Conval of Inchinnan
Saint Conval, Confessor, Disciple of Saint Kentigern, Patron of Inchinnan
Venerable · d. c. 630 (calendar tradition; see entry)
Commemorated 28 September — As kept in the GB&I layer, with the old Scottish books
Conval (Conwall, Convallus; †c. 630 in the calendar tradition) was an Irishman — the Aberdeen Breviary makes him a son of an Irish prince — who became a disciple of St Kentigern (Mungo) of Glasgow and preached in the kingdom of Strathclyde. He is the patron of Inchinnan in Renfrewshire on the Clyde, where the Aberdeen Martyrology commemorates him on September 28 as a confessor whose preaching was confirmed by miracles, and where Boece attests his relics were still held in honour in the sixteenth century. His legend tells that the stone on which he stood by the Irish shore bore him across the sea to the Clyde; called "St Conval's chariot," it healed men and cattle by its touch.
Nothing contemporary survives about Conval. The record is a cultus at Inchinnan — a patronal dedication, a September 28 commemoration in the late medieval Scottish books, relics, a wonder-working stone — with a short legend attached in the Aberdeen Breviary. This entry gives what each source says and stops there.
The Aberdeen Breviary (1510, pars estiva f. 117) and the Aberdeen Martyrology make Conval the son of an Irish prince, an ornament of the early church of the Scots, and a disciple of St Kentigern. Wishing to leave his native country, he stood upon a stone by the sea-shore; the stone became a skiff and bore him over the sea to the river Clyde, where he landed. The stone was afterwards called St Conval's chariot (currus Sancti Convalli), and by its touch men and cattle were healed. Many cures were related of him. The Aberdeen Martyrology's notice at September 28 places him "in Scotland, at Inchinnan" as a confessor whose preaching showed forth the excellence of his sanctity by the flashing-forth of signs.
His cultus is concentrated in the old kingdom of Strathclyde, downstream of Kentigern's Glasgow. He is patron of Inchinnan in Renfrewshire, about seven miles below Glasgow on the Clyde, where Hector Boece attests that his relics were held in honour in his own day (early sixteenth century). A stone called St Conval's stone stood near the ancient ford at Inchinnan on the Renfrew side of the river; by later tradition (reported by Motherwell) the stone afterwards known as "Argyle's stone" — marking where the Marquis of Argyll was taken in 1685 — was the base of a cross erected to St Conval's memory. Cumnock in Ayrshire was also his: a pre-Reformation will directs "lego corpus meum sepeliendum in pulveribus S. Conualli de Cumnock" ("I leave my body to be buried in the dust of St Conval of Cumnock"), and on the same evidence Ochiltree was his church.
The later Scottish kalendars add stylings the older sources do not have. Adam King's Kalendar (1588) enters him at September 28 as "first archdeacon of Glasgow, disciple to S. Mungo, under King Eugenius the 4." Camerarius (1631) lists at September 18 "at Euonium in Lorn, Conval the Archdeacon, disciple of St Kentigern," and elsewhere calls him abbot, gives his day as May 17, and represents him as honoured by Aidan, king of the Scots. Leslie says he took occasion of the coronation of Kenneth I to inculcate the religion of Christ and probity of morals — a notice chronologically irreconcilable with a disciple of Kentigern, and recorded here only as what Leslie says. None of these titles — archdeacon, abbot — is older than the sixteenth century.
Feast and commemoration
The GB&I layer of the St Constantine York calendar, the witness for this entry, lists him on September 28 as "St. Conwall [Conval], disciple of St. Kentigern (630)" — church date 09-28, New Calendar civil September 28, Old Calendar civil October 11, rank primary. This is also the day of the Aberdeen Martyrology and Adam King; Camerarius alone scatters him to September 18 and May 17, as noted above. Orthodox England, the York list's named upstream, keeps September 28: "Born in Ireland, he was a disciple of St Kentigern and preached in Scotland." He is not on the OCA calendar for this day (oca.org consulted 2026-07-29), nor on any other Orthodox calendar consulted. No proper service exists; the common of a venerable applies.
Iconography
No ancient or medieval image of Conval is known; his memory at Inchinnan was carried by his stone and his relics rather than by any surviving picture, and no Orthodox icon of him was found. He is listed among the wanted icons.
Disputed questions
- Date. The GB&I calendar and Orthodox England give †c. 630, which coheres with a disciple of Kentigern (†612/614 in the usual reckonings); Adam King's "under King Eugenius the 4" belongs to the legendary king-lists; Leslie's Kenneth I notice would put him two centuries later. The frontmatter follows the witness calendar's c. 630, flagged as tradition, not record.
- Office. The Aberdeen books style him simply confessor (in the Western sense of a non-martyred saint); Adam King makes him an archdeacon, Camerarius an abbot. No office is securely transmitted. This entry classes him among the venerable as a monastic disciple of Kentigern, and records the divergent stylings here.
- Not to be confused with other Scottish Convals in Forbes's Kalendars: a Convallus of Crossraguel in Carrick (September 14, from Camerarius), a King Convallus (April 4), and Convallanus, abbot of Iona (October 15). None of these has an entry in this corpus; the September 28 disciple of Kentigern is the saint of the GB&I calendar. A "Saint Conval" venerated in France is also a distinct figure.