ON SAINT KESSOG, BISHOP IN SCOTLAND, SIXTH CENTURY
PrefaceKessog, Bishop in Scotland (Saint)
[1] David Camerarius, in book 3 on the piety of the Scots, in the Menology for this day, hands down these things about Saint Kessog: On the same day Saint Makkessog, who was also called Kessog, Confessor and Bishop in Boyne, a province of Scotland, celebrated for the glory of his miracles, who, being in great favor with Congall, Veneration among the Scots the second King of the Scots of this name, accomplished many things through him for the glory of God, and many for public example: he was also the author of concord and peace for many princely men: and he so formed the King, devoted to piety, for the Scots, that the King seemed to vie with the monks themselves in moderation of mind and uprightness of morals. The province of Boyne gave Makkessog to the heavenly ones about the year of Christ 560, in the second year of King Congall. The Chronicles of Paisley and the Aberdeen Breviary treat of Saint Makkessog, which speaks of him thus: The blessed Confessor of Christ, born of a noble family, is said to have been renowned for many miracles from his earliest age, etc. But he does not cite the words of the Aberdeen Breviary faithfully enough, having omitted his origin from the city of Mamon and the lineage of the illustrious Kings of Ireland, whom we scarcely doubt to have been Kings of Munster: and the name of the province, whose royal seat was Cashel, has been taken, by an easy error in traditions of this kind, for the name of a city: for there is no city Mamonia in Ireland. Then in the title of this Life the year 520 is set down, at which time Conrad, the successor of Congall the first and uncle of this one, is held by Leslie and others to have reigned. Thomas Dempster likewise in the Scottish Menology honors him with this eulogy: In Leuinia, of Makkessag the Bishop: whose name is earnestly invoked by soldiers, and he himself is painted in military dress with arrows and a bent bow. Leuinia is otherwise called Lennox, at the border of ancient Northumbria, whose town Dumbarton is well enough known. But far from there, in northern Scotland, is the region of Boyne and Boyne castle beyond the province of Buchan.
[2] Other Martyrologies have made mention of the same Bishop: and indeed the manuscript Florarium twice, in these words: and the foreign Martyrologists. In England, of Kessegius, Bishop and Confessor: and, with other things put between, In Scotland, of Blessed Bessogus, Bishop and Confessor. The Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490, as also the Doctrinale Clericorum published at Lübeck in the same year: In Scotland, of Saint Kessog,
Bishop and Confessor. The same is found in Hermann Greven in the Auctarium of Usuard and in Canisius in the German Martyrology. Greven again asserts that according to some he is listed on March 12. Ferrarius also lists two in his General Catalogue when he has the following: In Scotland, of Saint Kessog the Bishop. In the region of Lennox, of Saint Makkessag the Bishop. For the first he cites Canisius, for the second the Scottish Martyrology, namely that of Dempster, whose words he transcribes. He seems to wish to assign the former to the Irish: and it is surprising that he is not listed by Colgan, although he is said to have been born in Ireland and to have come to present-day Scotland. Our Henry Fitz-Simon inscribed him in the Catalogue of the principal Saints of Ireland and calls him Bissogus. What we append below from the Aberdeen Breviary as a eulogy is the beginning of longer Acts which have perished: in which Kessog is noted in the title as being commonly called Makkessage.
THE BEGINNING OF THE LIFE
From the Aberdeen Breviary.
Kessog, Bishop in Scotland (Saint)
BHL Number: 4650
[1] son of a King in Ireland, of the city of Mamon, Kessog, an illustrious Confessor of Christ, drew his origin and name from the city of Mamon and the lineage of the illustrious Kings of Ireland: who from his boyhood, at the beginning of his earliest age, is recorded to have been famous for miracles of virtues, and to have been a help to many in various infirmities. Indeed the father of this holy man, while he willingly ruled the aforesaid city with the royal diadem and scepter, out of the love of charity and affection which he had continually had toward the other co-rulers of the same country, invited them to feast with him and strongly encouraged them to bring their sons with them. The aforesaid Kings therefore, he walks with two sons of Kings: with their two sons, very handsome in body, whom they undoubtedly loved dearly, set out toward the city of the aforesaid King: whom he received with all reverence and honor, with great triumph and the blare of trumpets and the sound and noise of musical instruments, rejoicing, and drew them to himself most amicably. And when the said sons of the Kings were passing by a certain lake together with Saint Kessog, still a youth, for the sake of recreation, a quite wonderful event occurred. For these three sons of Kings, walking alone together, whom, submerged in the lake, two by mere chance, while swimming in the lake, were drowned, and Kessog alone escaped alive, who secretly reported each thing to his father. Hearing this, a certain man named Elinthus, a citizen of the same city, feared lest from this a greater evil might arise between such Kings: desiring as much as he could to mitigate the grief of the Kings over the death of their sons. Nevertheless, excusing the Blessed Kessog, weeping, he announced to the same Kings the entire sequence and lamentable outcome of the event. When they understood what had happened, so that he might avert the anger of the royal parents, they were affected with such great fury that, if they did not have their sons alive, they solemnly vowed to give the entire city and kingdom of the said King of Mamon to fire and the worst destruction. The blessed Kessog therefore, lest he should fall into any hatred of those Kings or of his own father, and grieving and thinking about the overthrow of his city and his father's kingdom by the said Kings, he raises them by his prayers. by his father's urging and persuasion, prostrated himself in prayer to God: where he persevered the entire night until cock-crow. Where at last the heavenly messenger, gazing upon the man of God, roused him, saying: Kessog, arise quickly from prayer, famous for other miracles, because the Lord has heard your prayers: for the sons of the Kings, for whom you have prayed, are coming back to life and are well: and when he awoke, he delivered them with all humility to the said Kings, from which they obtained no small joy. Meanwhile very many other miracles were performed through the same man of God, he rests in the church of Lus: which are described at greater length in his Life. At last, full of grace, he penetrated the heavenly skies, and was delivered to solemn burial in the Church of Lus, and there he rests.