Saints this week:
30th August: St Aidan
1st September: St Murdoch
1st September: St Giles
30th August: Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
St Aidan was born in Ireland at the end of the 6th century and joined the other Irish monks who settled in the great Iona Monastery. From there he went to establish the famous monastery on Lindisfarne on the invitation of the Saint-King Oswald whose conversion to Christianity had happened under the influence of Ionan monks he encountered in SW Scotland. St Aidan became Bishop of Northumbria when Oswald had regained the Kingdom his father had lost in a battle in 633AD. St Aidan was known for his poverty, generosity and zeal for sharing the faith. He supported the establishment of Old Melrose, the earlier monastic settlement that predated Cistercian monastery you can go and visit now. It is said he also helped Abbess Ebba establish a monastic community in Coldingham. His death in 651AD was the sign for a young shepherd by the name of Cuthbert to enter monastic rule at Melrose.
1st September: Saint Murdoch
The ruins of St Murdoch’s Chapel near Brechin.
Like quite a few of our lesser known Saints, lesser is the word in regards information concerning them! St Murdoch could be the Saint referred to as having been a hermit who lived in Argyll around 800AD and also known as a Bard. Alternatively he could be the name of a Saint associated with St Murdochs Well and Chapel just South of Brechin in Forfarshire.
1st September: St Giles
"Saint Giles" by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
It would be remiss of me not to mention Saint Giles, patron of our capital Edinburgh and has given his name to the High Kirk Cathedral on the Royal Mile. It is however difficult to nail down his historicity. Many legends seemed to have attached themselves to him, but what we can certainly see is that veneration to this Saint began in France in the lower Rhone area. He was a hermit of the 8th or 9th century that saw a monastic community grow up around him (or his memory) into what became the French town of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard. His cultus grew throughout Europe due to his miraculous healing abilities and eventually spread to Great Britain. He was not known to have ever visited Scotland but no doubt the Norman influence that David I would have known must have played apart when he founded the Abbey of St Giles in 1124.
Thank you for that. Il look him up.
I don't know if you have seen the substack "Manly Saints Project" but he did a write-up of Saint Oswald (here: https://manlysaints.substack.com/p/saint-oswald) that gives a decent amount of air-time to St. Oswald's relationship with St. Aidan. It's the only reason I knew anything about St. Aidan and I was pleased to expand the introduction I received from MSP with the addition of your article here. Thank you!