Hiya, I'm Bruce Fummey. The Patron Saint of Scotland, seems obvious doesn't it? The Saltire's a
St Andrew's Cross, we celebrate St Andrew's Day, around the world Scots meet in St Andrew's Societies,
but what if I were to tell you that when Robert the Bruce went to battle at Bannockburn,
he had the name of another Patron Saint on his mind, on his lips, and his relics to the fore.
I'll be honest, this episode goes far enough back, that the character and some of the information is
difficult to tie down, but if I were to say that St Andrew didn't become the Patron
Saint of Scotland until after the Battle of Bannockburn, in fact, until another date
of significance to Scots in 1320. If I were to tell you that the use of his flag didn't become
officially accepted until a Parliament later even than that in 1383. If I were to tell you
that St Andrew's Day is actually an American invention created by the world's first ever St
Andrew's Society of Scots in South Carolina in 1729. Would these things surprise you?
Of course the cult of St Andrew was strong in Scotland way before that. Seals had been
made with his cross. His cross had been significant since its miraculous appearance in the sky before
the Battle of Athelstaneford. Margaret Canmore, St Margaret, Queen Margaret had organised the Queen's
Ferry to ship folk taking the pilgrimage from Lothian to Fife to visit the relics
of St Andrew, but the choice of Patron Saint wasn't a done deal, and there was another candidate.
If you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then click
the subscribe button at the bottom right and ring the notification bell to find out when I publish
new videos. In the meantime, let me tell you the story of the original Patron Saint of Scotland.
One of the churches in the next village to me in Perthshire, is named after him,
so is one in Comrie and one in Callander.
The town of South Kessock, North Kessock and a bridge in the Highlands, this boy got aboot (around),
but he's best known here on the banks of Loch Lomond. Now we can't be 100 per cent certain about
his date of birth, but we think 460 A.D. Like many early Scottish Saints and Missionaries
he came across the Irish Sea. Actually I made a video about the better known Irish Missionary to the Picts
St Columba, and obviously there's going to be a link at the end to that video. It's crucial to
understanding Scotland's history. Like St Columba, this Saint came from the Emerald Isle. Like St
Columba, he was the child of a royal family, in fact one of the earliest stories that we have about
him was as a child of the royal house at Cashel in Munster. Now neighbouring royal families were
visiting the Munsters, no and whilst the parents were doing the royal pageantry and negotiating or
whatever the stuff that they do, the young Princes went off to play. Now I don't picture a medieval
Sir Lancelot Court of Norman fables. In 6th Century Celtic Ireland, I'm picturing a much more
like a wedding where the adults are lubricating social cogs with uisge (whiskey) of the beatha variety. A
round face bloke called Davie Cormack is in the corner playing his accordion, surrounded by
his band members. There's hoochin, there's teuchin (drinking) and there are wee boys in wee kilts that have
lost the formality of their wee jackets and wee elasticated bow ties, and they're chasing
wee girls in satin dresses and sliding across the dance floor in as many permutations as possible.
That was just a test to see if you were Scottish. If that brings back memories
then you passed. If you were the wee boy whose kilt was swirling then you passed with flying colours.
Anyway the dance floor must have been near a river or a lochen (small loch) or something like that because there
was an accident, and several of the wee Princes drowned. The music stopped with a bone juddering jolt!
Accusations fly, safety, security, hospitality, personal responsibility, clan loyalty, and a return
to camp for weapons drawn. As the night dawns its dark cloak of ill omen, the wee Munster Prince
takes the lead, and he spends the small hours in prayer for his little companions,
and the next morning they wake like Lazarus returned. It's a miracle, a
miracle to be stored in the memory and oral tradition til many years and generations later
when it'll be perfectly recalled as if it were yesterday by folks who swear that they were there,
but that's all in the future. In the meantime at school Kessog's Careers Advisor says, 'Have you
ever thought of becoming a miracle-working Monk? You seem to have the attributes'. Now the pay and
conditions don't quite match that of royalty, but once you're trained up, there are always looking
for missionaries, and you'll never be short of work, oh and there's travel opportunities as well.
Guided by St Patrick himself, he headed off to a monastery and then his travels brought him here to
Loch Lomond, but I don't want you to think of the tourist trap of today, I want you to think of Loch
Lomond at the cusp of the 5th and 6th Century. If you watch my video, 'How Scotland got its Borders',
there should be a white tab up there that you can come back to, to click, if you watch that you'll
see that this is smack bang on the border between three peoples who were regularly at war with each
other. This was like passing your banking exams and being told you're being sent to manage the
branch in Baghdad, Mogadishu, Kandahar or Michigan. Choose the city that's got a civil war going on at
the time that you're watching. The Picts held pretty much everything from the other side of the loch
to the east. Here you're on the edge of Argyll and the territory of the Scots,
and just south of us is Dumbarton, Dun na Bhreatan, the fort of the Britons. St Kessog
built his monastery on this island on Loch Lomond now called Inchtavannach,
the Island of the Monk. He founded a church here in 510 A.D. That was before St Columba was born
Now this is the modern church of St Kessog. There's an effigy of our Saint inside. Now the
Scots of Dalriada may have been Christian at the time that we're talking about, but that wouldn't
necessarily have been the case for their Pictish or British neighbours. The churches, bridges, and place
names that I mentioned earlier, show that from this base he travelled far and wide, indeed he must
have ministered to the Picts before Columba. He must have made pagan enemies as well as friends though,
and he was apparently murdered by pagans on the shore by his island down there in March
520 A.D., but in some ways that's where his story begins. They say that around the site of
St Kessog's burial grew verdant flowers, and of course in the Gaelic tongue, a flower is lus,
and that's how this picturesque village on the banks of Loch Lomond got its name. Now when Robert
the Bruce fled west after the Battle of Methven, he attributed his survival to get to, then across
this loch and out to the Hebrides, to the grace of two Saints in particular, St Fillan, who'd a shrine and a cult over at Loch Earn,
and of course our St Kessog, who helped what's left of his band to survive when he crossed over
here. So in June 1314, a King facing overwhelming numbers, men, equipment and mounted cavalry in
what should be a one-sided battle that's not in his favour, a king who's been excommunicated by
the Church of Rome and is looking to bring together a disparate nation with differing
languages and cultures, it's not entirely surprising that he should choose a Saint
from the crossing point of the three kingdoms that formed Scotland here, not from the Roman Church, but
the original Celtic Church, in which the nation was rooted. A Saint, who at this King's lowest
point had taken care of him and seen him safe to the other side. Maybe that's why at Bannockburn
the cry was for St Kessog, whose relics were held aloft, who truly has a claim to be the first
Patron Saint of Scotland, but don't leave it at that click this link to find out about St
Columba, the Monk who made Scotland. Tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.