ON ST. CONGAN, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR, IN SCOTLAND,
From the Aberdeen Breviary and the Martyrologies.
MORE PROBABLY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 8TH CENTURY.
CommentaryCongan, abbot, confessor, in Scotland. (S.)
BY C. B.
Since it not seldom happens that one and the same Saint is venerated on two different days and stands inscribed in the Sacred Calendars, [St. Comgan, venerated today in Curcnia, who, although with St. Comgan, venerated on the 2nd of August,] indeed our predecessors once, at the second day of August among the Passed Over, not undeservedly called into doubt whether St. Comgan the abbot, whom Colgan, in the fourth Appendix to the Life of St. Columba, abbot of Iona, chapter 2, num. 13, teaches from Marianus Gorman and Maguire, and likewise from the Tallaght and Donegal Martyrologies, is venerated on this XIIIth day of October in Curcnia, a region of Western Meath, is not one and the same with St. Comgan who, as the same Colgan says in the place cited, is venerated on the 2nd day of August, the diversity of the days on which either the one or the twin Comgan is venerated being moreover taken into account; but for deciding with certainty, and placing beyond all controversy, the matter which they sent on from there to here to be further discussed, I have not yet been able to find anything sufficiently suitable, although a most diligent search has been made, nor, I think, will it easily be found.
[2] For since nothing at all is known which pertains to the life or deeds of the Comgan venerated on the second day of August, does not seem certainly to be, or certainly not to be, one and the same, whence, I ask, could anyone safely and conveniently, without danger of erring, draw out that he certainly was or was not the same as the Comgan venerated today? Colgan reveals in the place cited that the Comgan who is venerated on the 2nd of August was surnamed Celde, that is, Culdee or Worshipper of God; but among the ancient Scots, whose homeland, as is commonly known even to the learned, was Ireland, either all men consecrated to God, as some hold, or only, as seemed good to others (consult du Cange in the Glossary of middle and low Latinity at the word Colidei), either monks or presbyters not yet monks, were called Kel-de or Culdees; wherefore, if the first view prevails, both the St. Comgan who is venerated today and the St. Comgan who is venerated on the second of August could have been surnamed Kel-de or Culdee; but if only either monks or presbyters not yet monks were called Culdees, it is not to be believed, on the sole authority of Colgan, who indicates this without sufficiently ancient testimony, that this surname adhered to the Comgan venerated on the second of August but not likewise to the Comgan who is venerated today. Wherefore, whatever may be the case with the surname Kel-de or Culdee which was attributed to the Comgan venerated on the second day of August, not even thereby is all room for doubting taken away whether he is not one and the same with the Comgan venerated today; so that consequently our predecessors, all things considered, seem deservedly to have been able still to doubt the matter.
[3] [yet most probably, because with St. Congan, formerly venerated in the cathedral of Aberdeen,] But although this is so, yet most probably St. Comgan, venerated today in Curcnia, a region of Ireland, as Colgan says, was different from the Comgan venerated on the second day of August, on account of what is now to be said. In the Manuscript Catalogue, or rather Calendar, of the Saints of Scotland which exists with us, St. Congan the abbot, patron of Turriff in Buchan, a province of present-day Northern Scotland, is marked today, and he likewise has today an ecclesiastical Office of nine Lessons in the Breviary of the cathedral church of Aberdeen, which was printed at Edinburgh in the year 1509 by the press of Walter Chepman, and which exists with us in a handwritten copy; and although between the names Congan and Comgan there intervenes the difference of one little letter, yet I am persuaded that this one, whom Colgan says in the place cited above is venerated today in Curcnia, a region of Ireland, is one and the same with Congan, whom the Breviary of the cathedral church of Aberdeen in Scotland, just praised, attests to be likewise venerated today, or certainly to have been formerly accustomed to be venerated there, even from this, that both are venerated, or certainly were formerly venerated, in both places, from what has been said, on one and the same day, today. I know indeed that it can happen that a Saint who is venerated on some fixed day and in a place is different from a Saint of the same name who is venerated on the same day elsewhere, and that this one and that one thus constitute two Saints who, although namesakes and venerated on the same day, are yet distinct from each other; but that this, which indeed happens only very rarely, in fact has place in the Comgan who is venerated today in Ireland and the Congan who is venerated in Scotland, and consequently that the latter is not one and the same with the former, is not to be believed without grave reason; and it does not seem that a reason of this kind can be alleged in this case.
