St. Triduana (also Triduna, Tradwell), one of the most venerated female saints of Scotland, lived between the fourth and the eighth centuries. Despite the fact that Scottish people from the mainland and the isles off the Scottish shores used to make pilgrimages to the holy sites associated with the venerable woman over the centuries, almost no concrete details of this saint’s life survive. According to the most popular legend, St. Triduana was a holy virgin born in the city of Colossae in Phrygia in Asia Minor in the fourth century. Later she became a nun and together with several fellow-sisters and the saintly Bishop Regulus of Patras in Greece[1] travelled to Scotland where they brought a part of the relics of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called.
In Scotland St. Triduana led an ascetic life together with two other holy anchoresses at a spot called Roscoby in the former region of Forfarshire (now the council area of Angus). Beloved and venerated by everybody, St. Triduana healed people who came to her of eye infections. According to one legend, a local king named Nechtan fell in love with the beautiful Triduana. Having learned that the king loved her for her fine eyes, the virgin tore them out and gave them to the King. It is a late legend, but the truth is that Christians did believe that the Lord bestowed on her the ability to heal blindness.
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