Saints -- Scotland; Scotland -- Church history -- Biography
St. Asaph was one of the most eminent of the disciples of St. Mungo
(Kentigern). When the latter was driven from Scotland he took refuge
in Wales and there founded a monastery, which attracted a great
number of disciples desirous of placing themselves under his
guidance. It was to Asaph that St. Mungo resigned the government when
he himself was allowed to return to Glasgow. Owing to the sanctity
and renown of the new abbot the monastery eventually bore his name.
St. Asaph was consecrated Bishop about A.D. 650, and his diocese has
{77} retained the name of St. Asaph's for thirteen centuries. Some
writers have maintained that St. Asaph accompanied his master to
Scotland, but it seems more probable that Scottish devotion to him
originated in his close connection with the "beloved" saint of
Glasgow. Many traces of this devotion still survive. In the island of
Skye is a ruined chapel dedicated to him called "Asheg." In that
island is also an excellent spring of clear water known as _Tobar
Asheg_, or St. Asaph's Well. Kilassie, an old burial ground near Loch
Rannoch, also takes its name from him.
The most interesting of these remains is a ruin in the island of
Bearnarey, in the Sound of Harris. It is evidently a chapel of the
saint and is called _Cill Aisaim_. Near it once stood an obelisk
about eight feet high, bearing sculptured symbols, and in
comparatively recent years this was surrounded by heaps of coloured
pebbles, coins, bone pins, and bronze needles, which were probably
pilgrims offerings. The obelisk was broken up some years ago and its
materials used for building, but a Scottish antiquarian managed to
gain possession of a fragment. {78}
3--St. Fumac.
This was a saint specially venerated in Banffshire. He was the patron
of Botriphnie or "Fumac Kirk" in that county. According to an old MS.
of the eighteenth century, the wooden image of the saint was formerly
preserved there, and the old woman who acted as its custodian used
to wash it with all due solemnity in St. Fumac's Well on the 3rd
of May annually. This image was in existence in 1847, but a flood
of the Isla swept it away to Banff, where the parish minister
in his Protestant zeal burnt it. St. Fumac's Fair was kept on this
day at Botriphnie and also at Dinet, in Caithness, and Chapel
of Dine, Watten, in the same county.
9--St. Comgall, Abbot, A.D. 602.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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