Legends
David Hugh Farmer has written that the legend of Serf is "a farrago of wild impossibilities." It states that Serf was the son of Eliud, King of Canaan, and his wife Alphia, daughter of a King of Arabia. Childless for a long time, they at last had two sons, the second being Serf. Serf came to Rome, carrying with him such a reputation for sanctity that he was elected pope, and reigned seven years.
He traveled to Gaul and Britain after vacating the holy see, arriving in Scotland. There he met Adomnán, Abbot of Iona, who showed him an island in Loch Leven (later called St Serf's Inch). At the time, this island would have been part of the Pictish kingdom of Fib (Fife). Serf founded the eponymous St Serf's Inch Priory on the island, where he remained seven years.
The centre of his cult (and possibly of his activity) was Culross, which according to tradition, was founded by the saint himself. At Dunning, in Strathearn, he is said to have slain a dragon with his pastoral staff.
"Finally, after many miracles, after divine virtues, after founding many churches, having given his peace to the brethren, yielded up his spirit in his cell at Dunning, on the first day of the Kalends of July; and his disciples and the people of the province take his body to Cuilenross, and there, with psalms and hymns and canticles, he was honourably buried.
Read more about this topic: Saint Serf
Famous quotes containing the word legends:
“Therefore our legends always come around to seeming legendary,
A path decorated with our comings and goings. Or so I’ve been told.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
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