East Kilbride traditionally takes its name from an Irish saint named St Bride (or Brigit), who was alleged to have founded a monastery for nuns and monks in Kildare in Leinster, Ireland, in the 6th century. Dál Riatan monks afterwards introduced her order to Scotland. The anglicisation "Kil" takes its root from the early Celtic monastics that St. Brigit is representative of: the Culdees or "Céli Dé". The "Céile Dé" were 'the clients or companions of God'. In modern Gaelic, "Cille Bhrìghde" translates similarly as 'the clients or companions of Brigit', and can be interpreted as the 'church of Bride' or 'burial place dedicated to Bride'. Alternatively, the later dedication may commemorate the Scottish St Bryde, born in 451 AD and then dying at Abernethy 74 years later. Culdee type Christian settlements were essential to the spread of the Celtic church in Scotland, with small pagan sites being converted and chapels or cells forming little more than crude shelters, or timber and turf buildings with crude circular enclosures. The evidence of Culdee type small-scale habitation is supported by the number of early stone cross sites around East Kilbride, and their associated holy fonts, springs, and both with pre-canonisation saintly dedications.