To his holy prayers Aidan, king of the Scots, ascribed a wonderful
victory which he gained over Ethelfrid, the pagan king of the
Northumbrian English; and by his councils Eugenius IV., who succeeded
his father Aidan in the kingdom soon after this battle, treated all the
prisoners with the utmost humanity and generosity, by which they were
gained to the Christian faith. The Northumbrian princes, Oswald and
Oswi, were instructed in our holy religion, and grounded in its spirit
by St. Marnan, {500} who died in Annandale in the year 620. His head was
kept with singular devotion at Moravia, and was carried in processions
attended by the whole clan of the Innis's, which from the earliest times
was much devoted to this saint. See the Breviary of Aberdeen, Buchanan,
l. 5, in Aidano et Eugenio Regibus, and MS. Memoirs in the Scottish
college at Paris. St. Marnan is titular saint of the church of
Aberkerdure upon the river Duvern, formerly much frequented out of
devotion to his relics kept there.