S. Ninian, however, by his Irish mission, and favoured by the proximity’of Candida Casa to the north-east coast of Ireland, had attracted many pupils to his monastery from among the Irish Picts. ‘n- Aondruim on Mahee Island, Strangford Loch, was one of the first communities organized by the Irish Picts for themselves. It was in communion with Candida Casa, and sent its advanced pupils there. The ‘ ships ‘ of Candida Casa visited it. S. Finbar of Maghbile and Dornoch was sent from ‘Aondruim to Candida Casa on one of these ships that he might complete his training with the bigger community. S. Mochaoi, son of Bronagh, daughter of Maelchon, to whom S. Patrick was a slave, was first Ab of ‘Aondruim. S. Mochaoi is stated to have visited western Pictland before the Gaidheals occupied it. One of his Church-sites is at Kilmoha, on the western shore of Loch Awe. The churchyard here was for centuries the burial-ground of the Campbells of Inverlevir. (Cf. The Duke of Argyll’s paper to the Scottish Ecclesiological Society at Glasgow, 25th Oct. 1915.) In the latter half of the fifth century, the century in which S. Ninian died, these pupils began to appear in Pictland of Alba continuing S. Ninian’s work. Some of them served their apprenticeship to mission work in Pictland before returning to Ireland to settle as heads of clerical communities; others remained labouring there until the end of their days.

The historical S. Ailbhe of Emly would have been found in the former group, if he had not been prevented from leaving Ireland by a chief who loved him. S. Ailbhe, however, sent deputies to Pictland. S. Ailbhe was an Irish Pict and died a.d. 526. His father was Olcnais, of the family of Fertlachtga, of the clan Rudhraighe of Dal-Araidhe. His mother was a slave, and her master took the infant Ailbhe from her arms and exposed him in the wilds. The child was found by a kind-hearted heathen called Lochan, who carried him to his own house, and afterwards gave him to certain ‘Christian Britons,’ who apparently were missionaries. The authentic Acts of S. Ailbhe, as known to Ussher, did not mention where among the ‘Christian Britons’ S. Ailbhe was educated and trained as a missionary. But when in manhood he reemerges into the light of history, he is an experienced Christian missionary co-operating with S. Endeus or Eany, one of the most venerated pupils of Candida Casa, who had set out from Candida Casa at the head of a strong mission, which contained one hundred and fifty workers whom he wished to settle on the island of Aranmhor, west of Galway. S. Ailbhe successfully pleaded with Angus the chief of Cashel that S. Eany should be allowed to settle in Aran. S. Ailbhe’s interest in this big mission from Candida Casa is significant,

There is a fanciful S. Ailbhe of the mediaeval Latin fabulists who is represented as having been brought up by a wolf, as having gone to Rome to a Pope Hilarius, as having become a disciple of S. Patrick. It is worth noting that the historical S. Ailbhe is given first in the Paschal Epistle of Cummian ; and that he is represented in the earliest sources as opposing S. Patrick. Bishop Forbes puts the death of Ailbhe of Senchus at the date of the death of Ailbhe of Emly, A.D. 526. When S. Ailbhe had secured Aranmhor for S. Eany’s community, he contemplated a further extension of S. Ninian’s work. He proposed to settle a community of his own in ‘Tile.’ This name represents a scribe’s error. Either one of the northern islands of Pictland is indicated, or Tiree in Western Pictland, where Findchan the presbyter and S. Comgall the Great laboured in after years. Angus of Cashel, who wished to keep S. Ailbhe at Emly, intervened, and forcibly prevented the saint from sailing. Thereupon S. Ailbhe sent twenty-two of his disciples oversea as his deputies. Two of these deputies who went into ‘ exsilium ‘ in Pictland were a S. Colm, or Colmoc (The mediaeval scribes confused him with S. Colman Ela, with Colman of Lindisfarne, and others. He is S. Colman of Dromore in Down. He was an Irish Pict of the race of Conall Cearnach. He was educated at ‘Aondruim under S. Caolan, the second Ab, before he became attached to S. Ailbhe. His day is the 7th of June) and S. Fillan or Faolan.

This S. Fillan or Faolan of ‘Rath-Erann’ has been confused with S. Fillan, son of Kentigerna. He was in reality, according to the scholiast in the Feillre, son of Angus Mac Natfraech, S. Ailbhe’s friend and patron. S. Fillan’s day is the 20th of June. He was called ‘ labar.’ This epithet is manifestly the Britonnic word llafar, meaning, vocal one, although it has been treated as Gaidhealic and translated as ‘leper,’ and also as ‘stammerer. Dr. Whitley Stokes translates “intam lobar ansin” as ‘that splendid mute.’ One saint who was truly called ‘ the leper ‘ was Finian Ab of ‘ Suird. ‘ He died c. A. D. 680. The Martyrology of Tallagh refers to him as ‘ Finani lobhar Suird.’ His day is the i6th of March. It is more likely to mean, splendid in utterance. Labar meant gifted in speech. It doubtless arose from S.Fillan’s open-air chanting of the Psalmody courses which was a marked accomplishment of the Brito-Pictish clerics. S. Ailbhe’s own community in Ireland was settled at he ancient loch of Emly, and S. Colm followed his master’s example and settled on Innis-na-Cholm now ‘Inchmaholm’ or ‘ Inchmacholmoc.’ in the Loch of Menteith. He laboured northward as far as Kirriemuir, and southward along the Forth valley. He returned to Ireland c. 5I4 His fellow-worker S. Fillan, ‘labar,’ like other early missionaries established himself under the protection of one of the great forts of Alba. He is referred to as ‘of the Rath of Erann in Alba,’ which was in ‘Fortrenn,’ near the modern St. Fillans at the east end of Loch Earn in Perthshire. SS. Colm and Fillan are commemorated together, but out of chronological order, among the Celtic abbots named in the Liturgy of Dunkeld.

