ST CONRAN, BISHOP OF ORKNEY - 14 FEBRUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY

 Saints celebrated on the 14th of February

WELCOME!

SAINT CONRAN, BISHOP OF ORKNEY

(Saint Conran, Bishop of Orkney, Confessor.) The isles of Orkney are twenty-six in number, besides the lesser, called Holmes, which are uninhabited, and serve only for pasture. 

ST PALLADIUS' AND ST SYLVESTER'S WORK

The faith was planted here by St Palladius, and St Sylvester, one of his fellow-labourers, who was appointed by him the first pastor of this church, and was honoured in it on the 5th of February. 

HOME TO A GREAT NUMBER OF MONASTERIES

In these islands formerly stood a great number of holy monasteries, the chief of which was Kirkwall. This place was the bishop’s residence, and is at this day the only remarkable town in these islands. It is situated in the largest of them, which is thirty miles long, called anciently Pomonia, now Mainland. 

HE WAS KNOWN FOR HIS ASCETICISM, ZEAL, AND EMINENT ZEAL

This church is much indebted to St Conran, who was bishop here in the seventh century, and whose name, for the austerity of his life, zeal, and eminent sanctity, was no less famous in those parts, so long as the Catholic religion flourished there, than those of St Palladius and of St Kentigern. The cathedral of Orkney was dedicated under the invocation of St Magnus, king of Norway. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)