The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): JanuaryBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): January
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
When S. Kentigern was made Bishop of Glasgow, Gurthmel Wledio was King
of the North Britons. He was succeeded by Roderick the Liberal
(Rydderach Hael), a religious and deserving prince, who was driven by
his rebellious subjects under Morken Mawr to Ireland. Morken having
usurped the throne of Strathclyde, drove S. Kentigern out of the
country, and the Saint took refuge in Wales with S. David, Bishop of
Menevia, and remained with him till the Prince of Denbigh bestowed on
him lands, where he built the famous monastery of Llan-Elwyn, afterwards
called S. Asaph. Here he gathered about him a great number of disciples
and scholars, and he was there at the date of the death of S. David, in
544.
On the death of Morken, Roderick returned to Scotland, and recovered his
crown. He immediately recalled Kentigern to his see, and he, leaving his
monastery to the care of S. Asaph, went back to Glasgow in 560.
Roderick's mother was Irish, and he had been baptized by an Irish monk,
and greatly respected Kentigern. The Saint returned bringing with him a
hive of Welsh monks, and established the seat of his renewed
apostleship once more at Glasgow, where Ninian had preceded him nearly a
century before, without leaving any lasting traces of his passage.
Kentigern, more fortunate, established upon the site of a
burying-ground, consecrated by Ninian, the first foundation of that
magnificent cathedral which still bears his name, though diverted to a
religion different from that he professed.
Kentigern collected round him numerous disciples, all learned in holy
literature, all working with their hands, and possessing nothing as
individuals. "They dwelt," says Jocelyn, "in separate cells, as did
Kentigern, thence were they called Calledei." He distinguished himself
during his episcopate by his efforts to bring back to the faith the
Picts of Galloway, which formed part of the kingdom of Strathclyde; and
afterwards, by numerous mission and monastic foundations throughout all
Albyn--a name which was then given to midland Scotland. His disciples
penetrated even to the Orkney Isles, where they probably met with the
missionaries of S. Columba, despatched from Iona.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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