Kenneth
A.D. 600
Feast Day: October 11

When keeping track of the various Celtic peoples which inhabited Britain and Ireland it is sometimes helpful to think of them in terms of the first nations which inhabited America. While there are  broad racial and ethnic similarities, there are also distinct differences of language and culture. However, the Native Americans had a huge land mass to spread across. The Celtic nations were crammed into an area smaller than  New England, and lived cheek by jowl. Though St. Kenneth was born in Ireland he is frequently identified as a Pict, the Celtic nation which inhabited Scotland until the Gaidheal invasion/migration set up the Scottish kingdom of  Dalraida on the western coast. Edwin Sprott Towill, in his book The Saints of Scotland, suggests that Kenneth was of the Irish tribe of the Cruithni, relatives of the Britons (Brythions), the people of St.  Patrick. This ethnic confusion aided Kenneth in playing an important role in Scotland where he came as a companion of Columcille (St. Columba).

 Columcille sought to convert King Brude of the Pictish nation. However, as a Gaidheal, Columcille was associated with King Brudes chief enemies, the Dalraidans. Kenneth was a more neutral  companion and supposedly assisted Columcille in translation as that saint did not speak Pictish. Yet Kenneths place in the world of the Celtic saints extends far beyond his associate with Columcille.

 He was born (c. 525 AD) to a family so poor that God sent a wandering cow to follow the family in order that the child might be fed. Kenneths father was a bard, a class generally held in high  esteem and not wanting for means. His poverty might be due to a lack of ability, but it is more likely that the bardic penchant for barbed political satire had rendered him unwelcome in the various tuaths and therefore unable to reap the benefits of his profession. Kenneth entered the community of Clonard under the tutelage of Finnian where he met Columcille in the company of the remarkable gathering of disciples later known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.

 When plague broke out at Clonard the disciples scattered, Columcille to Derry, founding his first community, and Kenneth to Wales where he studied under St. Cadoc at Llancarfan. Kenneth returned  to Ireland, joining Columcille at Derry, and then followed him to Iona where Kenneth began his ministry in Scotland. Though Kenneth left Iona to found more Christian communities in Scotland, his relationship with Columcille and  Iona remained strong. Adomnan, Columcilles biographer tells us of an episode where the Holy Spirit warned Kenneth that the Iona community was in desperate need of intercessory prayer. So urgent was the Spirits call that Kenneth  left his brothers in the refectory before the grace was finished and ran across to his church to pray, leaving a shoe behind in his haste.

 While traveling across the Scottish highlands Kenneth ran across a young woman nearly dead of the cold, and her daughter lying dead close by. He ordered his companions to make a fire to revive  the woman and through his prayers, her daughter was restored to life. The author of the Codex Salmanticensis, our primary source for Kenneths life outside of the writings of Adomnan, reported that there were still stone crosses  on the site in his day, commemorating the miracle.

 In Ireland Kenneth is primarily remembered as a scribe who made copies of the four gospels along with his own commentaries. Shirley Toulson reports this work as known as the Chain of Canice.  At the end of his life Kenneth returned to his Irish community at Aghaboe (cowfield) known today as Kilkenny. There he passed to glory on October 11, 600 AD.