St. Duthak, Bishop of Ross, in Scotland, Confessor


HIS zeal and labours in preaching the word of God, his contempt of himself, his compassion for the poor and for sinners, his extreme love of poverty, never reserving anything for himself, and the extraordinary austerity of his life, to which he had innured himself from his childhood, are much extolled by the author of his life. The same writer assures us, that he was famous for several miracles and predictions, and that he foretold an invasion of the Danes, which happened ten years after his death, in 1263, in the reign of Alexander III. when with their king Achol, they were defeated by Alexander Stuart, great grandfather to Robert, the first king of that family. This victory was ascribed to the intercession of Saint Andrew and Saint Duthak. Our saint, after longing desires of being united to God, passed joyfully to bliss, in 1253. His relics, kept in the collegiate church of Thane, in the county of Ross, were resorted to by pilgrims from all parts of Scotland. Lesley, the pious bishop of Ross, (who, after remaining four years in prison with Queen Mary, passed into France, was chosen suffragan of Rouen, by Cardinal Bourbon, and died at Brussels, in 1591,) had an extraordinary devotion to this saint, the chief patron of his diocess. See Lesley, Descript. Scot. p. 27. and the MS. life of St. Duthak, compiled by a Scottish Jesuit, nephew by the mother to Bishop Lesley, and native of that diocess. See also King in Calend.	1