[4] seems to be one and the same, as the things adduced here persuade, The Comgan indeed who is mentioned by Colgan is believed to have acted as abbot in Ireland, but the Congan who has an ecclesiastical Office in the Aberdeen Breviary in Scotland; but just as many others are read to have done, so also Congan could have withdrawn from Ireland, leaving the monastery over which he presided there, into Scotland, where he likewise acted as abbot, and I persuade myself that he did this in fact, being impelled even by this, that it is handed down in the Aberdeen Breviary, just praised again, in which he is also called abbot, that he truly crossed over from Ireland into Scotland with some others and led a solitary life there in Erchadia, or rather (for I find no region or province of this name in Scotland) in Argadia or Argatelia, commonly Argyll, a province of the Scottish kingdom which lies next to Ireland. Congan indeed, if full credit is to be given to it in all things, was in Ireland, before he crossed over thence into Scotland, not an abbot but a king, and this certainly, which also appears altogether fictitious, as I shall show below, is not to be believed without an ancient surety, which it lacks; but although this is so, yet no one ought on this account, unless all and each of the things which are narrated about St. Congan in the Aberdeen Breviary are likewise to be held as fictitious, which does not appear likely, to be prevented from thinking that the Comgan venerated today in Ireland crossed over thence into Scotland, and consequently, on account of what has been said, is one and the same with Congan, formerly venerated likewise today in the cathedral church of Aberdeen. And indeed everyone who has attentively weighed what I have already alleged will, unless I am mistaken, readily acknowledge that he who has so judged will hold nothing but what most openly bears the appearance of truth.
[5] Now, since this is so, and Congan, formerly venerated today in the cathedral church of Aberdeen, [different from the said Comgan, venerated on the 2nd of August, and from Comgan of Glenussen,] departed from among the living only, as I shall show below, toward the beginning of the 8th century, it follows that St. Comgan the abbot, who, from what has been said, is most probably one and the same with this abbot of Scotland, and is, as Colgan teaches, likewise venerated today in Ireland, is different or distinct both from St. Comgan, abbot of Glenussen, already brought into our Work at the XXVIIth day of February, on which he is venerated, and from St. Comgan, most probably the nephew of St. Columba, abbot of Iona, mentioned by Colgan in the Trias, page 478 and following, since the former of these died before the year 569, as the things adduced by us about him at the said day of February prove, and the latter in the year 663, as Colgan teaches in the place just cited, or certainly in the 7th century; and hence, since St. Congan, the nephew of St. Columba, abbot of Iona, is one and the same, as Colgan hands down in the place cited, either with St. Comgan surnamed the Culdee, who is venerated on the 2nd of August, or with St. Comgan, abbot of the monastery of Cluainchonnaidh, who is venerated today in Ireland, it follows further that the latter of these, as being different, from what has been said, from St. Comgan, nephew of the abbot St. Columba, is likewise different from St. Comgan surnamed the Culdee, who is venerated on the 2nd of August.
[6] Further, just as from the fact that St. Congan, formerly venerated today in the cathedral church of Aberdeen, [and on the contrary, for the same reason, was one and the same with the namesake Saints mentioned here,] is most probably one and the same with St. Comgan, likewise venerated today in Curcnia, a region of Ireland, it follows that the latter is most probably different both from St. Comgan, abbot of Glenussen, and from St. Comgan,
the nephew of St. Columba, abbot of Iona, as I have already shown, so also you would not unfittingly infer from it that the same is different or distinct neither from Congan, or, as he is called with the name slightly changed, Cogan, who is related by Camerarius, On the Piety of the Scots, at the XXth day of February, as we advised at that day among the Passed Over, nor from Cogan, who stands inscribed at the XXIXth day of September, as we likewise advised at that day among the Passed Over, in the English Martyrology printed in the year 1608. For the Cogan mentioned by Camerarius was, as he says here, the brother of St. Kentigerna; wherefore, since Congan, formerly venerated today in the cathedral church of Aberdeen, is also called the brother of St. Kentigerna in the ecclesiastical Office with which he was honored in it, there is no doubt that in both places the discourse concerns one and the same Cogan. Now as regards the Cogan announced in Scotland by the English Martyrology at the XXIXth day of September, he is expressly handed down in that English Hagiology as born not in Ireland, in which Congan the abbot, who was formerly venerated today in the cathedral church of Aberdeen, obtained his birth, but in Scotland; but since its author flourished only in a more recent age, he by no means wins undoubted credit for himself in so ancient a matter; and since no abbot named Cogan or Congan who either enjoys or at some time enjoyed ecclesiastical cult in Scotland is found mentioned at all by writers of approved credit except Congan, formerly venerated today in the cathedral church of Aberdeen, the Cogan of both the English Martyrology and of Camerarius is most probably one and the same with this one, and consequently, as follows from what has been said, also with Comgan, venerated today, as Colgan teaches in the place already often cited, in Curcnia, a region of Ireland.
