(8TH CENT.)
[Scottish and Irish Martyrologies. Life in the Aberdeen Breviary.]
S. Fillan, whose name is famous in ancient Scottish and Irish Calendars,
was the son of Feriach, a noble, and his saintly wife Kentigerna,
daughter of Cualann, king of Leinster. His father ordered him to be
thrown into the lake, near his castle, and drowned, when he was shown to
him, for he was somewhat unshapely. But, by the ministry of the angels,
at the prayer of his mother, he floated ashore. S. Fillan was given by
Bishop Ibar to the abbot Munna, to be educated. As he wrote at night in
his cell, he held up his left hand, and it shone so brilliantly that he
was able to write with the right hand by the light shed by the left
hand.
When the abbot Munna died (A.D. 635), S. Fillan was elected to succeed
him as head of the monastery of Kilmund in Argyleshire. After some
years, he resigned his charge, and retired to his uncle Congan, brother
to his mother, in a place called Siracht, a mountainous part of
Glendarshy, in Fifeshire, where, with the assistance of seven others, he
built a church. He was buried at Straphilline, and his relics were long
preserved there with honour. The Scottish historians attribute to his
intercession a memorable victory obtained by King Robert Bruce, in 1314,
over the English at Bannockburn. His pastoral staff and bell still
exist.