194 

 SAINT BATHAN. 



By John Tuknbull of Abbey St. Bathans. 



28th June, 1860. 

 It has been suggested that at the visit of the club to the parish 

 of Abbey St. Bathans to-day, some account should be given 

 them of the " misty saint" whose name the parish bears, and 

 I have accordingly put together the following desultory notes 

 regarding him. 



The name appears in many different shapes — Baithen, Bai- 

 thin, Baithan, Baetin — are some of the earlier forms. Boy- 

 than, Bothan, Bathan, are later forms, besides which there 

 are many other spellings, and the word sometimes has and 

 sometimes has not a Latin termination. There have been 

 several saints of this name, one or other of whom has given 

 it to two parishes in Scotland, namely. Abbey St. Bathans, 

 where we are now met, and Tester or Gifford in East Lothian, 

 which was formerly called St. Bothans. The prefix "Abbey" 

 in the case of this parish, probably arose from the religious 

 house which was established here. 



The particular saint from whom this parish derived its name 

 was Baithen, son of Brendan, and sviccessor of Columba as 

 Abbot of lona. The authority for this is Dempster's Meno- 

 logium, under 19th January. " In Lamermure Bothani Epis- 

 " copi et csenobii sanctimonialium ei consecratio B. sutrii Die 

 " Coll abatis, qui sancto Columbano successit, sed non Robi- 

 " ensi P." This statement is so distinct that an inaccuracy 

 in the date under which it is entered cannot affect it. As will 

 afterwards appear, the festival day of this Baithen was the 

 9th June not the 19th January, which latter date is the fes- 

 tival of another Baithen called Baitan Mor, who also was a 

 contemporary of Columba, but not his successor at lona. He 

 became Bishop of Clonmsenois in Ireland.* 



Prior to the tenth century the history of Scotland is little 

 to be depended on, but in the midst of the uncertainty, one 

 group, composed of Columba and his disciples, rises in some- 

 what misty outline indeed, but more clearly seen than any 

 other human forms against the hazy distance of mystery and 

 obscurity, being the only persons in that age of whom biog- 

 raphies, written at no distant period after they lived, have 



a This Baitan Mor was the author of a life of Columba in Irish metre, some- 

 times erroneously attributed to Baithen son of Brendan, as in Jameson's His- 

 tory of the Culdees, p, 311, He was also the author of several other works. 



