Saint Cathan, also known as Catan, Cattan, etc., was a 6th-century Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 monk revered as a saint

Saint

A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

 in parts of western Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. He appears in the Aberdeen Breviary

Aberdeen Breviary

The Aberdeen Breviary is a 16th-century Scottish Catholic breviary. It contains brief accounts of various Scottish saints. It was edited by William Elphinstone, and printed in Edinburgh in 1507 by Walter Chapman and Andrew Myllar....

, Walter Bower

Walter Bower

Walter Bower , Scottish chronicler, was born about 1385 at Haddington, East Lothian.He was abbot of Inchcolm Abbey from 1418, was one of the commissioners for the collection of the ransom of James I, King of Scots, in 1423 and 1424, and in 1433 one of the embassy to Paris on the business of the...

's Scotichronicon

Scotichronicon

The Scotichronicon is a 15th-century chronicle or legendary account, by the Scottish historian Walter Bower. It is a continuation of historian-priest John of Fordun's earlier work Chronica Gentis Scotorum beginning with the founding of Scotland of mediaeval legend, by Scota with Goídel...

, and the Acta Sanctorum

Acta Sanctorum

Acta Sanctorum is an encyclopedic text in 68 folio volumes of documents examining the lives of Christian saints, in essence a critical hagiography, which is organised according to each saint's feast day. It begins with two January volumes, published in 1643, and ended with the Propylaeum to...

, and a number of placenames in western Scotland are associated with him. He is said to have been one of the first Irish missionaries

Hiberno-Scottish mission

The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a mission led by Irish and Scottish monks which spread Christianity and established monasteries in Great Britain and continental Europe during the Middle Ages...

 to come to the Isle of Bute

Isle of Bute

Bute is an island in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Formerly part of the county of Buteshire, it now constitutes part of the council area of Argyll and Bute. Its resident population was 7,228 in April 2001.-Geography:...

, then part of the Irish kingdom of Dál Riata

Dál Riata

Dál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...

. Very little is known of him; he is generally only mentioned in connection with his more famous nephew Saint Blane

Saint Blane

Saint Blane was a Bishop and Confessor in Scotland, born on the Isle of Bute, date unknown; died 590. His feast is kept on 10 August. He was a nephew of St. Cathan, and was educated in Ireland under Sts. Comgall and Kenneth; he became a monk, went to Scotland, and was eventually bishop among the...

, who was born on Bute and later proselytized among the Picts

Picts

The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...

. Both saints were strongly associated with Bute and with Kingarth

Kingarth

Kingarth is a historic village and parish on the Isle of Bute, off the coast of south-western Scotland. In the Early Middle Ages it was the site of a monastery and bishopric and the cult centre of Saints Cathan and Bláán ....

 monastery, which became the center of their cults.

A number of churches were dedicated to Cathan across the western islands of Scotland, including the ruined St Cathan's Chapel

St Cathan's Chapel

St Cathan's Chapel is a ruined chapel on the island of Colonsay, Scotland in the Inner Hebrides. It was dedicated to Cathan, an obscure saint once venerated across the western Scottish islands. It is located at , in the settlement of Lower Kilchattan....

 on Colonsay

Colonsay

Colonsay is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, located north of Islay and south of Mull and has an area of . It is the ancestral home of Clan Macfie and the Colonsay branch of Clan MacNeill. Aligned on a south-west to north-east axis, it measures in length and reaches at its widest...

. Other churches, now mostly lost or in ruins, stood at Luing

Luing

Luing is one of the Slate Islands, Firth of Lorn, in the west of Argyll in Scotland, about 16 miles south of Oban. It has a population of around 200 people, mostly living in Cullipool, Toberonochy , and Blackmillbay...

, Gigha

Gigha

The Isle of Gigha is a small island off the west coast of Kintyre in Scotland. The island forms part of Argyll and Bute and has a population of about 150 people, many of whom speak Scottish Gaelic. The climate is mild with higher than average sunshine hours and the soils are fertile.Gigha has a...

, and Lewis

Lewis

Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The total area of Lewis is ....

, the latter of which is said to have once housed his relic

Relic

In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...

s. His name survives in the various toponyms in the area containing the element Chattan (where the first consonant is lenited

Lenition

In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...

), such as Ardchattan

Ardchattan

Ardchattan and Muckairn is a civil parish within Argyll and Bute in Scotland. It lies north of Oban, bordering Loch Etive and includes Glen Ure, Glen Creran, Barcaldine, Benderloch, Connel, Bonawe and Glen Etive. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 2,443...

 ("Cathan's Heights") and the many places called Kilchattan ("Church of Cathan"). Examples include the names of the hill of Suidhe Chattan and of the village of Kilchattan Bay

Kilchattan Bay

Kilchattan Bay is village on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. It lies the island's southern end, along the coast road at the foot of a steep hill called the Suidhe Chattan which shields the village from the prevailing westerly wind. The village faces the mainland to the east across the Firth of Clyde...

, both on Bute. His name may be further connected to the Chattan Confederation

Chattan Confederation

Clan Chattan or the Chattan Confederation is a confederation of 16 Scottish clans who joined for mutual defence or blood bonds. Its leader was the chief of Clan Mackintosh.-Origins:The origin of the name Chattan is disputed...

, a coalition of Scottish clans. His feast day is May 17

May 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

May 16 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - May 18All fixed commemorations below celebrated on May 30 by Old Calendarists-Saints:* Apostles Andronicus of Pannonia and his fellow labourer Junia, of the Seventy Apostles...

.