5 lesser-known Scottish saints
Patron saint Andrew and, to some extent, Saint Margaret are well known for their connections with Scotland. But the reality is that our country has ties with a great many saints, some well known and others relatively obscure. We've taken a look at four lesser-known saints associated with Scotland.
Saint Donnán of Eigg
A Gaelic priest most likely born in Ireland, Donnán (or Donan) was tasked with attempting to introduce the Picts of north west Scotland to Christianity during the early Middle Ages.
While there are many place names in Scotland, and indeed further afield, honouring this 7th century saint - including Eilean Donan castle in Kyle of Lochalsh, East Kildonan in Winnipeg, Canada and Saint-Donan in Brittany, France - little is known about Donnán’s life.
Donnán is thought to have been martyred on the island of Eigg, one of the Small Isles in the inner Hebrides just off the west coast of Scotland. A 17th century tome titled The Martyrology of Donegal refers to Donnan’s death at the hands of pirates, saying: “And there came robbers of the sea on a certain time to the island when [Donnán] was celebrating mass. He requested of them not to kill him until he should have the mass said, and they gave him this respite; and he was afterwards beheaded and fifty-two of his monks along with him.”
But there is a conflicting account in the book Warlords And Holy Men, Scotland AD 80-1000 suggesting that a pagan Pictish queen burnt Donnán and 150 others to death.
A third account, found in Adomnan of Iona. Life of St Columba, claims that a rich woman persuaded a ‘number of bandits’ to kill Donnán and his monks after his arrival on Eigg prevented her from grazing her sheep in a certain spot. Fifty-four others reportedly died with Donnán at the hands of the bandits.
Donnán is said to be buried at Kildonan, on the isle of Arran, and his feast day is celebrated on April 17th; the day of his death in 617AD.
Saint Kessog
Considered by some to be one of the first Christian martyrs in Scotland, St Kessog is thought to have been born into Irish royalty in Cashel, Tipperary, around 460AD. Hints at his holiness were revealed early in his life; one account tells how he brought a number of children back to life after they drowned.
He left Ireland for Scotland, becoming a missionary bishop and basing himself at Monks’ Island in Loch Lomond. Kessog is said to have been most active in the areas of Lennox - which at that time stretched as far as northern Wales - and southern Perthshire; indeed the parish churches of Auchterarder and Comrie in Perthshire were dedicated to him and may have been founded by Kessog himself or his followers.
Kessog was known as the soldier saint - he wore a sword around his waist and was reputed to be of Roman army descent - and even today Luss Parish Church, which in 2010 celebrated 1,500 years of continuous Christian worship on the site, still champions the name of the saint buried somewhere in its grounds, and possesses three artefacts removed from the cairn when it was demolished.
These comprise a carved stone head thought to be of the saint and dating from the sixth century, an ancient stone font and a stone effigy of a bishop, which some believe to be Kessog - although there are doubts over whether the effigy is of Kessog, or of a 15th century bishop of Argyll named Robert Colquhoun, hidden in the cairn during the Reformation.
Kessog is known to have travelled widely during his time in Scotland, with various place names hinting at his presence in certain areas, such as the Kessock Hill area of Inverness.
He died at Bandry, south of Luss sometime between 520 and 530AD, reportedly at the hands of mercenaries, near a well he used to baptise converts to Christianity.
A cairn was erected to mark the site of Kessog’s death, to which pilgrims added stones during visits. However, in the 1700s the cairn was removed to allow the road to be widened.
There are those who claim that Kessog was in effect patron saint of Scotland before Andrew, and that at Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce urged on his troops in the name of ‘blessed Kessog’.
His feast day is celebrated on March 10th, and he is often depicted in military dress holding a bent bow with an arrow in it.
Saint Oda
Although born in Scotland in 680AD, Oda became a holy woman synonymous with the Netherlands, rather than in her homeland.
Born blind, Oda was sent on a pilgrimage to Liège, to visit the relics of Saint Lambert of Maastricht, in the hopes of curing her blindness. While praying at Saint Lambert’s grave, her sight was restored, and Oda made her way back to Scotland, vowing to dedicate her life to God as a nun.
But 13th century records suggest that her father - King Eugenius VII - wanted her to marry in Scotland and had selected a husband for his daughter, but because of her vow, Oda left Scotland, travelling first to Rome and then Monte Gargano in Italy.
She then travelled onwards to the Netherlands and Belgium, praying in several villages but finding herself constantly disrupted by magpies.
Attempting to escape the birds, Oda was instead led by the magpies to a small settlement in a forest, called Rode, where the villagers built a hut for her.
Legend claims that Oda planted some bushes to protect the hut from the elements, and within a day, the bushes had grown into a thick hedge.
Her father, having been made aware of his daughter’s location by her use of coins from her homeland, found the hut and attempted to approach it, only to be repeatedly driven back by magpies.
He eventually gave up and returned to Scotland without Oda.
Oda settled there as a hermit, and after her death in 726AD, many pilgrims began travelling to her hut, calling the place Sint-Oda’s-Rode (Saint Oda’s place in the woods).
This name evolved to become Sint-Oedenrode in the modern day Netherlands.
Curiously, the flag of Sint-Oedenrode is a blue and white saltire, much the same as the flag of Scotland, with a small golden castle depicted on the left-hand side.
Oda’s feast day is celebrated on October 23, and she is often portrayed in a long blue gown, carrying a staff or book, with a magpie on her hand and a crown underfoot - possibly to signify her rejection of her father’s kingdom.
Saint Regulus
Alumni of the University of St Andrew’s may recognise the name of Regulus, even if they are unaware of the saintly background.
Saint Regulus, or Saint Rule, was a fourth century monk or bishop of Patras, in Greece, who reportedly fled to Scotland in AD345 with the remains of Saint Andrew which he buried in the modern town of St Andrews, in Fife.
As with many saints of the time, accounts of Saint Regulus’ life are somewhat contradictory and unclear. However, more than one account reports an angel appearing in a vision to Regulus, warning that the Emperor Constantine planned to move Saint Andrew’s relics from Patras to Constantinople. Regulus was told to spirit the bones away as far as he could to the west, where he should establish a church dedicated to Saint Andrew.
It is unclear whether Regulus was shipwrecked, or intentionally told by the angel to stop on the shores of Fife at Kilrymont - a Pictish settlement on which St Andrews now stands - but it is claimed that Regulus brought three fingers of Andrew’s right hand along with the upper bone of an arm, one kneecap and a tooth.
Some years later in 1070, the Prior of St Andrews, Robert I, constructed St Regulus Church in the town, in order to house Andrew’s relics. Robert I hoped that the church would act as a landmark for pilgrims. Its main feature was a tower of more than 30 metres in height, which is still standing in St Andrews today and is known as St Rule’s Tower.