Triduana

Triduana (Tradwell, Trollhaena), virgin. Described variously as an abbess who came to Scotland either with a mythical Boniface or with Rule, the supposed bearer of the relics of St. Andrew to Scotland, Triduana is said to have lived a monastic life with two companions at Roscoby (Forfarshire); she died at Lestalryk (Lothian). Her relics were an important centre of pilgrimage at Restalrig, near Edinburgh: on 21 December 1560 it was ordained by the Scottish Reformers that ‘the kirk of Restalrig, as a monument of idolatry, be raysit and utterlie cast down and destroyed’. Relics were also claimed by Aberdeen. She was invoked for curing diseases of the eyes because of the legend that when a local prince desired her because of her beautiful eyes, she had them taken out and given to him. She is patron of Kintradwell (Caithness). The site of her well at Restalrig (formerly believed to be a chapter-house) has been excavated; it had two stories, a chapel and piscina being built over the well itself. Some of the choir of the collegiate church built in 1487 and endowed by at least three kings of Scotland survives. A secondary shrine of Triduana was at Papa Westray in the Orkneys on a rock beside St. Tredwell's Loch. Feast: 8 October.

Bibliography
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• K.S.S., pp. 453–4; J. M. Mackinlay, Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland (1914), pp. 476–9