Guinochus

ON SAINT GUINOCHUS,

BISHOP IN SCOTLAND.

ABOUT THE YEAR 875.

Guinochus, Bishop in Scotland (Saint)

BY G. H.

That Guinochus long ago had some sacred veneration in Scotland is indicated as certain by the Breviary of the Church of Aberdeen, in which these words are read: "Of Saint Guinochus, Bishop and Confessor in Scotland, under King Etho, Sacred cult. in the year 875, of April." We have another Catalogue of the Saints of Scotland, in which the following is held: "April 13, Saint Guinochus Bishop and Confessor, in the year 875." Thomas Dempster in the Scottish Menology has this also on this day: "In Rossia, of Guinoch the Bishop," with the letter K added, indicating the Kalendar of Adam Regius. The same is read in Ferrari's General Catalogue, who in the Notes cites book VII of Scriptores Scotici, which is of the same Dempster, in which he says in chapter 570: "Saint Guinochus the Bishop, whether he flourished under Kings Etho and Gregory, confessor of King Etho, whose perverse morals he could not bear, withdrew from the court: but when that King had been killed in prison, he was recalled by King Gregory, and was his confessor. He wrote a Mirror of Human Life, in 1 book. Fordan praises it, but it is not extant." Thus Dempster, who is held by others as a patcher of all fables for the sake of his country. John Major, in book 3 On the Deeds of the Scots, chapter 2, asserts that after Constantine there reigned Eth, son of the great Kenneth, and that against him Gregory son of Dungal rose, pretending right to the kingdom, and that Eth perished in the battle joined, and that after him Gregory was solemnly crowned in the year 875. David Camerarius, in his Scottish Menology on this April 13, writes that Saint Guinochus flourished under Kenneth his father, and adorns him with this elogium: "On the same day, Saint Guinochus, Confessor and Bishop, was councillor to Kenneth, second of this name King of the Scots: or under Kenneth? to whom his dignity conciliated reverence, and the sanctity of his life obedience: and the King very often used him, both for conciliating the hearts of the Princes (for the Picts, with whom there was a very grave war, had tried to turn the hearts of the Princes of the Scots from the King), and for seeking counsel, and for commending the affairs of the kingdom to God with pious and assiduous prayer: in which offices the approaches of the Princes of the Scots were always ready to Guinochus, meeting him with affability and prompt benevolence, and, what is the chief, with happy outcome, God blessing and promoting the efforts of King Kenneth by the prayers of Saint Guinochus: by which it was brought about that Kenneth, joining hands in one day seven times with different troops of the Picts, not without a miracle, always came off victor. By this slaughter the forces of the Picts were wholly broken and diminished: whence later they were almost destroyed to extermination, their remnants being expelled from the kingdom by the just judgment of God, because for the Roman foreigners in Britain under the tyrant Maximus they had often waged war against the Scots (from whom they had received the Gospel and the kingdom); and because they had often moved camp together with the idolatrous Saxons against the Scots and Christian Britons: lastly because they had not revered ecclesiastical men with the reverence due them, but had held them with themselves like servants, their privileges being violated. Holy Guinochus, famous for his fame of miracles, for his reputation of sanctity, the province of Buchan added to the Heavenly in the year of Christ 838, which was the fourth to King Kenneth and the kingdom he had begun. King treats of Guinochus." These things in long windings Camerarius, but the one whom he cites, King, is to others Adam Regius previously cited by Dempster, whose Kalendar we have not seen. For the rest, neither Camerarius nor Dempster, so often convicted of errors, have sufficient authority for us to judge Guinoch should be placed among the Saints. Only the Breviary of Aberdeen moved us, with which we rather believe him to have lived under King Etho. in what provinces he lived. But whether the Episcopal See of Saint Guinoch was in the province of Rossia, on the Western Sea; or rather in the province of Buchan, on the German Sea; we do not know from the divination of Dempster and Camerarius to judge.