Chapter V: St. Mirin and the Patron Saints
Bangor like Iona was a great missionary establishment. Its brethren went everywhere preaching Christianity, and many of them passed into the continent of Europe, founding societies and following a rule like that of the Irish Monasteries. Bernard speaks of these Irish monks overflowing the continent like an inundation, [13] and there are churches and localities that still bear their name, even as far south as Italy. Congal himself, possessed by the missionary fervour with which he inspired his disciples, crossed to Terra Heth or Tiree in the Hebrides, and in that lonely island founded a church. St Mailrubha, in 671, left Bangor for Apercrossan (Apple-cross) in Ross-shire, where he reared a monastery which he governed for fifty-one years, until he was slain by the Danes. [14] It was in the same spirit that St. Mirin left his Irish home and came to Scotland. We cannot fix precisely the year of his departure, and can only give the proximate date as 580. [15] Nor can we state with certainty the place of his arrival in this country, though in all probability it was Dunbarton, [16] from whence he could easily come to Paisley. It was in that same year that Columbanus, an apostle of whom more is known than of St. Mirin, left Bangor. He had there been a companion of the Paisley saint, and we may form an idea of the life and spirit of the one of whom so little is known, from what is well known regarding the other. Columbanus, we are told, heard the voice which spoke to Abraham echoing in his ears, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” Obeying this command, he went first to Britain, thence he crossed to France, and in Burgundy attracted crowds of disciples, and founded a monastery that might rival that of Bangor, whence he came. He was famous throughout Gaul. After a time, meeting with difficulties, he moved further south into Switzerland. Traces of the Irish monk are still found there. Finally he crossed the Alps, and settled down between Genoa and Milan, where he founded a house after the pattern of that of his native land, at Bobbio, where he died. He carried with him the liturgy which is called the “Cursus Scotorum;” and the Antiphonal of Bangor is still preserved at Milan. [17] The life of his brother missionary who came to Paisley, though less varied in incident, was without doubt inspired by the same spirit which both had imbibed at the feet of the same master, Congal. “Whosoever conquers the world,” Columbanus was wont to day, “treads the world under his feet. No one who spares himself can really hate the world. If Christ be truly in us we cannot live to ourselves; if we have conquered ourselves we have conquered all things. If the Creator of all things died for us that He might redeem us from sin, ought not we to die to sin? Let us die to ourselves. Let us live to Christ, that Christ may live in us.”
It is most likely that Mirin founded a church at Paisley. In an ancient litany, said to be used by the Culdees of Dunkeld, [18] his name is mentioned, with that of other Celtic saints, in a list of Abbots. Possibly he may have presided over a monastery at Paisley, similar in its rule to that of Bangor or Iona. The buildings of the Celtic monasteries invariably consisted of a number of huts constructed of wattles or twigs, and the appearance of their inmates must have been equally primitive. When they travelled it was in companies, their outfit was a pastoral staff, a leathern water bottle, a case of leather strung over their shoulders, containing their sacred .books; and with the Irish tonsure high on their shaven head, and their long locks flowing behind, they must have presented a striking appearance. [19] These notices of them help us to realise Mirin as he lived at Paisley. Like his other brethren, he was a wanderer. He must have travelled over a great part of western and southern Scotland. His name lingers in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and in the counties of Ayr and Dunbarton. [20] It is still an household word in Paisley, where, “full of miracles and holiness he slept in the Lord.” [21] Six hundred years after his death, the monks from Wenloc, when they came there, found his memory still green. In their charters, and in the bulls of Popes, he is called “the glorious confessor St. Mirin.” His altar and tomb were in the church, and lights were kept always burning before them. [22] A Fair was held on the day kept sacred in his honour, and his effigy was engraved on the seal of the Monastery in the vestments of a bishop, his right hand raised in benediction, and his left holding a crosier, while round the seal is written the prayer, which must often have been in use in Paisley, “O Mirin! pray to Christ for thy servants.”
[13] St. Bernard. Liber St. Malac, C 5.
[14] Aberdeen Breviary, parsestiva.—Forbes' Kalendars, p. 383.
[15] See Appendix.
[16] In the life of St. Kieran at March 5, in Colgan's Acta S.S. Hib. (p. 46) there is a notice of Medranus, who is mentioned in the lost Kalendar of Cashel, with a St. Tomanus in one church in Britain (Dunbarton) of Aleluid.
[17] I am indebted for this notice of the Bangor saint to M‘Lear's Apostles of Modern Europe, Montalembert's Monks of the West, and to M‘Kenzie's Lives of Scottish Writers (Art. Columbanus.)
[18] Forbes' Kalendar—Preface.
[19] M‘Lear's Apostles of Medieval Europe. Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, edited by Dr. Reeves.
[20] See Appendix.
[21] Aberdeen Breviary.
[22] Saint Mirin, by David Semple, F.S.A., p. 35. Various notices in Register.