Saint Ternan of Culross
The twelfth of June is the Orthodox feast-day of Saint Ternan, a missionary bishop among the Picts and abbot who lived in Abernathy, Culross and Banchory, who likely lived around the turn of the sixth century. Though dates for his floruit can be seen to range anywhere between 440 and 570 depending on the sources one uses, somewhere between these two extremes seems to be most likely.
A successor to Saint Ninian of Whithorn, the Pictish youth Ternan [also Tervanus or Torannan] was educated from an early age at the ‘Candida Casa’, or Whithorn Abbey. He was baptised by a Celtic cleric named either Paul or Palladius; and he took to his new faith with the zeal of the newly-converted. He lived under the abbot of Whithorn for much of his youth and succeeded to the abbacy himself. However, he took several of his disciples and left Whithorn in the care of another monk named Nennio.
Following in the footsteps of his master Ninian, Ternan founded a ‘beannchar’, or a combined library and monastic school, on the banks of the River Dee at Banchory near Aberdeen. The ruins of this monastic community, including a cross-slab, can still be seen there, though they were ruined a long time since by marauding Danes and Norsemen. From this monastic school, Ternan both preached the Gospel of Christ and also propagated various forms of sæcular and practical learning among his countrymen. This learning included farming techniques borrowed from Ireland and England, as well as other crafts and technical skills. This beannchar was a centre of spiritual striving which produced a number of other saints in subsequent centuries.
Saint Ternan was also the reputed founder of Culross Abbey in Fife. The site of that abbey served as a refounded Cistercian house in the thirteenth century which was abandoned during the Reformation but repurposed as a parish church in 1633.
Two treasures are associated with the saint. The first is a copy of the Gospel of Saint Matthew which was enclosed in a gilt-and-silver cumdach or reliquary case; and the second is his ronnecht, or metal bell, which was given to him by the Pope during a pilgrimage he took to Rome. (Saint Nectan had a similar bell, which he used to warn ships away from the perilous rocks near his cell on stormy nights.) These, along with the saint’s skull, were preserved intact at Banchory until the Reformation. An ancient brass bell which is thought to have been Ternan’s ronnecht was unearthed in the nineteenth century, but the other relics have been lost.
Saint Ternan’s feast was kept in mediæval times as a fair, and it was one of the days of rest that workingmen enjoyed. The relics of Saint Ternan would be taken down and paraded in procession around Banchory, behind the ‘market cross’ which now rests in the grounds of the East Church there. Banchory still commemorates the feast of Saint Ternan with a fair each year. Holy bishop Ternan, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
At Candida Casa among the throng of saints
The flame of faith enkindled thee, O Ternan.
Thy missionary labours among the Picts have shone with glory
As did thy monastery of Culross in Fife.
Pray to Christ our God to save our souls!
St Ternans Church, Banchory
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