Saint Blane

Who was Saint Blane?

Saint Blane 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. There was 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 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.