PALLADIO, first bishop of the SCOTTI. - By the name Scotti (Scoti) are meant both the Celts of Ireland (Gaels) and those of Scotland (ancient Caledonia), as well as the Picts settled in the south of the country.
This double designation has given rise to confusion concerning the historical figure of P., by whom in fact one must understand the one sent by Celestino I in 431 « ad Scottos in Christum credentes » (cf. Prospero d'Aquitania, Chronica, in MGH, Auct. antiq., IX, Chron. monora, I, p. 472), who found the island for the most part pagan and was unable to obtain notable results from his apostolate, almost immediately cut short by death, and continued the following year by s. PATRIZIO, SANTO (v.). An unreliable tradition has P., badly received when he landed at Hy Garchon (Wichlow), proceeding northward into the region of the Picts, where he is said to have carried out his apostolate for 27 years, to have had relations with Bruda (697-706), king of the Picts, and to have died there—that is, more than two centuries after P.'s Irish mission. In reality, the conversion of Scotland was due in the sixth century to the apostolate of the Irish abbot s. Columba. The feast of P. is recorded in the ancient Scottish liturgy on 6 July.