Kennera

ON ST. KENNERA, VIRGIN, IN GALLOWAY, A DISTRICT OF SCOTLAND,

AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME.

CRITICAL SYLLOGE

Kennera, V., in Galloway, a district of Scotland. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ Single. The situation of Galloway and the origin of its inhabitants. St. Kennera, virgin, not martyr, of Galloway in Scotland, confused at the beginning of the sixteenth century with St. Cunera, virgin and martyr, of Rhenen in the Netherlands.

Galwedia, commonly Galloway, is a district of Scotland, inclining toward the winter sunset. In the fifth century it was inhabited by British tribes, [In Galloway, which Britons, Anglo-Saxons, Irish, and Gaels inhabited, St. Kennera was venerated at Kirkinner,] namely the Selgovæ, Novantes, and Damnii, disunited and so without strength. The Anglo-Saxons easily overcame them and ruled over them in the sixth and seventh centuries. But when at the end of the eighth century the Northumbrian house was extinguished, the Saxons lost their authority, retaining however their estates. So Irish immigrants easily occupied some seats; to whom others were added in the ninth and tenth centuries, and also Scots from the peninsula of Kintyre. Since these were called and are still called Gaels, they imparted their name to the region Wilson, The imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, volume I, page 707. There exists there the parish of Kirkinner, formerly Kyrkyner, divided by a sea bay from the town of Wigtown. This name is the same as Kirk Kinner, that is, the church of Kennera. For a church had been dedicated to God under the patronage of St. Kennera, now commonly called there Kinneir. Edward Bruce, lord of Galloway, had given this church to the monks of Whithorn; but they exchanged it in the year 1503 for the church of St. Andrew * in the county of Kirkcudbright, so that it might be annexed to the royal chapel of Stirling. But now only rubble survives of that most ancient building, by which for so many years the memory of St. Kennera was preserved Ibid. volume II, page 258. In the year 1863 some renown came to this place in that on the shore of the neighboring Loch Dowalton there was uncovered a series of islands set on stakes or piles, which the first inhabitants occupied, and besides the traces of a Celtic fort on a hill toward the winter sunrise. But more recently the name of St. Kennera and her church has also been commended to posterity by John Stuart, secretary of the Spalding Society and a distinguished man among Scottish scholars, when in his second volume on the sculptured stones of Scotland Sculptured stones of Scotland, volume II, page 68, plate CXXII, 1867 (in which work the reader doubts whether the splendor and accuracy of the images or the most sagacious revealing of recondite matters is the more to be admired) he made mention of both, although he produced from there only two inscribed stones adorned with interwoven figures and crosses. For the names too that have been recorded in so sumptuous and so learned a book are consecrated forever.

[2] a virgin not a martyr, but called by others virgin and martyr, Since therefore every year on the 29th of October the natal day of the most holy patroness was festively kept there, her name was received into the Scottish calendars and martyrologies. Hence, then, the following announcement: On the same day, namely the 29th of October, in Scotland at Kyrkyner in Galloway, St. Kennera, virgin, not martyr. These same words are read at the present day in the Martyrology of Usuard according to the use of the church of Aberdeen, which at the beginning of the sixteenth century the cathedral chapter of Moray had written. The Scottish parts of this Martyrology, first sampled in the first volume of the Register of the bishopric of Aberdeen Spalding Club, Registrum episc. Aberdonensis, volume I, page LXXXV, were published entire by David Laing in the proceedings of the antiquaries of Scotland Proceedings of the antiquaries of Scotland, page 270. There, then, St. Kennera is called virgin, not martyr. Elsewhere we have more than once pointed out that Greven, who in the years 1515 and 1521 twice published at Cologne the Martyrology of Usuard with many additions, was preceded by a certain Scottish calendar; and indeed at the present day he brought from it into his Martyrologies the virgin Kenneria, omitting the praise of martyr. But we have at hand another Scottish calendar, which was published at the beginning of the second volume of that Register of Aberdeen with this title Regist. episc. Aberd. volume II, page 2 and following: The distinguished Calendar of the church of Aberdeen, made, that is, written and painted, by order of Bishop Gavin, at Antwerp, A. D. 1527. H. — Below are added the anniversaries of each month founded in the cathedral church, written C. A. D. 1520, continued to A. D. 1560. And in this at the present day is read: Of Kennera, virgin and martyr. IX lessons; where the same virgin is openly called martyr.

