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
The church of St. Andrews, then, is represented in this legend as
consisting of three groups—First, one of secular clergy, viz., Bishop
Regulus himself, with two priests and two deacons, and three others,
whose quality is not given; secondly, a group of hermits, viz.,
Maltheus, with two from the island of Nola, and seven from the island of
Tiber—in all, a community of ten; and, thirdly, three virgins. The
second group is that of the hermits, representing a community of
_Keledei_ similar to those established by Servanus in Lochleven. The
legend of Triduana, which is preserved in the Aberdeen Breviary, tells
us that she led a heremitical life, with her virgins Potentia and
Emeria, in a desert place at Roscoby (Rescobie in Forfarshire). The
tyrant Nectanevus, prince of the neighbourhood, pursued her, whereupon
she fled to Dunfallad (Dunfallandy) in Athol. There his ministers coming
to her and telling her that the beauty of her eyes had attracted the
prince, she plucked them out and gave them to them. Triduana then
devoting herself to prayer and fasting in Lestalryk, now Restalrig, in
Laudonia, passed into heaven.[502] Here, as usual, the legend is
supported by the dedications. At Rescobie is St. Triduan’s fair.
Restalrig is also dedicated to her; and here too a connection with
Northumbria, to which it then belonged, seems to peep out.
[Sidenote: Canonical rule brought into Scotland, and _Keledei_ become
canons.]
The canonical rule appears to have been adopted in Scotland not long
after it had been introduced into Ireland; for, as we learn from the
Chronicles, two hundred and twenty-five years and eleven months after
the church of Abernethy had been founded by Gartnach, son of Domelch,
who reigned from 584 to 599, the church of Dunkeld was founded by
Constantin, son of Fergus king of the Picts, who reigned from 790 to
820. This places the foundation of Dunkeld some time between the years
810 and 820, and the tradition of Dunkeld, as reported by Alexander
Mylne, a canon of that church in 1575, is that he placed there
‘religious men who are popularly called Keledei, otherwise Colidei, that
is God-worshippers, who, according to the rite of the Oriental Church,
had wives, from whom, however, they withdrew while ministering, as was
afterwards the custom in the church of St. Regulus, now St.
Andrew;’[503] while Wyntoun, the prior of Lochleven, tells us that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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