[7] [inscribed in all the sacred Calendars cited here, and further venerated also in Scotland] Nor does it appear that it is to be doubted that Congan the abbot, mentioned today in Greven's Usuardine Auctarium in Sollerius, without the place being expressed in which he is either venerated or flourished, is likewise one and the same with Congan, formerly venerated in the cathedral church of Aberdeen; and since this is so, from the fact that both this one and the others already related, Saints of the same name, are not different from St. Congan, formerly venerated today in the cathedral church of Aberdeen, with whom, as I have already shown, St. Comgan, likewise venerated today in Curcnia, a region of Ireland, is most probably one and the same, it also follows that he must be thought to be inscribed not only in the Tallaght and Donegal Martyrologies mentioned above and in those of Marianus Gorman and Maguire, but also in the Usuardine Auctarium just cited, and likewise in Camerarius's book On the Piety of the Scots and in the English Martyrology, to which the Calendar of the Saints of Scotland praised above must be added for the same reason. Nor is he to be thought only to be inscribed in the Sacred Calendars just mentioned, but also to enjoy, or certainly to have formerly enjoyed, public cult at Turriff in Buchan, and likewise in the cathedral church of Aberdeen, nay, in the whole kingdom of present-day Scotland.
[8] [or certainly formerly, and indeed with an Office of nine Lessons, must be thought to have been venerated.] For it is expressly asserted in the English Martyrology that Cogan, inscribed in it, with whom, as has been said, he is one and the same, had many chapels and altars, marked with his name, scattered through that whole kingdom, which have now been destroyed, the unhappy change in religion having been brought in; and Congan, with whom likewise, as I have already often advised, he is one and the same, is mentioned today, as I have already shown at num. 3, in the Catalogue or Calendar of the Saints of Scotland just praised again, both as patron of Turriff in Buchan and therefore as venerated in that place, and in the Aberdeen Breviary, which is noted to have been printed in the year 1509 for the use of the illustrious cathedral of this name and of the whole Scottish church, he has an ecclesiastical Office of nine Lessons, in which, immediately after the title by which it is indicated that he is especially venerated "at Tureff," namely, unless I am mistaken, that very place of Buchan in Scotland just named and distinguished by the appellation of Turriff, the following Prayer about him is proposed to be recited: "O God, who didst adorn blessed Congan, a pious shepherd, confessor likewise and abbot, with illustrious miracles, grant, we beseech thee, that, supported by his merits and patronage, we may merit to attain to heavenly joys. Through our Lord," etc. To this Prayer are then subjoined six Lessons proper to the deeds of the Saint, and then the seventh, from the exposition of the Gospel "No one lights a lamp," and all the rest are assigned from the Common of an Abbot and Confessor. Those six Lessons proper to St. Congan I exhibit here to the reader, since more excellent monuments or writings from which I might teach him his deeds are not at hand, in an uninterrupted series, as they exist with us in the Manuscript copy of the said Breviary, intending afterwards to subjoin my judgment on the things which they contain or hand down.
[9] They run thus: "They say that Congan, the brother of the matron Kentigerna, These six proper to the Saint, was the most dear maternal uncle of blessed Foelan the abbot. History has handed down that he descended from the royal genealogy of the Irish Scots and the Leinstermen, and from youth was devoted to military service, practised in the bow and in horse-racing. But, bereaved of both parents, he judged and ordained that the paternal kingdom was to be governed by laws and arms, and that the commonwealth itself and its utility were to be preferred to all domestic affairs and to private advantage. He decreed that the Catholic faith was to be preserved and the holy Church of God adorned, that tithes were to be paid to God, and salutary offerings of the fruits of the earth handed over to the priests of the Church, and he judged that these and similar things were to be openly and inviolably observed by those subject to him. Meanwhile, while blessed Congan himself so settled the kingdom committed to him by God in peace and tranquillity that all who had been handed over to his jurisdiction lived under the law of God, inflicting injury on no one in turn, to such an extent that by his teaching and law all preferred to serve God rather than the world. But, because the enemy is a plotter against good works, that inveterate one sowed tares among the neighboring co-kings or petty kings, and stirred up dire wars against blessed Congan, and moved their minds to ravage and plunder his kingdom by force and arms.
