I don't think Kentigern was, technically speaking, exiled.
Accounts of his birth place it at Dysart (I think), in Fife, where
he was brought up by St Serf (if I remember rightly). Admittedly,
the story of his birth and youth is pretty mythical, apparently
linked with the Danae myth (indeed, his mother's name, Taneu, is a
bit like Danae). His diocese was in Strathclyde, so not terribly far
away from Fife - just the other side of the Forth-Clyde isthmus.
Julia Barrow
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 11:16:48 -0400
Subject: RE: Kentigern in Martyrologium Usuardi
From: Francine Nicholson <[log in to unmask]>
To: "[log in to unmask]"
<[log in to unmask]>
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> From: [log in to unmask] [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>
> In early Irish usage (for example, the Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee,
> or
> the Martyrology of Tallaght), "martyr" appears to be synonymous with
> "saint." They acknowledged several forms of martyrdom, in the original
> sense of "witness" to the faith--red martyrdom (self-explanatory), the
> white martyrdom of a life of heroic virtue, and the green (or blue,
> depending on translator) life of penitence.
>
Red is the "usual" sort of martyrdom, as you said. This was
extremely rare among the Irish.
Green martyrdom, as you said, was a life of penitence/asceticism,
whether or not it was done in your home village or far away (the confusion
derives from the fact that there is no exact English equivalent for the
Irish word usually translated as green in reference to martyrdom).
However, white was voluntary exile from the land of one's birth for
the "love of God." This could be interpreted as leaving one's home territory
or leaving Ireland altogether. By some medieval monastic writers, it was
seen as the ultimate act of self-renunciation, especially since leaving
one's birth territory essentially meant giving up one's legal identity under
medieval Irish law; but some medieval writers denounced the practice as an
excuse to wander.
Obviously, it was possible to be more than one type of martyr.
I suppose exile to a bishopric in Scotland would be a sort of white
martyrdom under the Celtic system which was still active in the ninth
century.
Francine Nicholson
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