THE CULDEES:
THE CELTIC PERIOD

Earliest Times

Long ago volcanic activity caused seven hills to emerge in an area in Scotland which became known as Dyn Eiddyn. Castle Hill became ideal as a stronghold for people and was fought over continually by the pagans who lived there. The Picts, Scots, the Welsh-speaking Britons, known to the Romans as Votadini (Goddodin), the Angles (English) Romans and French all had a part in moulding the character of the city that eventually grew up here.

In the Bronze Age the people worshipped created things like the sun, moon and stars, and they had many gods. Indeed, Edinburgh is in the heart of the area known as the Lothians, or Lleuthern, meaning the fortress of Lleu, who was the sun god.

The Coming of the Christians

In about AD 200 Tertullian wrote that Christians had spread even into the most northern areas of Britain.1 It is possible that the first Christians who may have come to Edinburgh were Roman soldiers; certainly there were Roman barracks in Cramond dating from AD 140, and even a Roman boathouse dating from the first century AD. By AD 397 Ninian had built a stone church north of Hadrian’s Wall and Christianity was spreading in Scotland. He also appears to have set up a mission base at Abercorn, about 12 miles from Edinburgh. Waves of missionaries started pouring in to reach the Celts, Picts and Scots.

The Roman, Palladius, was appointed as a bishop missionary to the people in AD 423, and according to the historical information at Culross Abbey, he arrived in Culross in AD 424 to find that Serf had already established a monastery at that site (in Fife, on the other side of the Forth estuary).

According to a strong tradition, Princess Denw (Thenew) was driven away from her people by her father, King Lleuddon (Loth), because she was found with child out of wedlock. There are two stories concerning her: either she conceived through fornication, or she was a Christian who was raped and became pregnant. The people tried to kill her by throwing her off the Traprain Law (a hill-rock outside Edinburgh, near Haddington) but she miraculously survived. She was put in a coracle and left to drift out to sea, where she eventually arrived at Culross.

The monks there looked after her and she gave birth to Kentigern (Mungo), who eventually became the apostle of the Strathclyde district and Bishop of Cumbria in AD 543. He established the Church in Glasgow but preached all the way from Galloway to the Orkneys in the far north. Glasgow itself was founded by him and the name Glas-gu means ‘dear family’. The city motto there is: Lord, let Glasgow flourish through the preaching of thy Word and the praise of thy name. Such are the amazing redemptive purposes of God.

King Arthur

If you walk to the bottom of the Royal Mile next to the Scottish Parliament you cannot miss the rugged hill that towers over Edinburgh, with Arthur’s Seat perched on top. It stands like a sentinel; if only rocks could tell us the history of mankind! For many people, King Arthur is a mysterious, legendary figure from the murky past. Nobody seems to know how and when Arthur’s Seat received its name. Legend has it that King Arthur himself was there, but there is no historical proof of this. However, there are a few historical threads that point to this legend having some truth.

Professor Francis Nigel Lee, who holds the extraordinary honour of having eleven earned Ph.D.s, wrote an article about King Arthur, in which he says:

‘Arthur was the Christian “High King” or Arh-an -Rhaig of the Britons. Several have attempted to locate him at Gelliwig alias Kelliwic in Cornwall, where he may indeed have had at least a summer palace in his large western domain (comprising the better part of Brythonic Britain all the way from Dumbarton in the north to Land’s End in the south... It seems very clear from authentic records, that the Christian King Arthur really did fight twelve major battles against the non-Christian Saxons But there is more. Precisely the localities of those battles, tends to centre not in Cornwall but in Cumbria in the Northwest; (in) Southern Scotland; and (in) the ancient kingdom of Rheged around the Solway. Cat Coit Celidon, the Battle of the Caledonian Forest, is unequivocally Northern – and is usually taken to refer to the wooded country north of Carlisle.’ 2

The Elizabethan chronicler, Raphael Holinshed, drawing from early historical sources, says that Arthur was crowned King of the Britons in AD 516, and that he made an alliance with King Loth of the Picts, who ruled the Lothians and was St Kentigern’s grandfather. If this is true, then the large rock at the bottom of the Royal Mile may indeed have witnessed King Arthur, as wooden fortresses were built on such high places in the Edinburgh area, and Arthur’s Seat may have been a military stronghold for this alliance against the Saxons.

Columba and Iona

An Irish aristocrat, named Columba, came with a team of monks to reach the Picts in AD 563 and they set up their mission base on the island of Iona near Mull on the west coast. One of their communities was at Dunkeld, about two days’ walk from Edinburgh and so it is likely that the Church already existed here by then.

Those early Celtic Christians became known as Culdees (from the Gaelic Celi De – ‘friends of God’), since it was obvious to all the pagans that these people really knew Christ because of their humility, practical loving care and answers to prayer. Many are the accounts of miracles occurring through Columba.

On one occasion he raised a young lad from the dead whilst the Druid priests were mocking the Christian parents about their belief in the resurrection.3

Another time Columba was getting ready to sail across Loch Ness to preach, when a leading pagan priest called Briochan tried to stop him by calling on his gods to send a thick mist and an unfavourable wind. His prayers were answered and the wind and fog came, but Columba calmly stepped into the loch and prayed for the fog to clear and for the wind to change, which happened straightaway, much to the shock of the pagans!4 It is not surprising that multitudes of pagans turned to Christ and left their gods when they saw such a demonstration of love and spiritual power.

Those early Celtic Christians pioneered centres that were truly holistic and founded on Christ. Counselling, healing, education, the arts, agriculture, prayer and mission were important elements of community life.

