Also known as Lugaidh and Molloch, Moluag was born c.530AD of the clan Dalaraidhe, in northern Ireland where he became a monk of Bangor. Many consider his true name to have been Lugaidh (pronounced Lua) and the form of Moluag, used in the Annals of Tigernach, is simply an affectionate form – Mo-Luoc, “my Lugaidh”. St Moluag’s plan for working Pictland was to organize three great muinntirs or communities to be the centres of education and ministerial supply for the Churches in their respective districts; and, of course, for the maintenance of these central communities he had the reserves of the mother church of Bangor in Eire.

He first organised the great community of Lismore in Lorn about 562AD. Moluag’s settlement was in the north of Lismore, close to a megalithic site surmounted by a high cairn which once marked the funeral pyres of Pictish Kings. This island was the sacred island of the Western Picts, and continued to be the burial-place of their kings who reigned at Beregonium. The Churches dependent on Lismore, still traceable, are Teampul Mór in Lewis; the Church of Pabay, that is, Isle of the pápa; Cill Moluag in Raasay; Teampull Mholuig, “Moluag’s Chapel”, at Europie in Ness; Cill Moluag in Skye; Cill Moluag in Tiree; Cill Moluag in Mull; ‘Kilmalu’ in Morvern; ‘Kilmalu’ of Inverary; and Cill Moluag at Ballagan, Inverfarigaig.

St Moluag’s second central community is said to have been organised at Rosemarkie on the northern shore of the Inverness Firth (however, see below). Many of the churches founded from this centre were afterwards, in the Roman Catholic period, dedicated to Roman saints, and they cannot now be definitely distinguished as St Moluag’s; but there was an old church in the strath of the Peffray (Strathpeffer) whose temporalities are still called Davoch-Moluag, and the submerged Church of Cromarty was evidently one of St Moluag’s foundations.

His third central community was at Mortlach in Morayshire. Dependant upon it was the smaller community at Clova or Cloveth near Lumsden village. The foundations that still bear St Moluag’s name in this part of Scotland are at “Maol-Moluag’s”, now New Machar, at Clatt in the Garioch and at Migvie (also linked to St Finan) and Tarland. Another of St Moluag’s known foundations was at Alyth in Perthshire.

St Moluag continued to labour in Pictland until his death on the 25th June 592 AD. Some sources give that he died at Ardclach in Nairnshire. According to the other old traditions he died while visiting his churches in the Garioch and was buried at Rosemarkie. In the Martyrology of Oengus, under his entry on June 25th, is a comment which is typical of the warm esteem with which he is commemorated in the Irish calendars:

“The pure, the bright, the pleasant,the sun of Lismore;that is Moluoc,of Lismore in Alba”.

His crozier, Bacchuill Mór, “the great staff”, a piece of blackthorn 34 inches long and originally covered in a gilded copper case, is preserved on Lismore in Bachuil village in the care of the Livingstone family; having been for some time in the custody of the Dukes of Argyll. Because of their associations with the Bacchuill Mhór this Livingstone family holds the ancient title of Barons of Bachuil.

Of course, it will not escape the attention of the reader that St Moluag’s three main foundations at Lismore, Rosemarkie and Mortlach in time became the seats of the ancient medieval Roman Sees of the Isles, Ross and Aberdeen.

It must not be supposed that the trained clergy from Bangor and from St Moluag’s own centres kept themselves apart from the Britonic and the native Pictish clergy who were at work in Pictland at this time; because there is evidence that the Bangor clergy assisted in manning Churches founded long before their arrival as well as looking to the care of congregations gathered by themselves. The only sign of want of co-operation between the Celtic clergy, as might be expected from the political relations of the time, was between the Picts and the Gaidheals or Scots, in the territory occupied by the Scotic colonists in Dalriada. There was certainly no co-operation between the Pictish ecclesiastics and the Gaidhealic ecclesiastics in the island of Tiree!

There is some discrepancy with regard to St Moluag’s burial place. Until recent times the tradition on Lismore itself was that Moluag died at Ardclach and that his body was born back to Lismore by twenty-four of the most stalwart islanders. This tradition is very much in keeping with the Celtic tradition of burying a saint in his main or oldest foundation. Another source gives that the story of Moluag being buried at Rosemarkie is false and repeats the story that his body was taken to Lismore. It goes further by relating that there was a later Moluag, a colleague of St Boniface, and that he was a great preacher. It is said that it is this second Moluag, who died over a hundred years after the first, that was buried in Boniface’s chapel at Rosemarkie. It has to be said that, if one is to accept the first Moluag’s association with the district round Rosemarkie then it is surprising that there are so very few churches which bear his name. Even where original Celtic saints names were replaced with Roman ones, it is rare for the original to completely disappear. This story of a second Moluag may have an essence of truth in it!

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Martyr and King of Norway (1015-30), b. 995; d. 29 July, 1030. He was a son of King Harald Grenske of Norway. According to Snorre, he was baptized in 998 in Norway, but more probably about 1010 in Rouen, France, by Archbishop Robert. In his early youth he went as a viking to England, where he partook in many battles and became earnestly interested in Christianity. After many difficulties he was elected King of Norway, and made it his object to extirpate heathenism and make the Christian religion the basis of his kingdom. He is the great Norwegian legislator for the Church, and like his ancestor (Olaf Trygvesson), made frequent severe attacks on the old faith and customs, demolishing the temples and building Christian churches in their place. He brought many bishops and priests from England, as King Saint Cnut later did to Denmark. Some few are known by name (Grimkel, Sigfrid, Rudolf, Bernhard). He seems on the whole to have taken the Anglo-Saxon conditions as a model for the ecclesiastical organization of his kingdom. But at last the exasperation against him got so strong that the mighty clans rose in rebellion against him and applied to King Cnut of Denmark and England for help. This was willingly given, whereupon Olaf was expelled and Cnut elected King of Norway. It must be remembered that the resentment against Olaf was due not alone to his Christianity, but also in a high degree to his unflinching struggle against the old constitution of shires and for the unity of Norway. He is thus regarded by the Norwegians of our days as the great champion of national independence, and Catholic and Protestant alike may find in Saint Olaf their great idea.

After two years’ exile he returned to Norway with an army and met his rebellious subjects at Stiklestad, where the celebrated battle took place 29 July, 1030. Neither King Cnut nor the Danes took part at that battle. King Olaf fought with great courage, but was mortally wounded and fell on the battlefield, praying “God help me”. Many miraculous occurrences are related in connection with his death and his disinterment a year later, after belief in his sanctity had spread widely. His friends, Bishop Grimkel and Earl Einar Tambeskjelver, laid the corpse in a coffin and set it on the high-altar in the church of St. Clement in Nidaros (now Trondhjem). Olaf has since been held as a saint, not only by the people of Norway, but also by Rome. His cult spread widely in the Middle Ages, not only in Norway, but also in Denmark and Sweden; even in London, there is on Hart Street a St. Olave’s Church, long dedicated to the canonized King of Norway. In 1856 a fine St. Olave’s Church was erected in Christiania, the capital of Norway, where a large relic of St. Olaf (a donation from the Danish Royal Museum) is preserved and venerated. The arms of Norway are a lion with the battle-axe of St. Olaf in the forepaws.