S. Fillan also laboured along the Forth valley. His chief establishment was the one at Loch Earn, and an old Church-site there still bears his name. S. Fillan’s bachall is one of the two Pictish pastoral staves which have been preserved. Part of his reputed relics, an arm-bone, was carried in front of the Scottish army at Bannockburn by the Abbot of Inchaffray. The mediaeval Roman clergy confused this S. Fillan with S. Fillan of Houston, and S. Colm, his fellowworker, they confused with S. Columba (Columcille). The two disciples of S. Ailbhe were much earlier than either.  S. Fillan of Houston was an Irish Pict. He was son of S. Kentigerna who came a fugitive to Inch-cailleach, Loch Lomond, and nephew of S. Comgan, who came a fugitive to Turriff. This S. Fillan’s father was Feredach, an Ulster chief. Camerarius varies the name to Feriath. Feredach was of the race of Fiatach Finn. S. Fillan was born towards the close of the seventh century. His mother died in A.D. 734.

About this same period a wave of missionary enthusiasm stirred the Britons and Irish Picts who were in actual touch with Candida Casa and its activities, resulting, among other things, in the extensive missions of SS. Buidhe, Servanus, Finbar, and Drostan. S. Buidhe crossed the Forth and Clyde line and entered Pictland of Alba at the head of sixty workers about A.D.480.  In the Bodleian there is a MS. Life of a S. Boethius, which is meant to be a Life of this saint. It is by a Roman Catholic fabulist who transforms S. Buidhe into a Roman miracle worker. The fabulist excels some of his kind in boldly representing that the saint was turned out of his native territory at Kiannaght because he was ‘ a foreigner. ‘ Buidhe Mac Bronach of the family of Tadhg was an Irish Pict. His clan occupied Kiannaght in Ulster while that territory was still Pictish. It was in this district that S. Cainnech of Achadh-Bo and St. Andrews presided at a later time over the community of Drumachose. S. Buidhe was a bishop. He died at Mainister in the Pictish district of Louth in A.D. 521 as head of a community which he had organized there, after his return from Pictland of Alba. S. Buidhe established his workers in what is now Forfarshire, near the fort of Nectan, sovereign of the Picts, namely, Dunnichen, in the same district as S. Ninian’s foundation at Whiting Ness, Arbroath, and not far from ‘the College’ of the Celtic monastery of ‘Aber-Eloth,’ which arose out of S. Ninian’s foundation at what is now Arbirlot.

The lands of these communities were in later times called the ‘ Abthein. ‘ Among the members of S. Buidhe’s muinntir were ten men who were brothers, and ten who were ‘virgins.’ The Celtic Abbey of Aber-Eloth was still represented by a layman, one Galfridus, in 1214. Mauricius was Abbe of Aber-Eloth c. 1207. King Nectan gave a Cathair or fortified settlement to the saint, and there he built a Church. For this reason the site became known as Caer-Budde, corrupted in after centuries by the Scandinavian element in the east coast population into ‘Kirk-Budde.’ The establishment of S. Buidhe’s powerful and well-staffed mission resulted in a wide extension of the work which had been begun by S. Ninian at the Ness of Arbroath and at ‘the College’ of Aber-Eloth or Arbirlot. In the district now represented roughly by Angus and the north of Fife, Churches were founded and muinntirs organized at every centre of population.

Within the next century and a half the following became active and important centres of the Pictish Church: the muinntirs (known later as Celtic ‘abbacies’) of Aber-Eloth (Arbirlot); of Abernethy; of Monifod (Monifieth); of Scone; of Bangor on the Isla near the Imperial Roman remains at Meikleour; of Brecain (Brechin); of S. BriocatMun-Ros (Old Montrose); of Eglis GirigTfor Grig (St. ‘Cyrus’). Besides these, and the old Churches of S. Ninian at Arbroath Ness and of S. Buidhe at Caer-Budde; the Church called ‘Temple’ at the northern base of Fothringham Hill, Inverarity (Not to be confused with ‘Templeton of Kinblethmont,’ which received its name from the Knights Templars of St. German. To their property Alexander, lord of Spynie, was served heir in 1621); the Church of S. Medan, Airlie; the original Church at Fearn of Angus; the Church of S. Cainnech the Great (known in Angus as in Ireland as ‘Cainnach’- or ‘Connach-Mhor’) at Back-Both, Carmylie, near which place S. Vigean occupied a casual part from his principal Church at St. Vigeans,Arbroath; the Church called ‘Both-Ma’Rubh’ at Barry; the Church called Both-Mernoc, S.Mernoc’s hut at Both in Panbride ; the Church called S. ‘Fink’s’ in Bendochy, not far from Bangor on the Isla; the Church called S. Skaoc’s at Bodden of Usan; the Church called S. Brioc’s at Craig, Old Montrose; and the Church called S. Muredac’sff of Ethie.

Connected with these three last-named Churches was the ancient ‘Disert or Retreat north of the Old Muir of Lunan. These various foundations were not made all at once after S. Ninian’s and S. Buidhe’s time, but gradually, as the evangelization of Pictland proceeded. Apart from the connection of these Churches with S. Ninian’s own foundations in the same district, it is interesting to find in Angus the use of the name ‘Temple,’ which was applied to Candida Casa itself, and to S. Ninian’s foundations elsewhere; the name ‘ Both’ which was applied to Churches originating from a Casa or Casula; the place-name ‘ Fearn ‘ common to Candida Casa, and to S. Ninian’s at Fearn of Edderton; and the institutional name ‘Disert’ given to one of the features of S. Ninian’s establishment and the establishments that originated from Candida Casa both in Pictland and in Ireland.