Donnan of Eigg and Companions

Holy Venerable Martyr Donnán of Eigg was a priest, most probably from Ireland, a monk at Iona with Saint Columba, who tried to bring Christianity to the Picts of north-⁠western Scotland and founded a monastery on the island of Eigg in the Inner Hebrides. He is the patron of the island of Eigg.

In 617 or 618, on Easter Sunday, heathen sea raiders came to the island while he was celebrating the liturgy. According to the Martyrology of Donegal, he asked them not to kill him until he had finished the service and they gave him that respite; then he was beheaded, with his fifty-⁠two monks. According to another tradition, a pagan Pictish queen had him and a hundred and fifty others burnt. He is thought to be buried at Kildonan on the Isle of Arran. Donnan of Eigg and Companions are saints of the undivided Church, commemorated on 17 April (new style; 30 April in the old style).