Saint Blane

Saint Blane
Born	unknown Bute
Died	590
Honored in	Scottish Episcopal Church Roman Catholic Church
Feast	10 August

St Blane's Church viewed from the wall surrounding the old and the new graveyards.

Saint Blane (Old Irish Bláán) was a Bishop and Confessor in Scotland, born on the Isle of Bute, date unknown; died 590. His feast is kept on 10 August. He was a nephew of St. Cathan, and was educated in Ireland under Sts. Comgall and Kenneth; he became a monk, went to Scotland, and was eventually bishop among the Picts. Several miracles are related of him, among them the restoration of a dead boy to life.

The Aberdeen Breviary gives these and other details of the saint's life, which are rejected however, by the Bollandists. There can be no doubt that devotion to St. Blane was, from early times, popular in Scotland. His monastery was most probably sited on Holme Hill in Dunblane, Perthshire, not the site of the Cathedral There was also a church of St. Blane in Dumfries and another at Kilblane. His name is recorded on the Scottish landscape at Strathblane in the central lowlands from Loch Lomond to Dunblane. The year of the saint's death is variously given as 446, 590, and 1000: 446 (Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints) is evidently incorrect; the date 1000, found in Adam King, Kalendar of Scottish Saints (Paris, 1588), in Dempster, Menologium Scotorum (Bonn, 1622), and in the "Acta SS.", seems to have crept in by confusing St. Kenneth, whose disciple Blane was, with Kenneth the King of Scotland about 1000. The highest authorities say the saint died 590. The ruins of his church at Kingarth, Bute, where his remains were buried, are still standing and form an object of great interest to antiquarians; the bell of his monastery is believed to be preserved at Dunblane.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.