Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 2 (of 3), Church and cultureSkene, W. F. (William Forbes)
History
Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 2 (of 3), Church and culture
Skene, W. F. (William Forbes)
Celts -- Scotland; Civilization, Celtic; Scotland -- Antiquities, Celtic; Scotland -- History -- To 1603
Jocelyn, whose narrative, as the Bishop of Brechin well observes, is
here directed at undoing the weird legend of the earlier life, which
gives the unedifying account of the conception of Kentigern, does not
name either father or daughter. He calls Kentigern’s mother simply ‘the
daughter of a certain king, most pagan in his creed, who ruled in the
northern parts of Britannia.’ Neither does he name the suitor who
betrayed her, but declares that she had no consciousness by whom, when,
or in what manner she conceived, and had possibly been drugged. He
states that, according to the law of the country, any girl in her
situation was to be cast down from the summit of a high mountain, and
her betrayer beheaded; that she was taken to the top of a high hill
called Dunpelder, and was cast down, but came to the bottom uninjured;
that she was then taken out to sea by the king’s servants, and placed in
a little boat of hides made after the fashion of the Scots, without any
oar, and, ‘the little vessel in which the pregnant girl was detained
ploughed the watery breakers and eddies of the waves towards the
opposite shore more quickly than if propelled by a wind that filled the
sail, or by the effort of many oarsmen;’ that the girl landed on the
sands at a place called Culenros, in which place at that time Servanus
dwelt, and taught sacred literature to many boys who went to be trained
to the divine service. The birth then takes place as in the other
narrative, and they are brought and presented to Servanus, who ‘in the
language of his country exclaimed, _Mochohe, Mochohe_, which in Latin
means “Care mi, Care mi,” adding, Blessed art thou that hast come in the
name of the Lord. He therefore took them to himself, and nourished and
educated them as if they were his own pledges. After certain days had
passed, he dipped them in the laver of regeneration and restoration, and
anointed them with the sacred chrism, calling the mother Taneu and the
child _Kyentyern_, which by interpretation is Capitalis Dominus.’ He
then educates him, and the gifts of grace manifested by the boy were so
great that ‘he was accustomed to call him, in the language of his
country, _Munghu_, which in Latin means Karrissimus Amicus.’[358]
Kentigern is brought up by Servanus, and the usual boyish miracles are
recorded as evidences of his sanctity, till, having excited the jealousy
and hatred of his fellow-students, he resolves, under Divine guidance of
course, to leave the place. He accordingly retreated secretly, and
‘journeying arrived at the Frisican shore, where the river, by name
Mallena, overpassing its banks when the tide flows in, took away all
hope of crossing;’ but the river is miraculously divided to enable him
to pass, the tide flowing back so that the waters of the sea and of the
river stood as walls on his right hand and on his left. He then crosses
a little arm of the sea near a bridge, which by the inhabitants is
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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