in East Lothian. Inspiration came to the Scots at the sight of the white cross of the saint which appeared in the sky and they fought and won, killing Athelstan and most of his followers. The Saltire, the X-shaped cross upon which St. Andrew died, became the national emblem although the figure of the saint did not come into use until about the time of Robert II In the 14th century.

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born about 389 on the west coast of Britain, someplace between the Clyde and the Severn. As a youth he was captured by Irish marauders and sold into slavery. He escaped and, after some years of study in France, was consecrated bishop in 432 and sent by Pope Celestine I to convert the Irish, which he did with notable success.

Scotland has had a great many saints and their names have been preserved, in spite of the Reformation, in churches and towns and places. Some of these were true, canonised saints, others were simply holy men who were graced with the courtesy title of saint. Some were Irish and some were native Britons or Saxons. All, with very few exceptions, were of the ancient Celtic church and their chief mission was the conversion of the Picts.

The earliest was St. Ninian or St. Ringan, son of a British chieftain, who studied in Rome and returned to convert the southern Picts. His church, the Candida Casa, at Whithorn in the Machars peninsula of Wigtownshire, and its monastery were established in 397. Then there was St. Kentigern or St. Mungo (See “Glasgow Flourish”), born at Culross in Fife about 518, the son of Thenew, daughter of the king of Lothian, and Ewen, King of Strathclyde. Educated by St. Serf, he was a missionary to both the Strathclyde Britons and the Galloway Picts. From Ireland there came St. Moluaig who founded a monastery in 562 on the island of Lismore near Oban. In 563 St. Columba came from Ireland to found the community of Iona and preach to the Picts of Dalriada. Then there was St. Cuthbert, a Northumbrian from Lauderdale, the “Apostle of Lothian”, a miracle worker and bishop of the 7th century, and his predecessor at Lindisfarne, St. Sidan, a monk from Iona who first preached to the Angles. In Egilsay in Orkney there was St. Magnus, earl and martyr, and, also in the north, St. Duthac who was born in Tain and died in Ireland. St. Blane was from Kingarth in Bute and he founded a church at Dunblane about 590. St. Machar was instructed by St. Columba to establish a church in Aberdeen where the river Don bent into a shepherd’s crook. St. Maelrubha began a community in Applecross in the northwest in 671 and travelled and preached up and down the length of Dalriada. St. Donan and his brotherhood were slain at mass on Easter Eve on the island of Eigg in 616. St. Medan is said to have crossed from Ireland to Kirkmaiden on Mull of Galloway on a floating rock and St. Ronan is reputed to have travelled from Ness in Lewis to what is now North Rona in the Outer Hebrides on the back of a whale. The roll-call goes on and on: the founders, St. Baldred, St. Boisel and St. Adamnan, and the miracle-workers, St. Fillan, St. Triduana and St. Modan. Towns and villages, churches and cathedrals, all over Scotland from Orkney to the Solway Firth bear witness to the courage and devotion of the early Scottish saints.