ON ST. GERVADIUS, CONFESSOR, IN NORTHERN SCOTLAND,
IN THE 9TH OR 10TH CENTURY?
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY
Gervadius, confessor in northern Scotland. (S.)
C. D. S.
[1] Of St. Gervadius The most ancient written testimony of the cult of St. Gervadius is furnished by the Aberdeen Breviary [First published at Edinburgh in the year 1509 – 1510 and again, following that edition, at London in the year 1854, 2 vols. in-4°.], in whose calendar on the 8th of November is announced the memory of Gervadius, conf., 9 lessons, while in the body of the summer part six proper lessons are recited on the same day, in which is contained a compendium of his Life. These we shall transcribe below.
[2] uncertain is In these lessons Gervadius is by no means shown to have been adorned with episcopal dignity, but to have led an anchoretic life with certain other holy men, his disciples. A different tradition, however, is reported by Thomas Dempster, in his Scottish Menology on the 8th of November First published at Bologna in the year 1622., writing thus In Alex. Penrose Forbes, Kalendars of Scottish Saints (1872), p. 218.: At Elgin, of Gervadius, bishop of Moray, who under King Achaius was the author of concluding the perpetual treaty with France, and, SS. Alcuin, Clement, Rabanus and John having been dispatched The edition has a mandatis. to St. Charlemagne, himself remained in Scotland, to instruct the people by word and example. K. By the letter K added at the end the authority of Adam King is invoked, who indeed in his calendar First published at Paris in the year 1588. announced on the 8th of November: S. Gervade confess. and bischop of Murray under King Achaius St. Gervadius, confessor and bishop of Moray under King Achaius In Forbes, op. cit., p. 167.. These were followed by Philippus Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of the saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology (1625): At Elgin, of St. Gervadius, bishop of Moray; by David Camerarius, who in the calendar inserted in his work De Scotorum fortitudine First published at Paris in the year 1631. twice recorded Gervadius, namely first on the 21st of June: St. Gervadius, bishop of Brechin
in Scotland In Forbes, op. cit., p. 238., and again on the 9th of November: St. Gernadius (sic), bishop of Moray Ibid., p. 242.; and finally by Richard Challoner in the Memorial of ancient British piety (1761), on the 8th of November: In Scotland the festivity of the saints Gervad bishop and Morok confessor Cf. below, p. 857., who flourished in the beginning of the ninth century.
[3] of his episcopate, Whether that bishop of Brechin who is announced in Camerarius on the 24th of June is to be judged different from the Gernadius or Gervadius to whose veneration the 9th of November is assigned in the same author, since every older testimony is lacking, must be left uncertain by us. Now the dioceses of Brechin and of Moray are contiguous, in the northern part of Scotland, to that of Aberdeen, the former to the south, the other from the west, whose chief town is Elgin, which Dempster also indicated as the chief seat of the cult of St. Gervadius. But that Gervadius was bishop of the region of Moray [Commonly Moray or Murray; of which region the present county of Elgin was a part.] no authority older than the end of the 16th century has asserted, nor do any ancient testimonies at all record that there were bishops in northern Scotland before the 11th century [Cf. A. Bellesheim, Geschichte der katholischen Kirche in Schottland, vol. I (1883), p. 492 – 96.]. Altogether wrongly, however, did Adalbert Müller interpret the title of bishop of Moray attributed to Gervadius, where he announced on the 8th of November: Gervadius, Bischof in Mähren Gervadius, bishop in Moravia Allgemeines Martyrologium (1860), p. 565..
[4] uncertain history, The name of King Achaius and the tradition of the treaty concluded by him with the emperor Charlemagne Dempster drew, as it is permissible to conjecture, from the fabulous (as regards this remote age) Scottish chronicles or histories which John of Fordun, Hector Boece and George Buchanan wrote. Accordingly the learned recent writers of the history whether of Charlemagne or of Scottish affairs, Sigurd Abel and Bernhard Simson Jahrbücher des Fränkischen Reiches unter Karl dem Grossen (1883 – 88)., W. F. Skene Celtic Scotland (1876 – 80)., A. Bellesheim Op. cit. above., have taken no account of this tradition.
[5] uncertain time. The authority of Dempster's account being now emptied, since scarcely any greater is to be attributed to the legend of the Aberdeen Breviary, of which we do not know at all whence it was taken, we cannot even define with probability at what time Gervadius lived. Adam King indeed and his followers Cf. above, no. 2., since they made Gervadius contemporary with King Achaius and him with Charlemagne, consequently asserted that the saint flourished at the beginning of the ninth century. Skene, however Celtic Scotland, vol. II, p. 369., who in treating of Gervadius records the one testimony of the Aberdeen Breviary, thinks that his age is to be set a little before the middle of the tenth century, since he is read Life, c. 2. to have lived at the time when the English invaded Scotland; and this, Skene says, took place in the year 934, under Athelstan, king of the Northumbrians.
