Saint Moluag

Saint Moluag, (c.530 - 592), (also known as Lua, Luan, Luanus, Lugaidh, Moloag, Molluog, Molua, Murlach, Malew), was a Scottish missionary, and a contemporary of Saint Columba, who evangelized the Picts of Scotland in the sixth century. Saint Moluag was the patron saint of Argyll as evidenced by a charter in 1544, from the Earl of Argyll, which states "in honour of God Omnipotent, the blessed Virgin, and Saint Moloc, our patron".

Life

Moluag, born in Ireland, was an Irish noble of the Dál nAraide and was educated in Bangor, Ireland under Saint Comgall.

Tradition states that the rock on which Moluag stood, detached itself from the Irish coast and he drifted across to the island of Lismore, in Loch Linnhe. According to the Irish Annals, in 562 Moluag beat Saint Columba in a race to the large island of the Lyn of Lorn in Argyll. Now called the Isle of Lismore, WS Skene claims it was the sacred island of the Western Picts and the burial place of their kings whose capital was at Beregonium, across the water at Benderloch.