ON SAINT DUTHAC, BISHOP OF ROSS IN SCOTLAND.
ABOUT THE YEAR 1250.
PrefaceDuthac, Bishop of Ross in Scotland (Saint)
[1] In northern Scotland there is a region called Ross or Rossia, containing under it the province of Armanothia and the County of Ass. The chief of all its cities, and the See of the Bishops of Ross, is Chanonry, Life, in place of which Tain is said to have afterward been substituted, where Saint Duthac, once buried, was renowned for miracles. We give a compendium of his Life from the old Aberdeen Breviary, in which he is inscribed on the eighth day of March, his name in the sacred calendars: on which he was called to the eternal prize. His name is likewise inscribed in the Cologne Martyrology and the Doctrinale Clericorum printed in the year 1490, before which time Hermann Greven, who also inserted Saint Duthac, Bishop and Confessor, in his additions to Usuard, had departed this life. The same was done around the same time by the author of the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum. Ferrarius finally in his General Catalogue has this: "At Tain in Scotland, of Saint Duthac the Bishop." With these authorities cited, one may more securely allege the Scottish Menologies of Dempster and Camerarius, in the former of which this is read: "At the town of Tain, of Duthac, Bishop of Ross, whose sanctity is confirmed by frequent miracles." Camerarius asserts that he is famous for the reputation of holiness in the provinces of Ross and Moray.
[2] John Leslie, in his work on the Deeds of the Scots, book 6, under William, the ninety-third King, reports the following: "In this age, to the supreme felicity of our commonwealth, there flourished above others two men in particular, cultivated both in recondite knowledge of doctrine and in the most holy rule of life, he instructed Saint Gilbert, Bishop of Caithness: Gilbert and Duthac, both Bishops — the latter of Ross, the former of Caithness. Although both of them collected such praise of piety, partly by miracles, partly by learning, that they were deemed worthy to be enrolled in the number of the Saints, yet Duthac seems to have carried the first share of glory in two respects: first, because whatever Gilbert had of either piety or learning, he drew entirely from Duthac; second, because Duthac was so venerated by the perpetual devotion of the Scots — Kings, Princes, and common people alike — a solemn pilgrimage: that in all Scotland no pilgrimage was held more numerous or more celebrated than that which was decreed to him in Ross." So Leslie. Saint Gilbert, Bishop of Caithness, is venerated on the Kalends of April, at which day he also has his own proper lessons in the said Aberdeen Breviary.
[3] Camerarius in his Menologium asserts that many things divinely predicted by him are commemorated, a calamity predicted, such as the calamities of war to be brought upon the Scots by the English and the Danes: nor did the event prove false. For in the year 1263 (namely the tenth after his heavenly departure), Haakon, King of Norway, with 160 ships, landed at the Ayrshire coast, a maritime town of Scotland. the enemy repulsed: But by the prayers of Saint Duthac, as is right to believe, Haakon was struck with a double misfortune almost at the same moment. First, having engaged with Alexander Stewart, the great-grandfather of the first of the Stuart family to hold the kingdom of Scotland, he was defeated and put to flight by the same, who repeatedly invoked Saint Andrew the Apostle, patron of Scotland. Then, with his ships battered by a most terrible storm and some sixteen thousand Norwegians lost in battle, Haakon, consumed by grief of mind, died. King Alexander of the Scots, the third of this name, is said to have enjoyed familiarity with this Saint, familiarity with King Alexander III, who, if any of the Scottish
Kings was adorned by God with all virtues of body and mind, and was most tenacious of the Catholic and ancestral religion. It is said to have been his custom every day to attend the most holy sacrifice of the Mass and to kiss most devoutly the hands of the offering Priest from the elevation of the host, because he most firmly believed and held that the same God and man who is adored in heaven by the Angels is touched by the hands of the Priest at the altar. a pious death. Saint Duthac, weary of mortal life and desirous of seeing the eternal one, already nearly spent with old age, fell into a disease. When he bore its discomforts with the most equanimous spirit, and the disease itself, as the material of solid virtue and eternal glory, was numbered by him among divine benefits, often repeating that verse of David: "And what is my expectation, is it not the Lord?" Ps. 38:8 — he sought the heavenly realms around the year of Christ 1253. So Camerarius. Of the Kings of Scotland mentioned so far, William died in the year above 1200, the fourteenth; Alexander II in the forty-third year; Alexander III in the eighty-third year, as these are indicated in Leslie. In the Aberdeen Breviary it was prefixed that Saint Duthac died under Alexander II in the year 1249.
COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE
From the Aberdeen Breviary.
