Legends of Scottish Saints

Readings, hymns and prayers for the commemorations of Scottish saints in the Aberdeen Breviary

Alan Macquarrie, editor

Scotland’s first full-scale printed book is the Aberdeen Breviary, published in Edinburgh in 1510. It contains the only major collection of legends of Scottish saints. Many of the saints are of Irish origin, but the book also includes English, Welsh, Pictish and Scandinavian saints. The Breviary of Aberdeen has not been edited for 150 years. The existing facsimile edition is rare and in places untrustworthy; it is very difficult to use, without index, translation, notes or commentary. This edition is intended to make the material more accessible to scholars, local historians and general readers for future research. It is a reliable edition of a fascinating collection of legends of early saints, describing the development of their cult and also their heroic struggles, self-denial and amazing miracles, in a scholarly edition with detailed introduction, text, translation and notes.

Alan Macquarrie taught and researched in Scottish history at Glasgow University for ten years, and later worked in the faculties of Education and of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Strathclyde for eighteen years. He is an honorary research fellow in Scottish history at Glasgow University, and the author of a number of books, including Scotland and the Crusades (1985), The saints of Scotland (1997), and Medieval Scotland: kingship and nation (2004).