Saint Machar

• Name  : Saint Machar
• Born  :  ?
• Died  : c.600
• Category  : Religious Figures
• Finest Moment : Founding a church in Aberdeen, maybe.

Very shadowy this one, possibly even an invention, but here goes with the myth anyway. St Machar was supposedly the son of Fiachna, an Ulster Prince. He was then baptised by St Colman of Kilmacduagh, and was then given the name of Mochumma. The darkness descends again, until 561, when he is said to have been one of the 12 monks who accompanied St Columba to Iona.

Successful preaching on Mull and other parts of the west coast is supposed to have aroused some jealousy on Columba's part (so nobody's perfect), and he was despatched to the east coast, with instructions, it is said, to search for a site where a river formed the shape of a crosier, and there found a church. This he found in Aberdeen, in the River Don. Aberdeen Cathedral is dedicated to St Machar.

And if St Machar is not an invention but actually lived' He was more likely a fairly insignificant missionary of the Pictish Church, though one scholar has advanced a case for him being the better known St Mungo.

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