[10] "And war having been stirred up, and many on both sides having been slain by sword and arrows, are exhibited here, Congan, seeing so great a sprinkling of innocent blood, is turned to flight, and, put to flight by the enemy, was struck in the foot by an arrow; but by divine power he escaped their hand without other injury. Having abandoned the paternal kingdom and its vain glory, he enters religion, and with Kentigerna his sister, a matron most devoted to God, and her sons Foelan, Fursey and Ultan, men most dear to God, and seven other clerics, he came by ship into Scotland, and to the place which is called Lochelch, in Northern Erchadia, where he had led a most austere life, everywhere announcing the Christian faith, he preferred to lead a solitary life rather than a royal palace, and, clothed in a humble cowl, left an example of chastity to others. Wherefore in that place a little later, on account of the holiness of his uncle, blessed Foelan himself built a church in his honor, where blessed Congan himself is venerated and honored by the inhabitants of that land up to the present day; who, after the long and lasting misery of this life, living holily and devoutly under the rule and habit of a monk, gave back his spirit to God and was buried in the island of Iona."
[11] and some things which in these Such are the first six Lessons into which the Life, such as it is, of St. Congan the abbot is divided today in the Aberdeen Breviary. Behold now what my judgment is of the things which they hand down. Some of these, nay most, seem to have been drawn only from popular tradition. Certainly the author himself who composed those Lessons seems to indicate that he drew from there what he writes at the beginning, by setting it forth in the following words, which he records there: "They say that Congan, the brother of the matron Kentigerna, was the most illustrious maternal uncle of blessed Foelan the abbot." Blessed Foelan or Fillan the abbot, already brought into our Work at the IXth of January, the day on which he is commemorated by Camerarius in the Menology of the Scottish Saints, by Adam King in the Calendar of Scotland, and by Ferrari in the General Catalogue of the Saints, is asserted in the epitome of his Life, which is brought forward there from Camerarius, to have drawn his origin from Kentigerna, his most holy mother; and if this agrees with the truth, it will follow that Congan, the brother of Kentigerna, is rightly said in the Lessons of the Aberdeen Breviary transcribed here above to have been his maternal uncle; but I nowhere find it proved that the said epitome is worthy of entire or any credit, nor does it appear sufficiently certain that Congan was the brother of Kentigerna.
[12] deserve to be observed, This indeed Camerarius also affirms in book 3 On the Piety of the Scots, when he treats of this Saint at the VIIth day of January; but although our Bolland had before his eyes what he writes here about St. Kentigerna, he nevertheless referred her at the said VIIth day of January among the Passed Over, insinuating that he did so because he hoped it would come about that we might perhaps obtain something more certain about her from elsewhere. Nevertheless, since Congan is said to have been her brother not only by Camerarius and by the author of the Lessons which the Aberdeen Breviary supplies about Congan, but also by Colgan, who, after Bolland's January had been published and Kentigerna had been referred in it among the Passed Over, diligently discussed and published the things which pertain to this holy widow, and since I have hitherto found no one who contends the contrary, it appears sufficiently probable that Congan was in fact the brother of St. Kentigerna, and I would accordingly not obstinately oppose those who are persuaded of it. Since therefore St. Congan was truly, as it appears, the brother of St. Kentigerna, it must be that he is at the same time believed to have been begotten of a petty king or king of the Irish Scots and the Leinstermen. For Kentigerna, his sister, from what has been said, was born of Kelleus Cuallann, king of Leinster, as the things which Colgan, treating of St. Kentigerna in the Acts of the Scots of Ireland at the VIIth day of January, on which she is venerated, alleges there in the Notes, num. 7, from the Annals of Donegal, give as proved. But although Congan too, as follows from this, was born of Kelleus, king of Leinster, yet he is not on that account to be believed to have succeeded his father in that kingdom, as is handed down in the Lessons transcribed here above.
