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
In Scotland the name takes the form of _Keledei_; and they make their
first appearance in the territory of the southern Picts after the
expulsion of the Columban monks. This we learn from the history of
Servanus or St. Serf. His life is found in apparent connection with that
of Kentigern, but the tale that it tells is very different from that
which we find in the lives of the latter saint. Its story is as follows:
There was a king in the land of Canaan called Obeth, son of Eliud, and
his wife was Alpia, daughter of a king of Arabia. As usual in such
legends, the worthy couple had no children for twenty years, and then,
after they had often prayed to God and offered alms, and the whole
people had fasted three days and nights, comes the usual vision, and
they have two sons. The name of the one was Generatius, that of the
other Malachias, or Servanus. He was called Servanus because he served
God day and night; and this name was given him by Magonius, bishop of
Alexandria, who baptized him. His father dies when he was seven years
old. He then studies in Alexandria for thirteen years, when he receives
from the bishop the monastic habit. After thirty years he receives
priest’s orders from the same bishop, and then returns to Canaan, where
all the Canaanites elect him bishop. Here he remains twenty years
erecting monasteries and churches. An angel then appears and gives him
the usual mandate to leave his country and kindred. He takes leave of
all the clerics and laics of his bishopric, and he goes with sixty
soldiers (that is, of Christ) to the banks of the Nile, crosses it and
goes to the Red Sea, which he crosses, as usual, dryshod, and thence to
Jerusalem, where he remains seven years as its patriarch, in room of
bishop Jacob, patriarch of Jerusalem. Here an angel takes him up Mount
Sion, and shows him the wood of the true cross, from which he cuts three
pastoral staves. Then he goes to Constantinople, where he remains three
years. Thence to Rome, where he finds the papal throne vacant, and he is
elected pope and fills the vacant chair of St. Peter seven years. The
angel again tells him he must go forth to distant lands. He goes forth
followed by a great number of clerics and people, men and women, and he
tells them to divide themselves into two parts, one of which must remain
in Rome, and the other accompany him on his mission. He crosses the
Alps, and after several adventures, arrives at the Ictian Sea or Straits
of Dover, with seven thousand soldiers (of Christ), and crosses it
dryshod. They then go from place to place till they arrive at the river
Forth. Adamnan, at this time an abbot in Scotland, meets him on
Inchkeith, and receives him with much honour. Servanus asks him how he
is to dispose of his family and companions. Adamnan tells him they may
occupy Fife, and from the Mount of the Britons to the Mount which is
called Okhel, that is, the Ochil Hills. Servanus then goes with a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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