Triduana

Triduana
The 15th-century St Triduana's Aisle, Restalrig, Edinburgh
Died	c. 7th or 8th century Restalrig
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Orthodox Church Anglican Church
Major shrine	Restalrig
Feast	8 October

Saint Triduana, also known as Trodline, Tredwell, and in Norse as Trøllhaena, was an early Christian woman, associated with various places in Scotland. She lived at an unknown time, probably between the 4th and 8th centuries AD.

According to the 16th-century Aberdeen Breviary, Triduana was born in the Greek city of Colosse, and travelled from Constantinople with Saint Rule, who brought the bones of Saint Andrew to Scotland in the 4th century AD. A pious woman, she settled at Rescobie near Forfar in Angus, but her beauty attracted the attentions of a King of the Picts named Nectan. To stall these unwanted attentions, Triduana tore out her own eyes and gave them to Nechtan. Afterwards, she was associated with curing eye disorders. She spent her later years in Restalrig, Lothian, and healed the blind who came to her. She was buried at Restalrig when she died.

The 17th-century Acta Sanctorum records a story of a blind English woman miraculously cured by Triduana. The saint appears to her in a dream, and instructs her to travel to Restalrig. She does so, and regains her sight at Triduana's tomb. The woman's daughter is later cured of blindness after praying to Triduana.

In the 12th century, the Norse Earl of Orkney Harald Maddadsson punished bishop John of Caithness by having him blinded. According to the 13th-century Orkneyinga Saga, John prayed to "Trøllhaena", and later regained his sight when brought to her "resting place", possibly referring to a local northern shrine rather than Restalrig.

The principal centre of devotion to Triduana was at Restalrig, now part of Edinburgh. The parish church has been rebuilt, but the associated 15th-century St Triduana's Aisle (originally two-storeyed) survives. This partly subterranean structure often flooded in the past, and was at one time assumed to be an unusually large and elaborate holy well (St Triduana's Well). The exterior of the aisle was heavily restored by the architect Thomas Ross in 1907, though its interior (which has a remarkable echo) retains its original rib-vault, and is a refined example of Scottish 15th-century architecture. Other dedications to Triduana include chapels at Ballachly (Caithness), Loth (Sutherland), and on Papa Westray in Orkney.