atholic demonstration in honour of the patronal feast;
though mentioned as late as 1845 it has now disappeared. In the
parish of Sorn, in the same county, is an estate known by the
designation of Auchmannoch, which probably refers to this saint.
31 St. Bees or Begha, Virgin, A.D. (about) 660.
This saint was of royal Irish race. In her youth she was promised in
marriage to a Norwegian prince, but as she had vowed virginity in her
earliest years she fled from home to escape the force which might
possibly be brought to bear upon her to bring about the proposed
union. Embarking alone in a small boat, she made her way to the
opposite coast of Northumbria. Here she dwelt for some time in a
woodland retreat, after receiving the monastic habit from St. Aidan,
the bishop. She afterwards presided over a community of virgins,
whose government she eventually resigned to St. Hilda. St. Begha
founded another monastery in Strathclyde, which was known by her
name. The tongue of land on which it stood is still called St. Bee's
Head. {157}
In this retreat she died in the odour of sanctity. Kilbagie, in
Clackmannan, is probably named after this saint, and also Kilbucho
(Church of Begha), in the parish of Broughton, Peebleshire.
NOVEMBER
3--St. Malachy, Archbishop, A.D. 1148.
Among the Irish saints who benefited Scotland, the illustrious
contemporary and dear friend of his biographer, St. Bernard, must not
be omitted. St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, twice visited
Scotland. On his return from one of his visits to Rome, he stayed
with King David I., and by his prayers restored to life the monarch's
son, Prince Henry, who was in danger of death. During this visit, St.
Malachy erected an oratory of wattles and clay on the sea-shore near
Port Patrick. St. Bernard relates that the saint not only directed
the work but laboured with his own hands in its construction. He
blessed the cemetery adjoining, which was arranged according to Irish
usage, within a deep fosse. The second visit to Scotland was shortly
before St. Malachy {158} set out on that last journey to the
continent from which he never returned, dying on November 2nd, 1148,
in St. Bernard's own Abbey of Clairvaux. He had set his heart on
founding a monastery in Scotland at a place called _Viride Stagnum_,
"The Green Lake," situated about three miles from the present town of
Stranraer. There he marked out the boundaries, and established a
community brought from one of
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