St. Ninian, Feast, one of Scotland's National Saints

Saint Ninian Window St Mary's Parish Church Dundee Scotland

A bit about our national saints – St Ninian, St Columba, St ...

www.scmo.org/papalvisitscotland/...Scotland.../Scotland's%20Saints.doc

Feast day: 30 November. ST NINIAN. Scotland's earliest known saint, recognised as bringing Christianity to Scotland. Although little is known about him, 397 AD  ...below.

Tour Scotland video of the Saint Ninian stained glass window in St Mary's Parish Church on visit to Dundee.

Saint of the day: 16th September

St Ninian

A 5th century British bishop and apostle in Whithorn and Galloway, St Ninian  is traditionally also the apostle of the Picts. 

A number of inscribed Christian stones have been discovered by archaeologists around Galloway, which indicate that St Ninian lived there. Bede refers to him living at a monastery in the area near a church painted white. An anonymous 8th century poet wrote about him and the 12th century Ailred of Rievaulx wrote a life of this Scottish saint.

His shrine was a popular pilgrimage place for centuries,  surviving up to the Reformation. By that time his cult had also spread to Kent and Denmark.  In recent years pilgrims have again begun returning to Whithorn on this day.  Since 1984, excavations have revealed a site of major importance.

Scotland’s National Saints

ST ANDREW

Andrew was a fisherman and the first disciple of Jesus.  He was a follower of John the Baptist but when John heralded Jesus with the words “Behold the Lamb of God” Andrew understood Christ was the Messiah.  He experienced first hand many of the miracles Jesus carried out in his ministry.  Jesus acknowledged Andrew and his brother Simon (St Peter) on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and promised to make them “fishers of men”.  At that point they both left their nets and followed him.  After the Lord’s ascension to heaven St Andrew preached in Greece.  He is said to have been put to death on a cross and continued preaching until the moment of his death.  He is also the patron saint of Russia.  Today, the national flag of Scotland is called the St Andrew’s Cross.  He is the patron saint of fishermen.   Relics of St Andrew brought from Amalfi in Italy to Edinburgh in the 1960’s are kept in St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral.

Born:  Early first century AD, Galilee

Feast day:  30 November

ST NINIAN

Scotland’s earliest known saint, recognised as bringing Christianity to Scotland.  Although little is known about him, 397 AD is celebrated as the year he began his mission in Scotland.  Where Bethlehem is the Cradle of Christianity, Whithorn in Galloway, where he settled, has become popularly known as The Cradle of Christianity in Scotland.  One legend about St Ninian tells of him planting seeds which grew to fruition within a few hours, relieving his monastery's food shortages.  In 1871 an incised cross was found in a cave in Whithorn where St Ninian was said to live.  An excavation in 1884 uncovered a number of other crosses.  The body of St Ninian was buried in the church at Whithorn.

Born:  4^th century AD

Feast day:  16 September

ST COLUMBA

Although born in Ireland, St Columba has become one of Scotland’s best known saints.  After being banished from Ulster he was granted the Scottish island of Iona.  From there he spread the message of the gospel around the highlands of Scotland.  Before his death in 597 AD he and his monks had Christianised most of northern Scotland.  The legend of the Loch Ness monster was formed after the saint was said to have fought it off after it attacked a fellow monk in the 6^th century.  Today Iona has become a retreat for all sorts of people with buildings restored.  Actor Jeremy Irons will play St Columba in a film due out next year called ‘End of Time’.

Born:  521 – Died:  597 AD

Feast day:  9 June

ST MUNGO

Mungo apparently had contact with St Columba in Iona before the latter’s death in 597 AD.   An early story about Mungo is that he restored life to St Serf's pet robin, who had been deliberately killed by young hooligans.  At the age of 25, Mungo began his mission on the site of modern Glasgow, eventually becoming Bishop of Strathclyde.  Glasgow's Cathedral along the Molendinar Burn is the fourth to be built on the site of Mungo's seventh century wooden church.  According to legend Mungo did not choose the church's site himself.  He found St Fergus dying by the roadside and placed him gently in an oxcart.  Mungo instructed the oxen to take the cart wherever God wanted and the oxen consequently stopped at a place blessed by St Ninian about 200 years earlier.  Mungo buried Fergus there and built the church at the site.  A sermon by St Mungo provided Glasgow's motto: ‘Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word and the proclaiming of His name’.  When a lawyer designed the city's coat of arms in 1868, the motto was truncated to its first three words.  When Pope John Paul II visited in 1982 he echoed those words to a crowd of almost 300,000 in the city’s Bellahouston Park.  He is the patron Saint of Glasgow.

Born:  521 – Died: 597 AD

Feast day:  13 January

ST MARGARET

St Margaret is the only royal Scottish saint.  She married the Scottish King Malcolm III and lived a life of extraordinary piety, despite the lure of riches and comfort.  She carried out charitable works and personally served orphans and the poor every day before she ate.  She worked to reform the Scottish Church by bringing it into line with Roman practices.  She was considered to be an exemplary and just ruler and also influenced her husband and children to follow her example.  She died aged 47 after repeated fasting and abstinence took their toll on her health.  She was buried alongside Malcolm in Dunfermline Abbey and the reported miracles that took place in and around her tomb supported her canonization in 1250 by Pope Innocent IV.  She had eight children and is the patron saint of mothers.

Born:  1046 – Died 1093

Feast day:  16 November