Duthac, Bishop of Ross in Scotland (Saint)
BHL Number: 2351
[1] Duthac, the elect Pontiff of God, drew his origin and birth from no ignoble Scottish family and lineage of blood; and in the beginnings of his adolescence he was handed over by his parents, He is imbued with the study of the liberal arts: to teachers excellently learned in the Christian faith, to be trained. After his age had advanced, together with that same age, the several virtues of the liberal arts also multiplied and increased in him. And while in these boyish and youthful years he was committed to the custody of his teachers, God himself, glorious, decreed to show and indicate through him a remarkable miracle to us. For while, at the instigation of his teacher, still a youth, he carries fire in his garment without being burned: he was sent to a certain forge for the purpose of obtaining fire, when he asked for fire, the smith's boy, instigated by a diabolical spirit, mocking the innocence of the little child, seized the iron tongs and, taking a not inconsiderable portion of burning coals from the furnace, brought them and threw them into the bosom of the blessed boy. He received them patiently and, carrying them to his teacher, his garments remained unburned and unharmed.
[2] Then, instructed by divine grace, he crossed by ship to Ireland, instructed in Ireland, he teaches in Scotland: in which he most carefully learned the precepts and laws of both the Old and New Testaments; and when he returned to Scotland, he publicly professed the same to all with all gentleness and mildness. By whom shortly afterward, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, he was elevated to the rank of Bishop and appointed the universal and chief Pastor of those souls, he is consecrated Bishop: and was consecrated by his fellow Bishops, meanwhile supported by outstanding miracles.
[3] For when the Blessed Duthac had been invited to dine at a certain person's house, a piece of meat and a gold ring, carried off by a kite, one of his company, overcome by gluttony, entrusted a piece of pork along with a gold ring to a certain disciple of the Blessed Duthac to be carried to his house. But the disciple, while he was making his way through a certain cemetery, laid down the piece of meat with the ring beside him, to pour out prayers for the souls of the dead resting there. While he was praying, a rapacious kite arrived, and seizing the piece of meat with the ring, flew across a certain stream into a very dense wood, and there secretly hid it. The disciple, terrified with a certain fear lest he fall into the hatred of that man, immediately returned and reported the sequence of events to the same. he recovers them by prayer: When the Blessed Duthac heard this, he poured out prayer for a little while; and without delay the kite flew back, prostrating itself at the feet of the Blessed Duthac, the man of God, with the said piece of meat and ring. The Blessed Duthac, receiving the ring, restored the piece of meat again to the kite, which joyfully flew back to its accustomed woods.
[4] A certain man devoted to the Blessed Duthac used to provide him with a loaf made with honey and butter, with one loaf he satisfies seven men, which the Blessed Duthac sent to a certain Religious man. That Religious man in turn sent it to another, and so on during one night it passed to seven persons in number. The seventh, unaware of this matter, sent the same loaf back again to the Blessed Duthac. The Blessed Duthac, blessing the same loaf, satisfied those seven, who had long been fasting, with the finest food. And moreover, having collected the fragments and offered them to the sick for whom no medicines had availed, he heals the sick: they were freed from their infirmities merely by the taste and flavor of these fragments, in the name of Christ.
[5] In the city of Dornoch, a certain Canon of that Church, on the solemnity of Saint Fimbarr, ordered a fat and plump ox to be slaughtered, to be distributed to the poor, carrying food to Saint Duthac, and one of the bystanders said about dividing it: "And who will carry a portion of this to Duthac?" A Cleric, who was held by a fervent love for the Blessed Duthac himself, among others offered himself as ready for this task; but on account of the very dark obscurity of the night and the gloomy sky, agitated by the greatest storms and winds, he could not and did not dare to leave the house. But trusting in the help and aid of the Blessed Duthac, he travels by night with a light appearing, he placed the portion of the ox upon a certain spit, and left the house. On his journey, the spit which he carried in his hand shone like a burning lamp, providing clear light to that same Cleric both going and returning in the darkness.
[6] The Blessed Duthac, after various other marks of virtues and presages of miracles, after death he is renowned for miracles, departed to Christ on the eighth day before the Ides of March, and is held in the greatest honor and veneration in the church of Tain, in the diocese of Ross: divinely granting health and the wholeness of life to the sick and those in ill health. Wherefore the greatest continuous affluence of Christian people hastens there, and he does not cease to shine with the most brilliant miracles. But after the burial of this venerable body, there for seven years, six months, and nine days, the same body was found so incorrupt the body incorrupt in the eighth year. as if it had departed from this life at that very hour. Which ecclesiastical men and men devoted to God, raising it up with honor, translated it with worthy honor from the tomb into a sarcophagus and a fitting casket. At the translation, very many miracles occurred from there onward, and far more of the sick and ailing were restored to health.