ON ST. IRCHARD, OR ERTHAD OR ERCHAD, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
IN SCOTLAND,
After the fifth century.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
The memory of this Saint in the more recent Menologies, his lawful cult from the Aberdeen Breviary, and his uncertain age.
Irchard, bishop and confessor, in Scotland (St.)
BHL Number: 4454
BY G. C.
The Saint proposed in the title has been sent back or deferred from the XXIV day of July to this day, This Saint is recorded in the more recent Martyrologies, because in certain Menologies he is announced on both those days: for Dempster, in his Scottish Menology at the XXIV day of July, mentions him thus: In Scotland, Erthad the bishop, who was dear to the most pious king Malcolm I. Then on the XXIV day of August he repeats his memory in these few words: The birthday of Erthad the bishop. Ferrari, in his General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, followed Dempster, and recorded the same Saint on both those days. But in Chambers, book 3 On the Piety of the Scots, page 168, St. Erchad or Erthad, bishop in Scotland, is announced only on the XXIV day of August.
[2] To these is added Patrick Ninian Wemyss, a learned priest of our Society, and he is honored in the Aberdeen Breviary, a Scot by nation, who in his manuscript Scottish Menology, which he kindly communicated to our Museum, testifies at the same XXIV day of August that the memory of this holy Prelate is read in the ancient Scottish Calendars. Since we are ignorant of the age and authority of these Calendars, we should here have stuck fast concerning the immemorial and lawful cult of St. Erthad, which the more recent Martyrologists hitherto cited do not yet clearly enough demonstrate. But we are opportunely freed from that anxiety by the Aberdeen Breviary, which was printed in the year 1509, and in which the following collect or prayer is read in honor of St. Irchard or Erchad: Almighty and merciful God, who through the faith of thy pontiff Irchard didst free the Picts from the servitude of the Gauls, grant to all who devoutly seek him to be freed from every deceit of enemies and from eternal damnation. Through our Lord, etc.
[3] Who these Picts were, whom our Saint freed from the servitude of the Gauls, will be understood which from time immemorial from the proper lessons of the same Breviary, in which the deeds of the holy Prelate are thus narrated: LESSON I. Blessed Irchard was born among barbarous and unlearned nations at Tolmaid in Kincardine O'Neil; who from boyhood began a holy and famous life, continually rebuking and detesting the manners and vices of all wicked and abominable men, and holding them abominable; and ever cleaving to the precepts of God, to vigils and prayers, he afflicted his flesh with fastings. LESSON II. But when blessed Ternan heard that the life and manners of blessed Irchard were praiseworthy, he was ordained priest by him. And on account of his own prerogatives, in order that his jurisdiction might be exercised and governed elsewhere, he deservedly appointed blessed Irchard as his coadjutor and penitentiary throughout the whole
province; and he displayed the most exact diligence in an office of this kind.
[4] it recites proper Lessons concerning him, LESSON III. But after a few days, while blessed Gregory was ruling the see of the universal Church, he went to Rome. Learning of the sanctity of so great a Man, blessed Gregory consecrated Irchard himself bishop with the greatest honor; who no less persevered in virtues and holiness, showing himself to all an example in uprightness of manners. At length, having first obtained leave and blessing from the holy Pope, he returned to Scotland. LESSON IV. But as St. Irchard was returning through Poitou, he saw the Picts much subjugated by the Gauls and reduced to servitude; and being moved with pity for their adversity, as a humble counsellor he tarried there for three years; and by his sanctity, prudence, faith, and prayer he brought back the said people of Poitou to their former liberty and set them free.
[5] in which his Acts are narrated LESSON V. These things accomplished, when he fell sick, he humbly asked of God that he might not see death until he should see his own country, whence he had gone out. Continuing his journey through parts of England and Scotland, preaching a little as he went, he came to the mound on the hill of Kincardine O'Neil in Scotland, where he was honorably received by his own countrymen. But the Saint of God himself, understanding that his \ death drew near, and that the petition granted him by God had been fulfilled, charged his ministers that, when he had entered the way of all flesh, his corpse should be placed in a certain cart; and he strictly commanded that wherever the said cart should come to rest, they should there bury his body \. This done, commending his soul to God, he was taken away from this world. LESSON VI. Then the ministers of the same holy Man, as it had been commanded them, lifted the lifeless body into a wheeled cart. Which done, the cart with the body, of its own accord and spontaneously, no one moving it, moved itself beyond the river Dee to a quite notable distance, where now the famous church which is called Kincardine is being built, and there remained immovable. At last, taking down the body from the aforesaid cart, they gave it burial there with worthy honor, where it rests until the present time.
[6] in faulty style, Certain things fall to be observed in these Lessons; and first indeed we at once find of ourselves that the Latin periods in them are so faulty and so wretchedly dislocated that from time to time the substance of the matter can scarcely be understood. We do not know whether these faults are to be attributed to the typesetter or to an unskilled copyist: for we have these lessons only as transcribed by an unknown copyist, and we lack the edition of the Breviary itself, and so cannot easily or securely emend the frequent errors of construction or of printing. Therefore the reader, like ourselves, must guess how they may be better and more truly corrected to the mind of the church of Aberdeen. Furthermore we do not distinctly investigate our Saint's birthplace, called Tolmaid, although we gather it after a fashion from the name Kincardine, which is set down in the geographical maps of present-day Scotland. Omitting therefore similar little questions of less moment, it is worth while briefly to examine the age of the two Saints who are named in these lessons and who are said to have lived with St. Irchard: for from that one would have to determine approximately at about what time our Saint of today flourished. But that chronology has an inextricable difficulty, if the proper Lessons of the Aberdeen Breviary everywhere contain historical truth, as we shall now see.
[7] The second Lesson related above hints that St. Irchard was initiated into the priesthood by St. Ternan, bishop of the Picts in Britain. and in which a chronological difficulty occurs, Now St. Ternan, who is from time to time also called Teruanus, lived in the fifth century, and is reported to have been a disciple of St. Palladius, whom Pope Celestine I sent in the year of Christ 431 to instruct the Scots or Irish, as may be seen in our Work at the XII day of June and the VI of July. With this tradition Scottish writers everywhere agree, among whom Hector Boece, in his History of the Scots near the end of the seventh book, writes thus to our purpose: Palladius appointed Servanus bishop, sent to the Orkney islands (the Acts of this holy prelate have been illustrated in our Work at the first day of July) to instruct the rude people in Christian piety; and Teruanus, whom he had washed as an infant in the font of purification, he made archbishop of the Picts. The most illustrious John Leslie, bishop of Ross, in his work On the Deeds of the Scots, book 4, page 137 in our copy, sets forth this matter more fully.
[8] Thomas Dempster followed these, when in his Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, book 18, which we can reconcile neither with the opinion of Dempster, page 607, he relates the following concerning St. Ternan: St. Teruanus, disciple of St. Palladius the apostle of the Scots, and colleague of Servanus the apostle of the Orkneys, and apostle of the Picts, whom, being still at that age given over to the worship of idols, he converted to the true religion by incredible zeal and holiness of manners, is according to John Leslie an archbishop… Him, though not enrolled in the tables of the Martyrology, our countrymen have always honored with religious observance, and the cathedral church of Abernethy is dedicated to him, and many others in that kingdom. He wrote Exhortations to the Picts, one book; Against the Pelagians, one book; Homilies from Holy Scripture, one book. He flourished in the year 440. He died at Abernethy, which was the royal seat of the Picts, where the people of the whole kingdom venerated his most sacred relics with religious resort.
[9] nor with that of other writers, Now hear Dempster, who in the same Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, book 5, page 244, reckons the present St. Irchard or Erthad among the Scottish writers, and assigns his age in these words: St. Erthad, a bishop in Scotland of wonderful holiness of life, wrote Readings on the Bible, one book; On the Divine Essence, one book; Sacred Allegories, one book. He flourished in the year 933. He is piously honored on the XXIV of July. Whatever be the case with the aforesaid lucubrations of either Saint, we leave the credit of them with Dempster, whose authority has little weight with us; and we merely observe the very different ages of these two Saints. If St. Ternan flourished in the fifth century, and St. Irchard in the tenth, how could our St. Irchard have been consecrated priest by St. Ternan the prelate, as the Lessons of the Aberdeen Breviary affirm? Either, then, this assertion of the Aberdeen Breviary must be false, or Dempster must have erred vehemently in marking the age of one or the other Saint.
[10] nor can we reconcile it with the Breviary itself, Nay rather, the Lessons of that Breviary fight with themselves, since in them St. Irchard is said to have been ordained priest by St. Ternan, and not long after receiving priestly consecration to have come to the city of Rome, while blessed Gregory was ruling the see of the universal Church. How shall these things be reconciled, if St. Ternan, according to the Scottish writers, was illustrious in the year 440, and blessed Gregory I, or the Great, ascended the Roman chair only in the year 590, as the more exact chronologers demonstrate? But if you say with Dempster that St. Irchard flourished in the year 933 under Malcolm I, king of the Scots, and was dear to that prince, you utterly overthrow that twofold assertion of the Aberdeen Breviary: for for many years before and after the reign of Malcolm I, king of the Scots, no Roman Pontiff by the name of Gregory occupied the Apostolic see of St. Peter.
[11] and therefore we leave it to the learned Scots to unravel. We frankly confess that on account of these chronological tangles we cannot reconcile the Aberdeen Breviary either with itself or with the opinion of other writers. Wherefore, being destitute of ancient monuments of Scottish history, we have been compelled above, in the margin of this syllogue, to place the death of St. Irchard after the fifth century in a vague manner of speaking, until the learned Scots shall assign a more certain age for that Saint — to whom we have set forth these chronological knots to be untied or cut, since we are unequal to disentangling them. But we forewarn these learned investigators of Scottish history to remember to prove their opinion by solid arguments, and to bring forward monuments older than the Aberdeen Breviary. Since, then, no more is at hand concerning that holy Prelate, we here put an end to this syllogue.
ANNOTATIONS\ read suam*. \ read juberent*.