Saint Blane

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.

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

Late medieval Scottish texts relate that his mother was Irish and that St Cathan was her brother.[1] It was Cathan who saw to Blane's education in Ireland under Saints Comgall and Kenneth. Blane 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.[2]

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. In Greenock, the place name Kilblain is thought to refer to a cell or chapel of St Blane.[3]

There is a well in the strath, or valley, called Blane's Well and also a place in the neighborhood called Garcattoun, which might be named after his uncle, St Cathan.[4]

His name is recorded on the Scottish landscape at Strathblane in the central lowlands from Loch Lomond to Dunblane.[5] 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; St Blane's Chapel is picturesquely situated about 800 metres from Dunagoil Bay.[6] The bell of his monastery is believed to be preserved at Dunblane. Dunblane Cathedral is said to have been founded on the site first used by St Blane.[7]