Cellanus

Cellanus (fl. ca. 675-706) was the abbot of Péronne in Picardy. At the time, Péronne was known as Perrona Scottorum on account of its fame as a home to Irish peregrini.

He was a penfriend and correspondent of Aldhelm, and it is from a surviving letter that much of our knowledge of Cellanus originates. Ludwig Traube believed him to be identical with the Abbot Cellanus whose obit is recorded in the Annales Laureshamenses under 706; and was probably the Cellan mac Sechnusaigh, sapiens, recorded in the same year in the Annals of Ulster (pp. 96–119, 1900). Traube furthermore attributed two hexameter poems to Cellanus (Traube, pp. 105–08, 1900).

Panegyric to Saint Patrick

Cellanus was thought to have been the composer of a panegyric in honour of Saint Patrick after the manner of Virgil, which was inscribed on the walls of a basilica at Peronne which was dedicated to Patrick. However, Lapidge (1994 pp 110–15,) attributes this to Abbot Boniface. Against this, Hoffmann (2001 p 17) and Howlett (1998 p 38), think the poem is probably Hiberno-Latin. On this subject, Charles D. Wright states: