ON ST. BLANUS OR BLAANUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
IN SCOTLAND.
From the Breviary of Aberdeen and the Martyrologies.
X century.
CommentaryBlanus or Blaanus, bishop and confessor, in Scotland (St.)
BHL Number: 1366
BY J. B. S.
The Breviary often cited by us elsewhere Although the history be doubtful, it has seemed good to adduce before the rest, because from it we are made more certain of his ancient cult, and the history of his life, however suspect, is there somewhat more fully set forth, distributed into six lessons. Of the same Saint we made some observations among the Passed Over at the day XIX of July, and this chiefly, that he seems to be doubled by the Scottish Menologists Dempster and Camerarius, since on that day he is marked by the latter as bishop of Dunblane, but in today's announcement he is indicated as Bishop of Sodor, although he confesses that the city of Dunblane was named from St. Blanus himself. But they are not the only ones who trifle, since the very lessons already cited are not free from fables, as will presently appear more clearly, when I shall have set forth a little more distinctly what monuments survive concerning his lawful cult, received from elsewhere than from the already mentioned and often trifling Menologies. But neither do I seem able to assent to Castellanus concerning the place of his deposition, when he thus announces: In the island of Bute, one of the Hebrides on the coast of Scotland, of St. Blanus the confessor, where he even abstains from the title of Bishop. Let us hear the older writers.
[2] The first place, as being the older commemoration, deserves that which the Lübeck-Cologne Edition hands down among the Usuardine additions, there is no doubt of his cult. where the Saint is expressly marked thus: In Scotland, of St. Blanus, bishop and confessor: which Greven copied in the same words, in whose copy of the Charterhouse of Brussels, which is now with us, there is added in the margin the word Ms. "of Dunblane." But our Ms. Florarium of the Saints changes the phrase a very little, when it writes: In Scotland, of St. Blanus, confessor and bishop. And these are the chief, nay the only, Martyrologists whom at least I know who have made mention of St. Blanus: but it is exceedingly to be wondered at that he escaped the diligence of Wilson, collector of the English Martyrology. In the Irish catalogues of the Saints he also finds a place, yet in such wise that in one and another Blavius is read for Blanus or Blaanus. In Lesley, where the most memorable men under king Kenneth III are gathered, at page 199 in my copy, Blaanus is also numbered among the Pontiffs.
[3] And all these things seem certain and safe enough; not so the eulogy of Dempster which he ascribes to him in this manner: Dempster's eulogy At Dunblane, of Blanus the first bishop, who, born in the island of Bute of an unknown youth who had ravished his mother Bertha, and, together with her, committed to the ocean sea in a tiny boat without a bottom by his uncle St. Cathan, that he might perish, was preserved by divine providence, his mother being miraculously fed by a bird, and he came to land in the harbor of Beutorne, where, being found by the holy Congallus and Kennethus, he was raised from the sacred font and brought up, and was ordained by his uncle; and, having obtained a blessing from the Roman Pope, he called back to life in England the three-days-dead son of a king, and fixed his see at Dunblane, than whom none in Scotland is holier. Let him be holier and most holy for all I care, although this expression too be of that kind which Bolland weighs in his Preface at page XXXIV, elsewhere also concerning the portentous
histories of the Scottish Saints wont to pass such judgment that he warned that we must diligently beware of easily admitting them.
[4] and the lessons, Nor yet shall these things deter us from subjoining here the narration from the Breviary of Aberdeen, however incredible, by transcribing word for word the six lessons themselves in their order, in which the same poison will easily appear. Thus it runs, Lesson I: Blaanus was sprung from the island of Bute, of his mother Ertha, sister of blessed Cathan the prelate, who had taken their kindred from the blood of the noble race of the Irish. He, being distinguished for seven years in Ireland by the holy men Congallus and Kennethus, bishops, with the light of the Christian religion and with ecclesiastical disciplines, warred in the Church of God as one strong and armed in battle. Seven years being past, he was wonderfully brought with his mother from Ireland to the island whence he had drawn his origin, in a certain boat without oars or sail. But do Thou, etc.
