26—St. Christina, Virgin, A.D. (about) 1085.
This saint, though brought into close connection with the country, was not of Scottish lineage. She was the sister of St. Margaret, and therefore the daughter of Edward the Etheling. Together with her mother Agatha, sister to the Queen of Hungary, Christina took the veil in the Benedictine Abbey of Romsey, in Hampshire. Here both royal ladies became distinguished for holiness. Matilda, daughter {172} of St. Margaret, was educated by her aunt at Romsey. She became known as the "good Queen Maud" after she had married Henry I. of England. St. Christina died in the odour of sanctity about the year 1085.
27—St. Oda or Odda, Virgin, about 8th century.
She is said to have been a daughter of a Scottish king. Having the misfortune to lose her sight, she made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Lambert the martyr, at Liege, to implore the help of that renowned wonder-worker. Her faith was rewarded by a cure, and Oda resolved, in gratitude for the favour, to dedicate herself to God in the religious state. She therefore retired to a hermitage in Brabant, where she spent her remaining years in prayer and penance, winning from Heaven many graces for the people of that district. After her death her relics were enshrined in a collegiate church in the town of Rhode, and she became the chief patron of the place.
It is remarkable that the feast of this saint was inserted in the calendar drawn up for the Scottish Episcopal Church by order of {173} Charles I. St. Oda's supposed royal descent is thought to have won for her this distinction.
28—St. Callen.
Nothing more is known concerning this saint than the facts that the church of Rogart, in Sutherlandshire, was dedicated to St. Callen, and a fair, known as "St. Callen's Fair," was formerly held there on this day.
30—St. Andrew, Apostle, Patron of Scotland.
We cannot reckon St. Andrew among the national saints of Scotland, for he lived and died far from these northern lands. Scotland cannot even claim connection with him on the ground of having received missionaries from him, as England can boast of her connection with St. Gregory the Great. Yet from time immemorial so far back that history cannot point to any precise date St. Andrew has been venerated as the special protector of Scotland, and his feast, known as "Andrewmas," celebrated everywhere with great rejoicing. The legend of St. Regulus (see October 17) which attributes to that saint the bringing of {174} the apostle's relics to the country is rejected by modern historians. The origin of devotion to St. Andrew in Scotland is nevertheless due to the translation of the apostle's relics thither (probably from Hexham) during the eighth century. These relics were undoubtedly honoured with much devotion at the place which was afterwards known by the name of the great Apostle, and eventually became the Primatial See of that country.
Whatever be the true facts of the case, St. Andrew has been invoked for more than one thousand years as the Patron of Scotland, whose battle-cry in the ages of faith was "For God and St. Andrew."