BY the fervent practices of the most perfect monastic discipline in one
of the famous abbeys in Fifeshire, he qualified himself to become, by
word and example, a guide and director to many chosen souls in the paths
of evangelical perfection. This appeared in the fruits of his zealous
preaching and labors, when he was raised to the abbatial, and soon after
to the episcopal dignity; for at that time, very few bishoprics being
erected in Scotland, it was customary for learned and holy abbots of
great monasteries to be often consecrated bishops, and to be attended by
their monks in performing their functions; as venerable Bede informs us,
speaking of St. Aidan.[1] St. Vimin, to shun the danger of vain-glory,
to which the reputation of many miracles which he had wrought exposed
him, removed to a more solitary place, and there founded the abbey of
Holywood, called in Latin Sacrum-boscum, in succeeding ages famous for
many learned men; particularly the great mathematician, John a
Sacro-bosco, in the thirteenth century. King places the death of St.
Vimin in 615, but brings no proofs for dating it so high. The noble and
very ancient family of Wemse, in Fifeshire, is said in Scotland to be of
the same lineage with this saint. The ancient prayer in the Aberdeen
breviary on his festival, and other monuments, bear evidence to the
great devotion of the ancient Scottish church to his memory. See
Breviarium Aberdonense of Chronicou Skonense.
Footnotes:
1. Bede, Hist. l. 4, c. 17, &c.