Celtic and Old English Saints 30 March =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Rule of Scotland * St. Fergus of Downpatrick * St. Patto of Werden * St. Tola =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Rule of Scotland (of Saint Andrews), Abbot (Regulus, Riaghai) --------------------------------------------------------------- 4th or 6th century; feast also October 17. The real story of Saint Rule is uncertain. There was no "vita" before the 9th century. Some it seems confuse this abbot with a Greek monk, also named Regulus, who is said to have brought relics of Saint Andrew (f.d. November 30) to Rigmond, Scotland, thus founding Saint Andrews. The tradition relates that Saint Regulus was born in Patras and led by a dream to take some of the relics in his care to an unknown destination to which an angel would lead him. He followed the angel to Fife, where he built a church to house the relics of Saint Andrew. (The rest of the relics were taken to Constantinople.) In fact, the relics were acquired by a Pictish king, who founded the city, in 736; the abbot at that time was the Irish Tuathal. Regulus is the patron of Kylrewni and is commemorated in the Aberdeen Breviary (Attwater2, Benedictines, Farmer, Montague). St Rule And The Foundation of St. Andrew's 4th Century ___________________________________________ The medieval legend tells us that a Greek monk had a vision in 345, warning him that the first Christian Emperor Constantine was intending to remove the relics of St. Andrew, the first-called of the Apostles, from Patras, the place of his martyrdom, to Constantinople, the new eastern capital of the Empire. This monk, called Rule, or Regulus, considered that the vision gave him commission to take some of the relics to the west, "to the utmost region of the world", and so he took from the Apostle's shrine an arm-bone, three fingers of the right hand, a tooth and a knee-cap. He set forth with a company of devout men and women, and after a perilous voyage, landed at a place called Kilrymount in Scotland. There he built a church to house the relics in thanksgiving for their survival. Now comes a difficulty, because the legend goes on to tell how a king of the Picts, Angus MacFergus, also had a vision of St. Andrew, promising him victory in battle. Angus in gratitude donated the land round the settlement founded by Regulus and declared that the church he had built should be the head and mother of all the churches in the kingdom. This puts the foundation of St Andrews four hundred years later, in the eighth century. It has been suggested that Regulus did establish a community at this place and that the relics were introduced during the reign of Angus, being brought from Hexham by St. Acca, who was forced to leave his diocese in 732. Hexham had been founded by St. Wilfrid, and it is recorded that he had obtained relics of St. Andrew for his church there. Mention of the relics both of St. Andrew and St. Regulus are found from this time, and the bishopric was transferred from Abernethy to St Andrews in 908 (Bowen). St Rule's Tower where his relics rest http://www.saint-andrews.co.uk/Tour/tower.htm St. Fergus (Fergustus, Ferguisius) of Downpatrick, Bishop --------------------------------------------------------------- 6th century. Not much is known with certainly about this bishop of Downpatrick, Ireland. He may be identical to Saint Fergus of Scotland (f.d. November 18) (Benedictines). St. Patto (Pacificus) of Werden, Bishop --------------------------------------------------------------- Born in Britain; died at Werden (Verden), Saxony, Germany, c. 788. Saint Patto was abbot of the Irish monastery of Anabaric in Saxony, which was established by Charlemagne about 780. Later he was consecrated bishop of Werden to succeeded its first bishop, Suibert. Because many miracles have been attributed to him, his body was exhumed in 1630, but no record was made of the result. This may have been because the remains of Bishops Suibert, Saint Tanco (f.d. February 16), Saint Patto, Cerelon, Nortrila, Saint Erlulf (f.d. February 10), and Saint Harruch (f.d. July 15), plus debris of mitres, sandals, and episcopal ornaments were all found in the same tomb. The relics were collected into a new casket and rested behind the high altar until they were taken by the bishop to Regensburg during the Swedish invasions in 1659 (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Fitzpatrick2, Kenney, Montague, O'Hanlon). St. Tola, Bishop --------------------------------------------------------------- Died c. 733. This Irish saint was the abbot-bishop of Disert Tola in Meath (Benedictines). Sources: ======== Attwater, D. (1958). A Dictionary of Saints. New York: P. J. Kennedy & Sons. [Attwater 2] Benedictine Monks of Saint Augustine Abbey, Ramsgate. (1947). The Book of Saints. NY: Macmillan. D'Arcy, M. R. (1974). The Saints of Ireland. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Irish American Cultural Institute. [This is probably the most useful book to choose to own on the Irish saints. The author provides a great deal of historical context in which to place the lives of the saints.] Farmer, D. H. (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fitzpatrick, B. (1927). Ireland and the Foundations of Europe. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Kenney, J. F. (1929). Sources for Early History of Ireland, vol. 1, Ecclesiastical. New York: Columbia University Press. Montague, H. P. (1981). The Saints and Martyrs of Ireland. Guildford: Billing & Sons. O'Hanlon, J. (1875). Lives of Irish Saints, 10 vol. Dublin. For All the Saints: http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/ss-index.htm An Alphabetical Index of the Saints of the West http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/saintsa.htm A Beginner's Guide to Irish Gaelic pronunciation http://www.standingstones.com/gaelpron.html These Lives are archived at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