[3] and in the Breviary of Aberdeen confused with St. Cunera, the Dutch martyr, Why then in so slight a space of time is she who was called not a martyr called a martyr? I think thus: that formerly at Kyrkyner or Kirkinner the feast of St. Kennera was kept with the office from the common of virgins not martyrs; because her Life was unknown: and that so the occasion was given for St. Cunera, virgin and martyr, to be substituted for St. Kennera, virgin, not martyr. That this may appear more manifestly, first Boece must be heard, pursuing the praises of William Elphinstone, bishop of Aberdeen Aberdonensium episcoporum Vitæ, folio XXXI: The deeds of the saints, he says, to whom for the most part the parish churches among us are dedicated, sought out in many places he collected into one, a work neglected longer than was right: and he obtained that they should be recited every year at the solemn rites of the saints. For the English, at the time when they occupied the greater part of our region, burned all the deeds of the saints (who shone among us) committed to memory, the books both of histories and of those which were in use in the rites: using in their place their own rituals and books of sacred rites, so that nothing not English might be found among us worthy of praise. And hence arose the Breviary of Aberdeen, published at Edinburgh in the year 1509 and reprinted at London in the year 1854; in which Breviary were inserted lessons on St. Cunera, virgin and martyr, of Rhenen in the Netherlands, whose natal day is kept on the 12th of June, but whose translation was celebrated with much greater solemnity and a more copious concourse of people on the 28th of October, on which (as we said at the immediately preceding day) her name is inscribed in some martyrologies Cf. Acta SS. June volume II, page 558. In this way, then, St. Kennera, virgin, not martyr, was changed into St. Cunera, virgin and martyr, whom they said was of the company of St. Ursula; but with little likelihood.

[4] as is established from many heads, Nor are we impelled only by these weighty reasons to call St. Cunera and St. Kennera different: there is the further fact that St. Cunera was venerated on the days 12 June and 28 October, St. Kennera on the 29th of October; then that Greven, who first had the Martyrology of Usuard printed with the names of SS. Cunera and Kennera, clearly distinguishes them. At the 28th of October he uses these words: The Translation of St. Cunera, virgin and martyr, of the company of the eleven thousand virgins; at the following day: Of Kenneria, virgin. Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the saints distinguishes them, but also confuses them, when, following Molanus's Usuard at the one day and the Scottish calendar of King or Regius at the other, he thus speaks at the 28th of October: At Rhenen in Belgium, St. Cunera, virgin and martyr; and at the 29th of October: At Cologne the passion of St. Keinera, virgin, companion of St. Ursula. That they are there reported as distinct is clear; yet that they are confused is plain even from this, that those who make the Scottish St. Kennera a companion of St. Ursula hold her to be the same as St. Cunera of Rhenen. Omitting Ferrarius, then, it must finally be considered that the cult of St. Cunera was indeed renowned among the people of Rhenen, but by no means extended or spread to other regions; that hence it is not understood how it could ever have passed over to the Scots. In truth Ferrarius says in his annotations that it is related that the relics of St. Keinera were carried back to her homeland; but this is a rash assertion, since no one relates this, but up to the sixteenth century the relics of St. Cunera were preserved at Rhenen Ibid. pages 559 and 560.

[5] briefly indicated. Wherefore, since the feast days do not agree, since the one was formerly called martyr and the other not martyr, since before Elphinstone no one is found who confused them into one, and since finally no cause appears for a transfer of the cult of St. Cunera to Scotland, I judge entirely that St. Kennera was a Gael, either Scottish or Irish. For this feminine name also is Celtic, the same as Cainer or Cainner; by which was called the mother of St. Mochua of Cluain Dolcain Martyrologium Dungallense, page 215 and of St. Senchan of Imleach Iubhair, and likewise St. Cainder, venerated on the 28th of January Ibid. page 29, and another St. Cainder, inscribed in the martyrologies at the 5th of November Ibid. page 299. — Whether St. Kennera of Galloway was born in Scotland or in Ireland, at what time she lived, what she did, all these things are hidden from me. Nor do I dare to go along with the opinion of John Stuart Sculpt. stones, volume II, page 34, who will have it that she was not Irish by race but British. For, although the authority of that most learned man is very great, I am forbidden by our institutes from swearing by the words of a master, and am bidden to await the arguments by which he may confirm his statements. — And in order that what I affirmed above may be seen with the eyes, namely that the lessons read in the Breviary of Aberdeen on St. Kennera are taken from the Acts of St. Cunera of Rhenen, it would certainly be necessary to produce those lessons and these Acts; but since that Breviary is now not rare among the Scots, and since the Acts of St. Cunera have already once been printed in our work at the 12th of June, let the Scots themselves compare the two records with each other.

* Kirkandrew