[5] six altogether, Lesson II. And when he had come to land, he is most honorably received by blessed Cathan his uncle, and most familiarly treated: where he gave himself over as a bondman to divine service. But by night, while they were making the chanting of the psalms, it happened that the light committed to the keeping of blessed Blaanus went out. But the blessed man of God, lest this should be imputed by his brethren to his sloth or negligence, a short prayer being uttered, struck fire from the tips of his fingers, as from a flint struck with steel.
[6] from the Breviary of Aberdeen Lesson III. But blessed Cathan, being assured by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and understanding what had gone before, had foretold that blessed Blaanus would be a great man in the Church of God, and promoted him to the sacred ecclesiastical orders, and established and ordained him in the priesthood. Then, his merits requiring it, being asked by many, though unwilling, the neighboring Pontiffs being gathered, he is consecrated Bishop by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
[7] here transcribed, Lesson IV. But being adorned with the pontifical dignity, he sets out for Rome for the sake of pilgrimage, to receive a richer grace and a surer knowledge of the Christian religion: where, after he had openly learned these things, having received the pontifical blessing, he directs his course anew whence he had come, and made his passage through England, not on horseback but on foot only, where it happened that a beautiful spectacle took place.
[8] are sprinkled with many fables. Lesson V. For when he was walking through a certain city situated in the northern part of England, he heard most bitter mournings of men and women, bewailing and lamenting the son of a certain petty king who had just died. But blessed Blaanus, piously compassionating the tears of the wretched, taking the boy, now dead, by the hand and lifting him up, the sign of the cross first intervening, joined again the soul to the body and raised him from death to life.
[9] Lesson VI. But because he was deprived of one of his eyes, he again deprived the boy of life, and prayed God that He would restore life together with the eye, which things also were accomplished at his nod. But because he found the boy sinning in his nature, he again compelled him to breathe and to give up the ghost, and praying a third time, he restored to his parents the boy, thrice dead, thrice deprived of an eye, and deformed in nature, sound, unharmed, seeing with the clearest eyes, and of a most comely countenance: for which things they glorified God in His Saints.
[10] There is no need of commentary here; the follies are plain. The year and day of his death are lacking, What of his age. which I know not whether they be marked with greater credit at the beginning, namely under king Kenneth III the year 1000 or 1010, but the day the X of August, with a proper prayer concerning the Saint in this manner: O God, who through blessed Blaanus, Thy confessor and pontiff, didst raise the dead to life, and didst restore him who was deprived of sight, grant us that, helped by his intercessions, we may serve Thee with a pure mind.
[11] The judgment of a learned man upon these. All these things, and doubtless many more of the kind, were seen by a priest of our Society, Father Patrick Ninian Wemyss, a most learned professor of sacred Scripture at Neisse in Silesia, himself a Scot by race, who left us most accurate Ms. observations, by whose rule the outlandish follies of his nation might not seldom be corrected. Among other things he thus most expressly determines concerning our present St. Blanus: St. Blanus, bishop and confessor, under Kenneth III in the year of the Lord 1000: under Kenneth better 912. Passing over again the monstrous fables which anyone may find in Dempster, receive in few words what we have gathered as true concerning this Saint: Blanus, from boyhood devoted to piety, and enrolled among the Culdees (whom, as most pure worshippers of the faith, he often adorns with deserved praises), was promoted by them to be abbot, and at length consecrated bishop, remitting nothing of his former manner of life, lived among his monks and died holily in that place which was thereafter named from him Blanodunum, commonly Dunblane, the Monastery being in course of time turned into an episcopal see. The cathedral church was built in honor of St. Blanus, who is the patron of the whole diocese. Nor have I more of St. Blanus. Nor does it please me to linger longer over these things.