Saint Medan was a saint, apparently of the early British or Irish period, whose existence and name are inferred from the name Kirkmaiden in Wigtownshire, but who is also associated with Angus and Aberdeenshire.
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Entrance_to_Inner_Cell%2C_St._Medan%27s_Chapel%2C_Kirkmaiden%2C_Wigtownshire._1885.jpg/250px-Entrance_to_Inner_Cell%2C_St._Medan%27s_Chapel%2C_Kirkmaiden%2C_Wigtownshire._1885.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Old_Kirkmaiden_Church._photo_by_Jonathan_Wilkins.jpg/250px-Old_Kirkmaiden_Church._photo_by_Jonathan_Wilkins.jpg)
The occurrence and legend of Medan
editThere is a Kirkmaiden both in the Rinns of Galloway and also on the other side of Luce Bay in the parish of Glasserton near Monreith in the Machars – both in Wigtownshire in Scotland. A legend relates how the saint with her nuns is said to have travelled from the one location to the other across Luce Bay, using a rock as a boat.[1]
Who was Medan?
editMedan's identity, name, sex and origin are all disputed.[2]
Some points about the name suggest problems in transmission. First, the name "Medan" sounds similar to the English word "maiden": this may mean that an originally masculine name was interpreted later as a woman's. Second, the name may well begin with the Gaelic element "mo" meaning "my" – an honorific or a diminutive.
The name has been related to several women saints recorded elsewhere. The element "edan" is similar to "Etáin", a name occurring once in the 15th century in Scotland, and argued as the virgin saint of Tumna near Boyle in County Roscommon in the diocese of Elphin – though another authority derives Cill Medoin in the diocese of Tuam not from an apocryphal saint Etáin but prosaically from the Irish for "middle church". Again, the name may be a version of Modwena (Moninne or Darerca), who was abbess of Cill Sléibe Cuilinn in Killevy near Slieve Gullion and died on 5 July 517 or 519; it is said that she founded a number of churches in Scotland. There is a 1901 dedication to a female St Medan in Troon in Ayrshire.[3]
There are other perhaps stronger arguments for the name being that of a man. The name is similar to a man's name, Muadán, which occurs in commemorations on both sides of the Irish Sea, including Glendaruel in Argyll, and has been glossed as a version of "my Aedan": 16 saints bore the name Aedan, including the well-known Aedan of Lindisfarne. Again, a male saint named Medan was buried at Bodmin and perhaps commemorated at Tregavethan, both in Cornwall.[4] A male Modan is the saint of Rosneath, Falkirk, Kirkton of Airlie in Forfar, Fraserburgh and Fintray in Aberdeenshire, and Freswick in Caithness.[2] The church at Kingoldrum in Angus, which was given to Arbroath Abbey in 1211-14 by William the Lion, was dedicated to St Medan; not far from it is a St Medan's Well, and it is thought that originally it was a Celtic establishment. St Medan is also said to have been one of the three companions of St Drostan, the evangeliser of Aberdeenshire and founder of Deer Abbey.[5]
St Medan's Cave, Kirkmaiden is situated at the foot of the degraded cliffline.[6][7]
Other information
editNear the Kirkmaiden at Monreith in the Machars there is a golf course named St Medan's.[8]
References
edit- ^ The theme is not uncommon in Celtic saints' lives: cf Hya, a follower of St Gwinear, who travelled from Brittany to Cornwall on an oak-leaf: R A Ogden, An Unknown Planet?, 2008, Park Corner Press, Warrington, p 41
- ^ a b MacQueen, John. Place-Names in the Rhinns of Galloway and Luce Valley, Stranraer and District Local History Trust. 2002 pp. 50 & 51
- ^ "Troon St Meddans Church of Scotland". Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
- ^ Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Placenames, OUP, 1960, p.479.
- ^ "St Drostan of Deer". www.cushnieent.force9.co.uk. Retrieved 31 January 2008.
- ^ "St Medan's Cave, Kirkmaiden", Saints in Scottish Place-Names
- ^ "Saint Medan’s Cave, Kirkmaiden, Dumfries and Galloway", University of Bristol Spelaeological Society
- ^ "What to see and do". www.isleofwhithorn.com. Archived from the original on 22 December 2005. Retrieved 6 June 2023.