Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bean
BEAN or BEYN, Saint (fl. 1011), was, according to Fordun (Scotichron. iv. 44), appointed first bishop of Murthlach by Malclom II, at the instance of Pope Benedict VIII. This statement is confirmed by what professes to be a fragment of the charter of Malcolm II (1003-1029?), preserved in the register of the diocese of Aberdeen (Registrum Aberdonense, i. 3), but the genuineness of the document is called in question by ProfessorInnes in his preface to the publication (p.xvi) as contradicting an older record, printed in the preface (p. xvii), which gives the date of the foundation of the see as 1063. In any case there is no doubt that Bean, or Beyn, was the first bishop of the see. Dr. Reeves (Martyrology of Donegal, p. 337) identifies St. Bean with the Irish Mophiog, the day of both (16 Dec.) being the same. In Molanus's additions to Usuardus, St. Bean is distinctly referred to as a native of Ireland: 'In Hybernia natalis Beani primi episcopi Aberdonensis et confessoris' (Martyrologium, sub die). According to Camerarius he administered the affairs of his diocese for two-and-thirty years. He is not to be confounded with the St. Bean whose day is 16 Oct., and who was venerated at Fowlis in Strathearn.
[Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis (Maitland Club, 1845); Collections for Aberdeen (Spalding Club, 1843), i. 123, 141, 142, 649, ii. 253, 254, 258; Brittania Sancta, p. 319; Usuardus's Martyrologium; Reeves and Todd's Martyrology of Donegal, 337-9; Camerarius's De Scot. Port. p. 202; Forbes's Kalendars of Scottish Saints, 377.]