Fergus (saint)

Saint Fergus (also Fergusianus, Fergustus; † around 750) was a bishop in Ireland . He was probably Pict , in the martyrology of Donegal , he is called "Ferghus Cruithneach". His work is usually set in the fifth or sixth century. Adam King puts him under King Conranus (also Conrane or Gowran), son of Dongart (Domangart), 501-533. In 721, however, a Fergus Pictus, bishop of Ireland, took part in a council of Pope Gregory II in Rome, at which irregular marriages, magicians and clergy with long hair were condemned. Rees therefore assumes that Fergus settled in Glamis around 715 and died around 750. But it may be a namesake here.

After Aberdeen - Breviarium sat Fergus with some followers of Ireland in the west of Scotland through and first lived as a hermit in Strogeth today Strageath in Strathearn . Then he visited Cathania . Halkirk Church was originally dedicated to St. Fergus and had a statute dedicated to him in Wick , which was destroyed in 1613. Another statue attributed to him was found in the local prison. Fergus eventually moved on to Buchan , where he converted the residents and built a basilica in Lungley ( Inverugie near Peterhead ). He died aged in Glammis (Glamis, Forfarshire), where he had lived in a cave next to a prehistoric menhir . Today there is a sacred spring here.

Fergus had predicted the day of his death. His bones were soon known to be miraculous, and the Bishop of Skone had his head brought to Skone in a marble coffin, where he performed further miracles. He also healed the sick in Lungley . A silver arm reliquary was kept in Aberdeen Cathedral . A stone cross was erected in his honor in the church of Eassie, southwest of Glamis. Churches are also dedicated to him in Banff and Dyce .

His feast day is November 17th .

literature

• JM Mackinlay: Traces of the Cultus of St Fergus in Scotland . Proceedings Society Antiquaries 38, 1904, 445-453.
• Elizabeth Rees, The Celtic Saints (London, Thames and Hudson 2000).
• Cornelius Mulcahy:  Sts. Fergus . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Robert Appleton Company, New York 1913.
• Ekkart Sauser :  Fergus (saint). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 19, Bautz, Nordhausen 2001, ISBN 3-88309-089-1 , Sp. 375-376.