Mention has already been made of the fact that the patron Saint of Dunning was S. SERF. The same Saint had churches dedicated to him at Monivaird (Monzievaird), at Creich, and at Dysart. But, inasmuch as he seems to have lived for some considerable time at Dunning, and also to have died there, perhaps this is the most fitting place for a page or two as to his history.
That he was a real historic personage does not admit of doubt; but the exact time at which he acted his part on the world's stage is involved in great obscurity. The legends of him are very conflicting, so much so, that it has been supposed by some that there were two S. Serfs. It is the legends, however, that are two-fold, and not the Saint. According to the Aberdeen Breviary, and writers who follow its guidance, S. Servanus, or S. Serf, or S. Serb, or (in Aberdeenshire) S. Sair, belonged to the 5th century, and was the disciple of S. Palladius; others putting him a little further on, and making him out to have been the instructor of S. Kentigern at Culross. But most people who carefully read the pages of Skene[21] will be satisfied that S. Servanus belongs to a later period still. It so happens that there is preserved in the Marsh M.S., Dublin, and printed in Skene's Chronicles of the Picts and Scots (p. 412, ff.), a Life of the Saint, which, notwithstanding some excessively wild and incredible-looking stories mixed up with it, is the only life of his that is consistent with itself and with otherwise-ascertained contemporary facts. This life makes the Saint contemporary with Adamnan, Abbot of Iona, who belonged to the 7th century, and with Brude, son of Dargart, King of the Picts. According to Skene,[22] this Brude, son of Dargart, may be identified with Brude, son of Derile, who reigned from 697 to 706, and preceded that Nectan, son of Derile, who expelled the Columban monks from his kingdom. And confirmatory proof of this identification being correct is furnished by Gray's Scalacronica, which has under this Brude that we have been referring to—"En quel temps veint Servanus en Fine."[23] Moreover, in the Chartulary of S. Andrews there is reference to an early charter of the Celtic period, by which "Brude, son of Dergard, gives the Isle of Lochlevine to the Omnipotent God, and to Saint Servanus, and to the Keledei hermits dwelling there, who are serving, and shall serve God in that island."
According, then, to the life in the Marsh Library M.S.—the life which, its many wild accounts notwithstanding, seems most free from anachronisms—the Saint is the son of Obeth, King of Canaan, and Alpia, daughter of the King of Arabia. His father dying, he gives up his right to the throne in favour of his twin brother Generatius, takes orders, and is appointed Bishop of the Cananeans. After twenty years as Bishop in that region, admonished by an angel, he comes to Jerusalem, where he is Patriarch for seven years. He then goes to Constantinople, and thence to Rome, where, for seven years, he reigns as Pope. Quitting Rome, and accompanied by a band of pilgrims, he makes his way into regions remote and crosses the Mare Icteum (Straits of Dover) dryshod, and, after travelling from place to place, arrives at the Forth. Adamnan, who, at the time, was an abbot in Scotland, receives him with great honours on the island of Inchkeith, and afterwards gave him, as his field of labour, Fife, and from the Mons Britannicus to the Mons Okhel (from the mount of the Britons to the Ochils.) He is next found at Kinel, then at Culenros, where he met King Brude and founded a church; then at an island, in Loch Leven, where he meets Adamnan and has the island presented to him. After constructing churches throughout the whole region of Fife, and labouring for years in the province assigned to him, and at many other places, he died at Dunning, and was buried at Culross. The deeds ascribed to S. Serf are certainly astounding, and the stories associated with him extraordinarily "wild"; still, as the scenes of not a few of them are laid at places in the Ochils district, and, accordingly, "Near the Pictish Capital," it may not be inappropriate if a few of them are rehearsed here.[24]
At Tuligbotuan (Tullybody) the Devil, having entered into a poor man, filled him with an insatiable appetite. He ate and ate, and still the wolf within craved for more. Though he consumed a cow and a calf, a sheep and a lamb, all was of no avail. At length, when the family were eaten "out of house and hall," his relatives take him to S. Serf, who clapped his thumb[25] into the man's mouth, which immediately satisfied him—the Devil flying out of him with a howl.
At Alveth (Alvah) Servanus and his company lodged, on one occasion, at the house of a very poor man, who had nothing to put before them but his one pig. It was forthwith cut up and eaten, the bones, however, being carefully preserved from being broken. Next morning, to the great delight and surprise of the poor man, the pig came grunting to the door, restored to flesh, and life by the Saint.
At Atheren (Airthrey) a robber, one night, broke into S. Serf's cell, and, finding a sheep roasted in his larder, comfortably sat down and entirely consumed it. Next day Servanus met the fellow and charged him with the robbery. The man swore innocence, but it was of no use; he was instantly convicted, for the wether bleated in his bowels.
At Dunning, S. Serf is said to have healed three blind, three lame, and three deaf men. But his great feat here was killing the dragon. (Had no princes or knights come to Forteviot as yet, that such work was left to the priest?) The story, as given in the Marsh M.S., is as follows:—"At that time the Saint was in his cell at Dunning (in cella Dunenensi), and news was brought to him that a dragon, great and terrible, and very loathsome (deterrimus), was coming into his township (civitatem suam), whose aspect no mortal could suffer. Saint Servanus, however, coming out to meet it, and taking his staff in his right hand, fought with the dragon in a certain valley, and killed it. From that day, moreover, that valley was called the Valley of the Dragon."[26]
The circumstances connected with the Saint's death and burial are touchingly described. The holy man, after many miracles, after divers works, after founding many churches in Christ, when his peace had been given to his brethren in his cell at Dunning, gave up and commended his spirit to the most High Creator on the first day of the Kalends of July. After his death his disciples and the people of nearly the whole province carried his body to Culenross (Culross), and there, with psalms and hymns (ymnis) and chantings (canticis), honourably buried him, where flourish his merits, and the virtues of his merits unto this day—to the glory and honour of the Omnipotent God, who in the Perfect Trinity liveth and reigneth through endless ages of ages.
Only the limits of space forbid allusion to additional features of considerable importance near the Pictish Capital, and connected with the parish of Dunning. Room, however, must be found for stating that, as is to be expected, Dunning, like other places in Strathearn, is not without interesting traces of the "Rising" of 1715. In the Session records, under date 18th September, 1715, there is the following entry:—"There was no sermon this day, and for several Sabbaths following, on account of the commotions that were in the county by reason of Mar's unnatural rebellion." When Mar quitted the field of Sheriffmuir, he, on the 12th November, 1715, withdrew his army into Angus, and in order to hinder the progress of the Royalist forces, he burned down all the villages on the line of march as far as Perth. The villagers of Dunning, actuated by the same feelings as led the citizens of London to erect the "Monument" after the great fire of 1666, planted a thorn tree to commemorate the destruction of their village. This ancient tree, standing in the square opposite the east approach to the manse, is well protected, and is likely to be spared to tell its memorable story to generations to come.
[1] Hwonam et Nechtan et Phinguineghert.—(See Skene's Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, p. 185).