FILLAN, SAINT. Two Scoto-Irish saints of the name of Fillan appear in the church calendars, and have left their mark on the topography of Scotland and Ireland. (1.) ST. FILLAN, or Faolan, surnamed the leper, had his yearly festival on the 20th of June. His chief church in Scotland was at the e. end of loch Erne, in Perthshire, where " St. Fillan's well" was long believed to have supernatural powers of healing. A seat in the rock of Dunfillan still keeps the name of " St. Fillan's chair;" and two cavities beside it are said to have been hollowed by St. F.'s knees in prayer. His Irish church is at Ballyheyland (anciently called Killbelan or Kill Faelain), in the barony of Cullenagh, in Queen's county. (2.) ST. FILLAN, the abbot, the son of St. Kentigerna of Inchcaileach, in loch Lomond, lived in the 8th c., and had his yearly festival on the 7th or 9th of Jan. He joined the monastery of St. Mund on the Holy loch, and after that saint's death, succeeded him as abbot. His chief church in Scotland was in Perthshire, in the upper part of Glendochart, which takes from him the name of Stratlifillan. Here, a well-endowed priory, dedicated in his honor, was repaired, or rebuilt, in the beginning of the 14th century. King Robert Bruce made a grant of money to the work, in gratitude, probably, for the miraculous encouragement which he was said to have received on the eve of Bannockburn from a relic of the saint—one of his armbones inclosed in a silver case. Another relic of St. F.—the silver head of his crosier, or pastoral staff—has been preserved to our time. It is called the " coygerach," or " quigrich," and appears in record as early as the year 1428, when it was in the hereditary keeping of a family named Jore or Dewar, who were believed to have been its keepers from the time of king Robert Bruce. They had half a boll of meal yearly from every parishioner of Glendochart who held a merk land, and smaller quantities from smaller tenants; and they were bound, in return, to follow the stolen cattle of the parishioners wherever their traces could be found within the realm of Scotland.
The quigrich, besides its virtues in the detection of theft, was venerated also for its miraculous powers of healing. In 1487, the right of keeping it was confirmed to Malice Doire, or Dewar, by king James III., in a charter, which was presented for registration atnong the public records of Scotland so lately as the year 1734. Sixty years later, the quigrich still commanded reverence; but its healing virtues were now only tried on cattle, and its once opulent keepers had fallen to the rank of farm-laborers. It was publicly exhibited in Edinburgh, in the year 1818, before being carried to Canada, by its hereditary keeper, Archibald Dewar. His son, Alexander Dewar, desirous that it should be restored to Scotland, came to an arrangement whereby, partly by purchase and partly by gift, it became the property of the society of antiquaries of Scotland. It was described by Dr. Daniel Wilson in a paper in the Canadian Journal, No. xxiv., reprinted as The Quigrich, or Crosier of St. Fillan (Toronto, 1859); see also historical Notices of St. Fillan's Crosier by Dr. Stuart, reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xii. (1877). A lima in the river Fillan, or Dochart, in Strathfillan, was long believed to work wonderful cures on insane persons, who were immersed in the stream at sunset, and left bound hand and foot till sunrise in the ruins of the neighboring church of St. Fillan. A hand-bell, which bore the name of St. Fillan, was also believed to work miracles.