Weekly Round-Up 31/10 - 6/11
Saints Nidan, Englat, Baya, Maura and Methven. We also have an archive article on an Islay All Souls Day tradition.
Just a brief word on Novembers Coracle - the Friday articles will be a bit out of sync as we plan to present a small feature issue on Hell, Demons and Salvation to time with the Solemnity of Christ the King'; secondly, we will have a special article on St Andrew for the end of the month.
Saint’s Feast Day - 3rd November
Saint Nidan, 7th Century,
A disciple of St Kentigern who is honoured in Wales at the Old Church of St Nidan, Llanidan, in the south of Anglesey. He probably followed St Kentigern from Wales back up to Scotland and from Strathclyde went North to Deeside to evangelise in a place near Midmar. This was close to important administrative and cultic Pictish centres which would of been key places to share the faith from.
St Englat 7th/10th Century?
This has been an interesting Saint to explore because it is quite possible this Saint is fictitious, or at least mistaken through translations. St Englat is recorded in the Aberdeen Breviary, Scotland’s main source of information on our Saints, who is associated with Tarves in Aberdeenshire. In Tarves you will find a bridge, a ford and a well all named after a St Tanglan and yet there is suggestion that Tarves had a much older foundation in a 7th Century Irish Priest called Murdebar. There is indeed a Murdebar recorded in the great Irish Martyrology of Tallaght or (The martyrology of Oengus, the Culdee). It says of him; ‘Murdebar a synod's diadem’ and all we know of him is that he was from Leinster. It is worth noting that this area had a number of saintly missionaries going around in the 6th and 7th centuries including Saint’s Drostan, Machar, Fergus and Nathalan - could it be one of them?
St Beya and St Maura
"Ailsa Craig, Arran and Cumbrae from Knock Hill" by Ronnie Macdonald is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
St Beya and Maura are linked in the Aberdeen Breviary as Virgins and holy women. There is a great podcast on Beya from Florence H R Scott on her own substack which I have posted below. St Maura was said to be Beya’s friend hence the linking in the AB which also went on to say St Maura governed an austere community of virgins at Kilmaurs in Ayrshire where she was apparently buried.
St Methven, Feast Day 6th November.
"Buchanty Spout" by spodzone is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
A very unknown Saint other than his name given to sites and roads around Fowlis Wester in Perthshire (Same area as St Bean - see last weeks round-up). There was a chapel by the a crossing at Buchanty going over the River Almond and there was once a fair held in this area called Methvenmas. However it is possible it has more to do with our St Bean as the bridge was called Mo-Bheathan along with a well and mill. Incidentally, anything with a Mo in it - like MO-Luag - is the affectionate prefix ‘My’. There is a dedication to Mo-Bheathan in church records of Ulster pre-800 stating he was of British origin, which just muddies the waters even more when we are trying to consider who the Bean was!