[13] For Colgan, in the Trias, page 598, lists from various catalogues of these and from the Annals of Donegal each and all of the princes or kings who reigned in Leinster from the beginning of the 6th century Into the midst up to the 11th century, its middle part having already passed, and yet among them, in that whole space of time, in which certainly Congan, if he had ever been king of Leinster, would have reigned there, no king named Congan occurs; and since this is so, and consequently fictitious
is the kingdom of St. Congan in Leinster, all the things likewise which are narrated by the author of the Lessons about his deeds in it, his subsequent expulsion from it, and the circumstances which accompanied it, must be judged fictitious. Nor could Fursey and Ultan have been thrust forward by him, with the truth safe, as brothers of St. Foillan, born of Kentigerna; for Foillan, whose brothers were Ultan and Fursey, was born of the same mother as they, who was called not Kentigerna but Gelgehe (see tome 2 of January of our Work, page 45, in the Notes), as is understood from his Manuscript Life, which exists with us, to be inserted in our Work at the XXXIst day of October, on which he is venerated. Nor does the author of the Lessons seem to have made SS. Fursey and Ultan brothers of St. Foillan, born of Kentigerna, for any other reason than that he confused St. Foillan, the son of Gelgehe, with St. Foelan or Fillan, born of Kentigerna.
[14] But that the latter is different from the former is clear even from this, adduced here, that the former, as the things which we have already shown at the first day of May in St. Ultan and at the XVIth of January in St. Fursey show, was killed by robbers between Nivelles in Brabant and Fosse or Fossea, a town of the domain of Liège; whereas the latter, after a solitary life led in present-day Scotland, departed to the Lord in a village there, as the Aberdeen Breviary, which exists with us in Manuscript and which we have already praised above more than once, teaches us at the IXth day of January, and Camerarius from it and from the Chronicles of Paisley (consult tome 1 of January of our Work, page 594). And hence indeed, and from the other things already alleged, it becomes manifest that undoubted credit is not to be given to all the things which the Lessons of the Aberdeen Breviary about St. Congan, given above, hand down to memory; but what shall we now say about the place Lochelch, in which he is handed down in the same Lessons to have led a very austere life in Northern Erchadia? I find that place noted nowhere in any geographical Maps of Scotland; and as regards Erchadia, in which it was situated, I have already advised at num. 4 that an error lies in that name and that the name of Argadia or Argatelia, commonly Argyll, is to be substituted for it.
[15] the time at which Congan died It now remains, since the island of Iona, in which the Saint is asserted to have been buried, is more than sufficiently known even from the monastery alone built there by St. Columba, that I here only teach the reader a few things still about the time at which Congan died, so that I may determine it in some fashion. Leslie, On the Deeds of the Scots, book 4, in Solvathius, the 64th, as he lays down, of their kings, writes thus toward the end: "About these times there flourished among the Scots men distinguished for learning and religion, Macarius, a most vigilant bishop, … Divinicus the archdeacon, Cogan and Dunstan, abbots, although there are not lacking those who throw back these most holy Men to other times." Since the praised author writes that Solvathius reigned from the year 768 to the year 788, he indicates by these words that Cogan or Congan the abbot, and the others whom he commemorates through the words just recited, flourished about that space of time which runs from the former to the latter of these two years; and yet, since the method of speaking which he uses admits of some latitude, he is not to be thought contrary to Wion and to the author of the English Martyrology cited above, of whom the one writes that Cogan or Congan died, the other that he flourished, about the year 760.
[16] is determined in some fashion. But although this is so, the death of Congan seems nevertheless rather to be placed at the beginning of the 8th century; which I am moved to think by the Annals of Donegal, very often praised by Colgan in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland. For in them, as he teaches in the same place at the VIIth day of January, in the Notes on St. Kentigerna, num. 7, it is written thus at the year 713: "Killeus Cuallann, son of Girtheus, king of Leinster, died"; and then at the year 728: "Coentigerna, daughter of Killeus Cuallann, died"; and since Kentigerna, whom the praised Annals thus hand down to have died in the year 728, or when the 8th century was not yet very far advanced, was probably, as I showed above, the sister of St. Congan, it appears more likely, on account of the authority of the said Annals, that he too died not about the year 760 or 780, but likewise when the 8th century was not yet very far advanced. These Annals indeed were digested only toward the beginning of the 17th century, but since they were composed by men most skilled in the History of Ireland, both sacred and profane, and only from the older and more approved Chronicles and Annals of the homeland, as Colgan teaches in the Preface prefixed to the Acts of the Saints of Ireland who are venerated in the first three months of the year, hence indeed it seems that credit in this matter should be given to them rather than to Leslie and the other writers just praised, who neither flourished long before the same 17th century nor, as appears, took their information from monuments so approved.