Ternan, Saint, Bishop of the Picts, flourished in the sixth century. Much obscurity attaches to his history, and it is difficult to reconcile his chronology as given by various writers. Some say that he was consecrated by St. Palladius in 440, others that he was a monk of Culross in Fife, one of the monasteries founded by St. Serf, or Servan, the tutor of St. Kentigern. The Picts were not converted till about 570, by the zeal of St. Columba. St. Kentigern died in 603, and St. Serf of Culross died in 583 (feast 1 July). It is safe to assert that St. Ternan was a contemporary of St. Serf. In the “Aberdeen Martyrology” there is mention of “the Gospel of St. Matthew belonging to St. Ternan”, which was ‘“enshrined in a metal case or cumdach (book shrine), covered with silver and gold, after the Irish fashion.” St. Ternan is commemorated on 12 June. He must not be confounded with St. Trumwine.
Skene, Celtic Scotland (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1876-80); Moran, Irish Saints in Great Britain (Rome, 1903); Benn, Hecl. Hist. of England, tr. SELLAR (London, 1907); Sroxns, Early Christian Art an Ireland (Dublin, 1911).
W. H. Grattan-Flood.