St Ethernan: a philological and historical case-study of a Pictish saint

Thesis

The persistant endurance of local saints’ cults is an attribute of the ecclesiastical culture of the medieval Celtic societies. Many of these early saints are historically obscure, and this is equally true of the Pictish regions where evidence of early Christian figures is scanty and poorly documented, although much of the material of the later medieval saints’ cults in Scotland is derived from the eighth through tenth centuries. We find that the majority of the saints’ cults in Scotland are to Irish-born ecclesiastics associated with the Columban Church. Most of these saints flourished between years 563 (the year in which St Colum Cille founded the monastery of Iona), and c. 710 when the Pictish king Nechton mac Derili (c. 709-724) converted to the Roman tradition by means of Northumbrian influences.

[Introduction continues in thesis]

Authors: Kilpatrick, K

• Type of award: MSt
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford