Sanctan

Saint Sanctan was a sixth-⁠century bishop from northern Britain, venerated in Ireland and on the Isle of Man. Our calendar calls him bishop of Kill-⁠da-⁠Les and Kill-⁠na-⁠Sanctan near Dublin and commemorates him on 9 May; in the Church of England his feast falls on 20 May.

He was the son of Samuel Cennísel, a king in northern Britain, and of Deichter, daughter of an overking of Ulaid. He had a brother, Matócc, and was half-⁠brother of Saint Cybi of Holyhead. He was an active missionary in Cumbria; the Liber Hymnorum records that he and Matóc came from Britain to Ireland, where he spent most of his life and where he appears in the list of bishops in the Book of Leinster. He was bishop of Cell da les, "church of the two enclosures", an unidentified place, possibly Kilnasantan in the Dublin Mountains. He is commemorated in the Felire of Oengus, and the civil parish of Santon on the Isle of Man is named after him.