t he afterwards went into North Britain,
and joined St. Columba in preaching the gospel among the Picts, who then
inhabited a great part of what is now called Scotland. He founded a
monastery at Govane, near the river Cluyd, converted all the land of
Cantire to the faith of Christ, and died a martyr by the hands of
infidels, towards the end of the sixth century. He was buried in his
monastery of Govane, and divers churches were erected in Scotland, under
his invocation. But it seems most probable that the Scottish martyr is
not the same person with the British king. Colgan supposes him to have
been an Irish monk, who had lived in the community of St. Carthag, at
Rathane.

Footnotes:
1. See the MS. Lives of Scottish Saints, compiled by a Jesuit, who was
nephew of bishop Lesley, kept in the Scottish College at Paris.
Several Scottish historians give the title of saint to Constantine
III. king of the Scots, who, forsaking his crown and the world,
entered himself among the Culdees, to religious ma at St. Andrew's,
in 946.

MARCH XII.

ST. GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE, C.

From his works, Bede, and Paul, deacon of Monte Cassino, towards the end
of the eighth century. His life in four books, by John deacon of Rome in
the ninth age, is full of mistakes, as Baronius observes. See his
history, compiled in French by Dom Dionysius of Sainte-Marthe,
superior-general of the Maurist monks, printed at Rouen in 4to. 1697,
and more accurately in Latin by the same author, in the 4to. tome of
this father's works, in 1705. See also Fleury, b. 34, 35, 36. Mabillon,
Annal. Bened. l. 6, t. 1. Ceillier, t. 17, p. 128. F. Wietrowski, S.J.
Historia de rebus in Pontificatu, S. Gregorii M. gestis, in fol.
Gradonici, S. Gregorius, M. Pontifex, a criminationibus Oudini
vindicatus, and Hieron. Muzio in Coro Pontifcale.

A.D. 604.

ST. GREGORY, from his illustrious actions and extraordinary virtues,
surnamed the Great, was born at Rome, about the year 540. Gordlanus, his
{569} father, enjoyed the dignity of a senator, and was very wealthy;
but after the birth of our saint, renounced the world, and died
Regionarius, that is, one of the seven cardinal deacons who took care of
the ecclesiastical districts of Rome. His mother, Sylvia, consecrated
herself to God in a little oratory near St. Paul's. Our saint was called
Gregory, which in Greek implies a watchman, as Vigilius and Vigilantius
in Latin. In his youth he applied himsel