Saint Cathan, also known as
Catan,
Cattan, etc., was a 6th-century Irish monk revered as a
saint in parts the Scottish
Hebrides. He appears in the
Aberdeen Breviary,
Walter Bower's
Scotichronicon, and the
Acta Sanctorum, and a number of placenames in western Scotland are associated with him. He is said to have been one of the first
Irish missionaries to come to the
Isle of Bute, then part of the Irish kingdom of
Dál Riata. Very little is known of him; he is generally only mentioned in connection with his more famous nephew
Saint Blane, who was born on Bute and later proselytized among the
Picts. Both saints were strongly associated with Bute and with
Kingarth monastery, which became the center of their cults.