Drostan
Founder and abbot of the monastery of Old Deer in Aberdeenshire
Feast: 11 July (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Drostan, of the royal family of the Scots, was entrusted young to St Columba, who trained him and gave him the monastic habit. When they founded a monastery at Deir in Buchan, Columba left him there as abbot.
He later became abbot of Holywood, then withdrew to live as a hermit at Glenesk, where his holiness drew the poor and needy and many miracles were ascribed to him. He flourished about 600.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
A disciple of St Columba who became a hermit for the poor.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Drostan
- Wikidata Q1800422 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Drostan (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.