[6] Of his cult. Of the cult of St. Gervadius, besides the announcements of the martyrologists adduced above No. 1, 2., we have found one trace indicated by more recent writers, namely a cave and a spring gushing from the rock near the town of Elgin, marked with his name among the inhabitants of the region Skene, vol. II, p. 369; Bellesheim, vol. cit., p. 187..
LIFE OF ST. GERVADIUS
From the summer part of the Aberdeen Breviary (London, 1854), fol. cxlviii.
Gervadius, confessor in northern Scotland. (S.)
BHL Number: 3511
[1] Gervadius, Irish by birth, having passed into Scotland, Gervadius, an outstanding confessor of Christ, whom the Irish land brought forth from his parents. He, stirred by the divine will, deserted his native soil, and, preaching the word of life throughout Scotland, came to the territory of Moray Cf. Prelim. Comm., no. 3.. In that place he associated with himself very many fellow soldiers in Christ, and, having received an oracle from an angel, as is reported, in the place which is called Kenedor [Or Kinnedar, which village is now part of the village of Drainie, which is distant from the town of Elgin about four English miles or almost six and a half kilometres to the north. In that place the first bishops of Moray resided until the year 1215, when the episcopal see was translated to the village of Spynie and shortly after, in the year 1224, to the town of Elgin. Cf. Bellesheim, vol. cit., p. 187; Sam. Lewis, A topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1846), under the words Drainie (vol. I, p. 290), Spynie (vol. II, p. 481; where, however, contrary to what had been said under the word Drainie, it is indicated that the episcopal see of this diocese was at Spynie from the first establishment of the diocese of Moray in the year 1057), Elgin (vol. I, p. 397).] he built an oratory or a certain little cell, so that he might give himself the more speedily to contemplation; in which he himself, with fasts and the pursuits of prayers, preoccupied with no secular business at all, contemplated the divine glory as an anchorite [Some think that in this place is represented the primitive form of the institute of the Celi De or Culdees, which they say was anchoretic or eremitical (cf. Skene, Celtic Scotland, vol. II. pp. 247 – 61, 275 – 77). But that question of the nature of the institute of the Culdees still seems very involved. Cf. W. Reeves. The Culdees of the British Islands (1864, from the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Section of Antiquities, vol. XXIV, 1860); Bellesheim, vol. cit., pp. 121 – 28, 133 – 34.]. In that place he had a little bed of stone, in which he was accustomed to refresh his weary limbs, tired out with prayer.
[2] there by many Nor did his holy and devout contemplation hold on without the presage of miracles. For when the king of the English was stirring up wars against the Scots, a certain Englishman humbly asked blessed Gervadius that he would 〈pray〉 God for him, that, because he was about to go into battle, He would absolve him from his sins. Then blessed Gervadius, moved by mercy and pity, because he was a Christian, said to the aforesaid man: "May the Lord Jesus Christ forgive your sins and make you a sharer of the heavenly kingdom." And on the next day, when a heavy battle had been joined, the English were utterly laid low on the ground by the Scots. But the rest who survived gave themselves to flight. But the Englishman of whom we made mention above was beheaded in fleeing in the midst of his own men, and by the merits of the blessed man rendered up his life to God in peace, a saving one. Then St. Gervadius, hearing this, commanded his disciples to carry the body of the slain man. They, refusing, said: "How can we recognize his corpse among the bodies of many?" But blessed Gervadius answered: "You will receive a sign from God by which you will discern his corpse." Then his ministers, looking at the corpses where the multitude had been slain, saw black birds sitting upon each of them, but upon his, which they had come to carry, a white bird. Understanding that this had been made known by God, they washed it, placing it on a pallet; but his head they did not find. Returning, they announced to blessed Gervadius that its head was missing. He, praying and asking of the Lord that He would make known the head of the slain man. And when he had prayed, he saw a wolf leading it to the place where the body had been buried.
[3] by miracles At another time, when blessed Gervadius had oxen for the work of ploughing, a wolf killed one of them. Blessed Gervadius, learning what had been done, commanded the wolf in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to sustain the work of the ox which he had killed, until the time of ploughing should be completed. He, obeying his command, remained harmless with the oxen during the whole time of ploughing.
[4] he is made illustrious. Moreover, when blessed Gervadius had no timber with which to build his church [From this too it is permissible to gather an indication by which it may be shown that Gervadius belonged to the early times of Christian Scotland, in which wooden churches were commonly built everywhere. For from the beginning of the 9th century they were accustomed now to be built of stone. Cf. Skene, vol. cit, pp. 291, 297.], he asked a certain disciple of his for timber for his church; who willingly granted it to him. But since he had no animals or horses wherewith to draw such timber to the place chosen for building his church, by divine power on that night there were enormous thunders, and rain came down from heaven beyond the wonted manner. The rains rose so high that they shook to the ground the basilica of his said disciple, and turned the channel, on whose bank it was being built, against nature into another course, and carried the said timber across to the cell of blessed Gervadius.