by Pope Celestine I. to those Irish who were already
Christians, that he might be their bishop. After founding several
churches in Ireland, and meeting with opposition from the pagans
there, he left that country for Scotland, where he founded churches
in the Mearns. He died at Fordun, and his relics were still preserved
there {105} in 1409, when the Archbishop of St. Andrews placed them
in a new and costly shrine adorned with gold and gems. The ruins of
his chapel are still to be seen there and a well bears his name.
"Paldy Fair" is still held at Auchinblae in the parish of Fordoun
(Kincardineshire); it formerly lasted eight days.

Pope Leo XIII. in his Bull concerning the restoration of the Scottish
hierarchy in 1878, refers to the share of St. Palladius in the
evangelisation of the country. "St. Palladius," he says, "deacon of
the Roman Church, is said to have preached the Faith of Christ there
(in Scotland) in the fifth century."

The same Pontiff, in 1898, restored this saint's feast to Scotland.

11--St. Drostan, Abbot, 6th century.

This saint was of Scottish birth, being descended from King Aidan of
Dalriada, the friend of St. Columba. He was sent over to that saint,
then in Ireland, to be educated and trained for the religious state.
He eventually became a monk at a monastery known as Dalquongal, of
which in course of time he became abbot. After some time he passed
over to {106} Scotland where he lived as a hermit near Glenesk, in
Angus. He afterwards entered the monastery of Iona, and while
dwelling under the rule of St. Columba accompanied that saint to the
district of Buchan, Aberdeenshire, and was made by him abbot of the
monastery of Deer, which St. Columba founded on land given to him by
the ruler of the district, whose son had been restored to health
during a severe illness by the saint's prayers. The name Deer is said
to have originated in the tears (_deara_) shed by Drostan when he
parted from his beloved master.

St. Drostan preached the gospel in the district of Inverness-shire
known as Glen-Urquhart which in Catholic ages bore the name of "St.
Drostan's Urquhart." Here a plot of ground, said to have been
cultivated by the saint when he lived there as its apostle, is still
known as "St. Drostan's Croft." In St. Ninian's Chapel, in the glen,
was preserved the saint's cross, and the custodian of the relic had
the use of the "Dewar's (or keeper's) Croft" as a reward for his
services.

St. Drosta