Aidan and Holy Island (Lindisfarne)

King Oswald had become a Christian as a child whilst staying as a refugee with the community at Iona. As a grown man he re-conquered his family’s land and lived in Bamburgh Castle on the Northumbrian coast. He requested that missionaries be sent to Northumbria, which was a district stretching right up to Edinburgh. A team was sent, led by Corman, but returned dejected and defeated, claiming that the Northumbrians were too hard-hearted.

Instead, Aidan was sent with a team and King Oswald gave them Holy Island (Lindisfarne) as their base. Aidan, an Irish man, could not understand English, so King Oswald acted as his interpreter on their preaching tours!

In AD 638 King Oswald drove out the Goddodin from Dyn Eiddyn and it is thought by some that he renamed the town Edwinesburg, after his Christian uncle, King Edwin. Thus we may arrive at the name Edinburgh. However, the name Edinburgh may just be the Anglo-Saxon version of the Celtic Dyn Eiddyn (‘burgh’ is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Celtic ‘dun’, both of which mean ‘district’).

Cuthbert

The patron saint of Northumbria is Cuthbert, who was born near the River Tweed in AD 635. This district included Edinburgh until 1237. Our historical source of information about this saint comes from Bede 29 years after Cuthbert's death. Bede says:

‘I have written nothing about the saint without first subjecting the facts to the most thorough scrutiny and have passed on nothing to be transcribed for general reading that has not been obtained by rigorous examination of trustworthy witnesses.’ 5

Cuthbert was an athletic boy, proud of his speed and agility. One day when he was eight, just as he was boasting to the other boys about his skills, a little boy of about three years old came up to him and prophesied that he would become a priest and bishop for Christ.

A few years later the household servants put him outside on a stretcher for fresh air because he could not walk on account of a terrible knee tumour. A stranger appeared in white on horseback and told him to make a poultice of warm milk and wheaten flour and put it on his knee; then he rode off. Cuthbert did so and was healed within a few days.

God called Cuthbert to be a monk at the age of 16 on 31st August, AD 651. He was looking after a flock of sheep at night when he saw light streaming from heaven and angelic choirs coming down to earth to take the soul of a holy man to be with Christ. He woke the other shepherds and told them what he had seen and that God had called him to leave his job and become a monk at Melrose Abbey. He found out later that the soul he had seen ascending to heaven was that of Aidan, founder of the community at Holy Island, or Lindisfarne, who had died that night. In his last few years Cuthbert did indeed become the bishop of the community at Holy Island, in accordance with the boy’s prediction.

Miracles and Healings

Often God would supply his needs supernaturally, and animals such as an eagle would be sent to provide food. He would pray through the night, sometimes with his body in the sea up to the neck to keep awake, and when he came out sea otters would rush over to him and lie on him to keep him warm.

Many people were healed through Cuthbert’s prayers. A paralysed boy was brought to him who was healed instantly. Cuthbert ‘had recourse to his usual armoury, prayer, gave a blessing and drove away the disease for which the doctors, despite their skill in concocting medicines, had been unable to devise a cure. The youth regained his strength, stood up and gave thanks to God, and went back home with the women who had brought him.’ 6

In fact, so many were being healed that people travelled many miles to cross over to Holy Island and receive prayer and counsel:

'Now Cuthbert had great numbers of people coming to him not just from Lindisfarne but even from the remote parts of Britain, attracted by his reputation for miracles. They confessed their sins, confided in him about their temptations, and laid open to him the common troubles of humanity they were labouring under – all in the hope of gaining consolation from so holy a man They were not disappointed. No one left unconsoled, no one had to carry back the burdens he came with.

Spirits that were chilled with sadness he could warm back to hope again with a pious word. Those beset with worry he brought back to thoughts of the joys of heaven.

He showed them that both good fortune and bad were transitory in this world. To men beset with temptation he would skilfully disclose all the wiles of the devil, explaining that a soul lacking in love for God or man is easily caught in the devil’s nets, while one that is strong in the faith can, with God’s grace, brush them aside like so many spiders’ webs.’

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Angels and Demons

Cuthbert was often refreshed by God’s angels in his labours of love to the people. Bede tells us: ‘Angels would often appear and talk with him and when he was hungry he would be refreshed with food by the special gift of God.’ 8

However, he also encountered evil spirits who opposed his message. A group of windswept islands called Inner Farne off the Northumbrian coast became his prayer sanctuary. The locals had warned him of the ghosts that haunted the place and ‘Cuthbert was the first man brave enough to live there alone.’ 9

Instead of finding human ghosts there, Cuthbert found poltergeist demons which he drove away through prayer and fasting in Christ’s name. He said:

‘How often have the demons tried to cast me headlong from yonder rock; how often have they hurled stones as if to kill me; with one fantastic temptation after another they have sought to disillusion me into retreating from this battlefield; but they have never yet succeeded in harming either soul or body; nor do they terrify me.’ 10

Once, when he was preaching to a crowd in a village about the dangers of Satan’s temptations, a phantom fire came and rested on a house. The locals tried to put out the flames, but because it was a spiritual fire from the devil, nothing was burning up.

Cuthbert rebuked the evil one and he left. Then he turned to the stunned people and said: ‘In these days of darkness what we need is a fire from the North.’ He meant that we need to turn away from all sin, wrongdoing, witchcraft and idolatry in its many forms, and find the true supernatural in God through Jesus Christ alone.

I wonder what he would have made of Edinburgh’s ‘underground city’ today, with all its reports of ‘ghosts’ and ‘poltergeists’?

Edinburgh

There was a Lothian mission in and around Edinburgh from about AD 650 onwards, and Cuthbert is likely to have been part of this with his friend, Bishop Trumwine of Abercorn (near Edinburgh). There is a strong tradition that Cuthbert used to preach in the market place below what is now Edinburgh Castle, where he built himself a stone hut. Cuthbert died on Inner Farne in AD 687.