Saint Catan
‘According to tradition, the church was built on the site of a cell occupied by St. Catan who is believed to have lived in the sixth or seventh century.’
These words were written in 1919 by W.C. Mackenzie. Catan was an early Irish churchman who became a bishop of the island of Bute, and chapels dedicated to him can be found throughout Kintyre and some of the Hebrides, in Perthshire and in Beauly. The clan Chattan, whose principal members are the Mackintoshes and the Macphersons, took its name from ‘clan of the servant of St. Catan.’ According to Mackenzie, there was also a shrine to St. Catan at Mealista in Uig in west Lewis.
