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
called Servanus’s bridge; and on looking back, he saw that the waters
had not only flowed back and filled the channel of the Mallena, but were
overflowing the bridge and denying a passage to any one. Servanus, who
had followed in pursuit of the fugitive, stood above on the bank and
endeavoured to persuade him to return, but without success; and ‘having
mutually blessed each other, they were divided one from the other, and
never looked in each other’s face again in this world. And the place by
which Kentigern crossed became after that entirely impassable; for that
bridge, always after that covered by the waves of the sea, afforded to
no one any longer means of transit. Even the Mallena altered the force
of its current from the proper place, and from that day to this turned
back its channel into the river Ledone; so that forthwith the rivers
which till then had been separate from each other now became mingled and
united.’ Kentigern passes the night at a town called Kernach, where he
finds an old man, Fregus, on his death-bed, who dies in the night; and
‘next morning Kentigern, having yoked two untamed bulls to a new wain,
in which he placed the body whence the spirit had departed, and having
prayed in the name of the Lord, enjoined upon the brute beasts to carry
the burden placed upon them to the place which the Lord had provided for
it. And in truth the bulls, in no way resisting or disobeying the voice
of Kentigern, came by a straight road, along which there was no path, as
far as Cathures, which is now called Glasgu’, and halted near a certain
cemetery which had long before been consecrated by Saint Ninian. Here
Kentigern lives for some time; and then ‘the king and clergy of the
Cumbrian region, with other Christians, albeit they were few in number,
came together and, after taking into consideration what was to be done
to restore the good estate of the church, which was well-nigh destroyed,
they with one consent approached Kentigern, and elected him, in spite of
his many remonstrances and strong resistance, to be the shepherd and
bishop of their souls;’ and ‘having called one bishop from Ireland,
after the manner of the Britons and Scots of that period, they caused
Kentigern to be consecrated bishop.’[359]
[Sidenote: Anachronism in connecting St. Servanus with St. Kentigern.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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