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Born in Rome, Italy; died at Rosmark, Scotland, c. 630. Early in the eighth century, about the year 710, King Nectan of the Picts sent to Coelfrid at Wearmouth asking for guidance over the new usages that had been agreed fifty years before at the Council of Whitby. He also asked for help in building a church "in the Roman Style" which he wanted to dedicate to St Peter. Coelfrid who was abbot of the double monastery of St Peter Wearmouth and St Paul Jarrow, sent back a long letter explaining the Roman method of determining the date of Easter and how the tonsure favoured in the Western Church differed from the Celtic one. This letter is recorded in full by Bede and it is probable that he composed it for his abbot.

With the letter Coelfrid sent a group of monks led by a Pict called Curitan who was zealous for the Roman way and had chosen for himself a Latin name, Bonifacius. This particular name seems to have been a popular one for those with good relations with the Holy See and was given to Winfrid by Pope Gregory II in 718. Pope Boniface V had written letters to King Edwin of Northumbria and S. Ethelburga his Queen to support the mission of S. Paulinus which would be remembered at Wearmouth. It was however the desire to model their lives on that of Christ, who the Apostle Peter said,"went about doing good" (bene faciendo) and whom he adjured Christians to follow,"to eschew evil and do good" (faciat Bonum), that made the name so attractive to those who wanted to be right with the successors of Peter.

Curitan and his party sailed up the Tay and landed at Invergowrie where they built a church. The site of this church is marked by ruins at Dargie and Kingoody is a corruption of Kill Curdy. An ancient carved stone from this site is now in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh and one of the three figures on it probably is of St. Curitan. Having met with King Nectan, Curitan then moved on to Forfar and the church he built at Restenueth is thought to be the one the King had desired taking the name of Egglespether, Peter's Church.

The monks now journeyed northward to the Murray Firth and there on the Black Isle at Rosemarkie St. Curitan settled, reviving the community started by St. Molnag. Here was built another of the numerous churches dedicated to St Peter for which the mission was responsible. The later Cathedral for the Diocese of Ross at Fortrose is also dedicated to St Peter but this time he is linked with S. Curitan under his name Boniface.

The breviary of Aberdeen is obviously confused by the name Boniface and asserts that Curitan was an Israelite who had been Pope but left Rome to preach in Scotland. It also claims that he consecrated a hundred and fifty bishops, ordained a thousand priests, baptised thirty six thousand converts besides building a hundred and fifty churches. There is no doubt that he did a great deal to bring the Celtic church into the orbit of Western Catholicity, doing for Scotland what St. Wilfrid and St. Benedict Biscop did for England. He was a strong advocate for the Roman cause at the Synod of Birr in 697.

At Invergowrie there is a great stone called the Paddock or Greystone and local folklore maintains that it is one of the rocks hurled by the devil at St. Curitan's band of missionaries coming up the river. The other is an island in the Tay and the story implies that the devil knew that their message was the truth. St. Curitan died at Rosemarkie and was buried before the altar of his church there. A number of place names in Glen Urquhart has his name in the Gaelic Churadain but others have the derivative Curdy (Towill, Barrett, Bede).



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