"There is a bell belonging to the chapel of St. Fillan, that was in high reputation among the votaries of that saint in old times. It seems to be of some mixed metal. It is about a foot high, and of an oblong form. It usually lay on a grave-stone in the churchyard. When mad people were brought to be dipped in the saint's pool, it was necessary to perform certain ceremonies, in which there was a mixture of Druidism and Popery. After remaining all night in the chapel bound with ropes, the bell was set upon their head with great solemnity. It was the popular opinion that, if stolen, it would extricate itself out of the thief's hands, and return home ringing all the way. For some years past this bell has been locked up to prevent its being used to superstitious purposes."[688]
Pennant visited the locality, and describes the peculiar gifts of healing ascribed to the saint, but he does not appear to have known of his bell. Some portions of the ruined chapel exist, and the pool of Strathfillan remains as of yore, still distinguished by the peasantry as the Holy Pool, and even visited by some who have faith in its virtue; but if the bell is to be seen, it must be sought for among the treasures of some private collector. "It was stolen," says the author of the recent Account of Killin Parish, writing in 1843, "by an English antiquarian about forty years ago." Unhappily the old virtues of the bell had departed, or the saint no longer favours a faithless generation, else its potent clogarnach should long since have announced its return to Strathfillan.
On the Island of Inniskenneth, which is affirmed to derive its name from Kenneth, a friend of St. Columba, whom the prayer of the saint rescued from drowning—probably the St. Kenanach of Irish hagiology—there are the ruins of an ancient chapel of small dimensions, about sixty feet in length, and near to it the remains of a cross, with numerous tombstones both of early and recent date. Here, towards the close of last century, according to the Old Account of the Parish, an ancient bell, most probably that of St. Kenanach, and described by the Statist as "a small bell used at the celebration of mass," was then preserved in the chapel.[689] This example, it is possible, may still be preserved in private hands; and with so many evidences of the recent existence of these relics of the first preachers of the faith in Scotland, it is not unreasonable to conceive that others may also be in safe keeping among the heirlooms of the older Highland families, which a wider diffusion of a just spirit of reverence for our national antiquities may bring to light. Meanwhile, these notices suffice to shew that the beautiful bell found at Torrebhlaurn is by no means unique in Scotland. Probably none of the earlier Christian missionaries were without such a potent relic; and the only Scandinavian influence which history would justify us in connecting with them, is the diminution of their number and the spoiling and slaying of their owners, down to the comparatively late date of St. Olaf's conversion, and his mission to the Pagan Norsemen of the Orkneys, armed with more carnal weapons than the bishop's crosier and consecrated bell. With these venerable memorials of the first preachers of Christianity to the heathen Picts and Scots, may also be mentioned a more modern relic of the same class, a graceful little hand-bell, presented to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1783, but of which the previous history is unknown. It is decorated, in basso-relievo, on the one side with the temptation of Adam and Eve, and on the other with the crucifixion. It is no doubt also an old ecclesiastical bell, though belonging to a period long subsequent to the era of St. Kentigern or St. Fillan.
But another and still more interesting relic of St. Fillan, even than his bell, has descended safely to our own day. An English tourist of last century communicated to the Society of Antiquaries the following account of the crosier of St. Fillan, which, with the miracle-working bell of the Saint of Strathfillan, continued then to occupy the ancient scene of his ministration.
"At Killin, July 5, 1782, in the house of Malice Doire, a day-labourer, I was shewn what he called the Quigrich. It is the head of a crosier, formerly belonging to St. Fillan, who gave name to a neighbouring Strath. I entreat the Society to excuse the rudeness of the representation annexed, it being the hasty sketch of a traveller, particularly as it is only meant to lead them to the possession of the original. With it is shewn a copy of the king's letters of appropriation and security, which I have carefully transcribed. The neighbours conducted me to the envied possessor of this relic, who exhibited it according to the intent of the royal investment. A youth of nineteen, the representative of his father's name, and presumptive heir to this treasure, lay drooping in an outer apartment, under the last gasp of a consumption."[690]
The royal investment referred to in the letter is granted by James III., in the year 1487, and sets forth that "Forasmekle as we have understand that oure servitour Malice Doire and his forebears has had ane relick of Saint Filane, callit the Quigrich, in keping of ws and of oure progenitouris of maist nobill mynde, quham God assolyie, sen the tyme of King Robert the Bruys and of before, and made nane obedience nor answer to na persoun, spirituale nor temporale, in ony thing concerning the said haly relick utherwayis than what is contenit in the auld infeftment thareof, made and grantit be oure said progenitouris, we charge," &c.; and the royal letters accordingly go on to warrant the custodier of the precious relic to bear it through the country without let or hindrance, as his fathers were wont to do.
The owner of the Quigrich afterwards emigrated to America, carrying the ancient relic with him; and the following extract from a letter which I have recently received from the Rev. Æneas M'Donell Dawson, whose own immediate ancestors were for a time the guardians of St. Fillan's crosier, will shew that it is still in safety, though unfortunately severed from nearly all those national and local associations which confer on it so peculiar an interest:—
"The celebrated crook of St. Fillan is still in Canada, and in the keeping of the very family to whose ancestor it was confided on the Field of Bannockburn, when the king, displeased with the abbot for having abstracted from it the relics of St. Fillan previously to the battle, from want of confidence, it is alleged, in the success of the Scottish cause, deprived him of the guardianship.