The book Arran; - Cook Clan

76 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
may be allotted to the time during which the Celtic Church
flourished as a distinctive communion, that is before the
early years of the eighth century, though some are possibly
later ; and that composed of other, mainly scriptural
worthies, who are the hall-mark of Roman dominance.
St. Blaise of the island of Pladda ^ may stand by himself
he was an Armenian martyr, to whom, however, there were
altars in several parish churches in Scotland, as well as in
St. Giles, Edinburgh, and in the cathedrals of Glasgow and
Dunblane. But it is clear that in Arran the ' Kils ' commemorate
the ' cells,' in the sense of churches, associated
with the saint whose name follows, even where no structural
relic remains. The absence of a known Kil of Colum or
Columba, and the presence of the other two of the great
Celtic trio in Kilpatrick and Kilbride, show how strong was
the more purely Irish ecclesiastical influence, for Bridget or
Bride and Patrick are the national saints of Ireland,^ as
Columba is of Scotland. Patrick, real or legendary, is too
well known to require anything to be said of him. Bridget,
as Bride, is familiar over the whole western isles. This Chris-
tian lady, who was foundress and abbess of the monastery of
Kildare in Ireland about the second half of the fifth century,
owes, however, much of her sanctified popularity to con-
fusion with an earlier Celtic goddess, whose name she bore,
the Brigit who was the threefold goddess of poetry, of
medicine, and of smith work. Her adorers took on the new
love without quite putting off the old. The same thing
happens in the case of the archangel Michael (not, of course,
of the Celtic order), whom we find dignifying Glen Cloy and
Clachan in the Shisken district,^ and who is also an intimate
figure in the western isles. He is generally decked out with
the older attributes of Brian, son of Brigit, another of a
de Pladay.
Scotichronicon , edit. Goodall, lib. i. cap. vi., lib. ii. cap. x. ; Insula Sancti BlasH
^ Windisch, Jrische Teicte, p. 26. ' Blaeu's Map.
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