heathen in Caledonia, and in Gaul with Bishop Martin of Tours, who deserves special praise for
his protest against the capital punishment of heretics in the case of the Priscillianists. He began the
evangelization of the Southern Picts in the Eastern districts of modern Scotland. He built a white
stone church called "Candida Casa," at Whittern (Quhithern, Witerna) in Galloway, on the
South-Westem border of Scotland by the sea side, and dedicated it to the memory of St. Martin,
who had died in that year (397).^75 This was the beginning of "the Great Monastery" ("Magnum
Monasterium") or monastery of Rosnat, which exerted a civilizing and humanizing influence on
the surrounding country, and annually attracted pilgrims from England and Scotland to the shrine
of St. Ninian. His life has been romanized and embellished with legends. He made a newborn infant
indicate its true father, and vindicate the innocence of a presbyter who had been charged by the
mother with the crime of violation; he caused leeks and herbs to grow in the garden before their
season; he subdued with his staff the winds and the waves of the sea; and even his relics cured the
sick, cleansed the lepers, and terrified the wicked, "by all which things," says Ailred, his biographer,
"the faith of believers is confirmed to the praise and glory of Christ."
St. Kentigern (d. Nov. 13, 603), also called St. Mungo (the gracious one),^76 the first bishop
of Glasgow, labored in the sixth century for the conversion of the people in Cumberland, Wales,
and on the Clyde, and re-converted the Picts, who had apostatized from the faith. He was the
grandson of a heathen king in Cumbria or Strathclyde, the son of a Christian, though unbaptized
mother. He founded a college of Culdees or secular monks, and several churches. He wore a hair
shirt and garment of goat-skin, lived on bread and vegetables, slept on a rocky couch and a stony
pillow, like Jacob, rose in the night to sing psalms, recited in the morning the whole psalter in a
cold stream, retired to desert places during Lent, living on roots, was con-crucified with Christ on
Good Friday, watched before the tomb, and spent Easter in hilarity and joy. He converted more by
his silence than his speech, caused a wolf and a stag to drag the plough, raised grain from a field
sown with sand, kept the rain from wetting his garments, and performed other marvels which prove
the faith or superstition of his biographers in the twelfth century. Jocelyn relates also, that Kentigern
went seven times to Rome, and received sundry privileges and copies of the Bible from the Pope.
There is, however, no trace of such visits in the works of Gregory I., who was more interested in
the Saxon mission than the Scotch. Kentigern first established his episcopal chair in Holdelm (now
Hoddam), afterwards in Glasghu (Glasgow). He met St. Columba, and exchanged with him his
pastoral stave.^77 He attained to the age of one hundred and eighty-five years, and died between a.d.
601 and 612 (probably 603).^78 He is buried in the crypt of the cathedral of St. Mungo in Glasgow,
the best preserved of mediaeval cathedrals in Scotland.
St. Cuthbert (d. March 20, 687), whose life has been written by Bede, prior of the famous
monastery of Mailros (Melrose), afterwards bishop of Lindisfarne, and last a hermit, is another
legendary saint of Scotland, and a number of churches are traced to him or bear his name.^79
(^75) On Whittern and the Candida Casa, see Nicholson, History of Galloway, I. 115; Forbes, S. Ninian and S. Kentigern,
268, and Skene, II. 46.
(^76) In Welsh, Cyndeyrn means chief, Munghu dear, amiable. See Skene, II. 183.
(^77) The meeting of the two saints, as recorded by Jocelyn, reminds one of the meeting of St. Antony with the fabulous
Paul of Thebes.
(^78) See Forbes, Kalendars, p. 372, and Skene, II. 197.
(^79) Forbes (p. 319) gives a list of 26.