Scuithin

Scuithin
Old church ruins-Freynestown
Old church ruins at Freynestown, County Kilkenny
Born	6th century
Residence	Freynestown - County Kilkenny
Died	7th century
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic Church
Feast	2 January
Patronage	Castlewarren County Kilkenny
Influences	St. David of Wales
Tradition or genre	St. Scuithin monastery, Johnswell hills, County Kilkenny

St. Scuithin (fl. 6th/7th century) also known as Scolan, Scothin or Scuitin was a medieval Irish saint with strong Welsh connections. Sometime in the 6th century Scuthin left Ireland to pursue a life of cenobitic monasticism at Tyddewi in Wales founded by St. David, whom at a later date he is reported to have saved from poisoning.

According to the "Irish Ecclesiastical Record" St. Scuithin, having attained advanced ascetic virtues, returned to Ireland c. 540 to live the life of a hermit monk, building himself an austere and isolated cell. This cell was located at Freynestown, on the Johnswell hills in the ancient barony of Slieve Margy,Kingdom of Ossory. This habitat would become known in Irish as tigh scuithin and evolve into Tiscoffin monastery as noted in the List of monastic houses in Ireland.

In the Irish language tigh scuithin means the house/abode of Scuithin. This has been anglicised as Tiscoffin and preserved as one of the Civil parishes in Ireland within the Kilkenny Barony of Gowran. The county Kilkenny town of Castlewarren in the Diocese of Ossory also preserves his name with the church of St. Scuithin. The townland of Freynestown is closely associated with St. Scuithin.

There exists an apparently significant historical reference to St. Scuithin in the ancient annals of Wales. William Forbes Skene, in the Four Ancient Books of Wales, (Edinburgh, 1868) while reviewing poems in the Black Book of Carmarthen makes reference to this saint. There is a poem in which St. Scuithin, described as Yscolan, is confronted by the figure of Myrddin Wyllt. A portion of the poem reads: