History and Hagiography: The Vita Sancti Servani and the Foundation of Culross Abbey

The Cistercian abbey of Culross was founded in 1217 on the site of an earlier church known locally to have been established by St Serf. This heritage was successfully appropriated by the new abbey through the adoption of the cult. As successors to the saint and his church, the monks were entitled to inherit their patron's landed territories, but much of this property seems to have been in other hands. A comparison of the earliest landed endowment of Culross Abbey with the cult landscape presented by the Vita Sancti Servani reveals that certain alienated properties appear to have been reclaimed on this basis. For this reason, the Vita must be understood as a piece of history writing: it recorded past events as they were known locally to have occurred. The Vita is our window into what that version of history was.