Saint Drostan of Deer
Today in the Orthodox Church we celebrate a venerable Goidelic father of the church, a missionary from Ireland to Scotland and a beloved disciple and companion of the great Saint Colum Cille, or Columba, of Iona. Saint Drostan, the abbatial father of Deer who resided betimes also in Holywood and as a hermit in Glenesk, is remembered both today, on the fifteenth of December, and also together with his fellow-saints in the Synaxis of All Saints of Britain on the eleventh of July. He is mentioned in the Book of Deer – one of the very earliest still-extant Gælic texts in Scotland – and in the Aberdeen Breviary.
Drostan was the scion by blood of the earthly kings of Dál Riata, which was the formative Goidelic kingdom which spanned the western part of what is now Scotland – including the Isles – and part of the county of Ulster. His father was named Cosgrach. When discussing this part of Britain’s history it is worth remembering this: that the Goidelic peoples, whether on Ireland or on Great Britain, were long considered one and the same. It is neither an omission nor an error nor a slight on Saint Bede’s part, that he refers even to the Goidelic-speaking peoples of Ireland as ‘Scots’; for they were the same people. In any event, young Drostan was given early by his family to the abbey of Saint Colum Cille on Iona, there to be educated by him.
Saint Drostan was apparently very dear and close to his abbot, for he accompanied Colum Cille on not just one but several missions among the Picts. He was one of twelve disciples of Colum Cille who departed Ireland for Scotland. On one such occasion, Colum Cille took Fergus and Drostan with him into the Pictish lands, and apparently impressed the king of that land enough that he granted them lands for a monastery at Deer. The three of them worked to construct the monastery, after which Saint Colum Cille appointed Drostan as abbot, and then left on the return voyage to Iona. It is said that Deer takes its name not from the animal, but instead from the tears that Saint Drostan shed upon his master’s departing. (‘Tear’ in Old Gælic is dér; in Modern Irish deoir, in Scottish Gælic deur.)
Saint Drostan did not flag, however, in his missionary works. He founded churches all up and down the firth of Moray and around Aberdeen, and he became so respected and loved by the common folk that he was called to take up residence at another monastery at Holywood (or Dalquhongale) as abbot, succeeding the old abbot there who had died. He did not stay there long, however; he took up the mendicant life and later settled down at a lonely hermitage in the valley of Glenesk. An Anglican church dedicated to Saint Drostan still stands at the site of that hermitage, by Tarfside. Saint Drostan there also became renowned among the common Pictish folk of the area, a figure of Christlike humility and generosity. He was visited by the sick, by the poor and by the needy, and he worked wonders on their behalf. A local Pictish priest named Simon came to him with an infirmity of the eyes, and Drostan restored his sight through a prayer to the Holy Trinity.
St Drostan’s Church, Tarfside
Saint Drostan reposed in the Lord at Glenesk sometime in the early seventh century, probably around the year 606. His relics were borne back to Deer, where they were interred in a stone coffin. His bones wrought wondrous cures for the sick and those suffering from pain. There is also a holy well attributed to Saint Drostan which is located near Deer, and which effected similar cures. Today Saint Drostan is remembered as one of the apostles of Scotland alongside Saint Ninian, Saint Cyndeyrn and Saint Colum Cille. Holy father Drostan, pray unto Christ our God for us!
Zealous disciple of Saint Columba,
You left your native land of Ireland
To take the light of the Gospel
To the land of Scotland, of which you were an apostle.
Holy abbot of the monastery of Deer,
Drostan, pray to the Lord that He save our souls!
Old Deer Old Kirk, Aberdeur
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